GETTING INTO ACTION: Labour Commissioner K. Karikal Valavan and Child Labour Vice-Chairman K. Ramalinga Reddy with a child labourer during raids on establishments employing them in Hyderabad on Friday. - Photo: Satish H.

HYDERABAD: At an age when most children of their age would be playing with marbles and gilli danda after school, these teenagers slog on welding and lathe machines.

Thirteen-year-old Aamir's father is mentally challenged and his mother works as a domestic help. The family needs the money to take care of at least one square meal and medical bills. Taher (13) has a dazed look on his face. His tongue kept darting out ever so often in a bid to moisturise his chafed lips, with the dry skin on puffed cheeks crying for attention.

Pathetic are the cases of Mohd. Wajid (10) and Mohd. Haleem, Amzad and Susheel (all 11 years old). While Taher is working in a welding works shop in lower Tank Bund, the rest work at welding, automobile repair units and lathe workshops in Ranigunj.

Notices served

Owners of the six establishments got notices on the spot from Vice-Chairman, Child Labour, K. Ramalinga Reddy and Labour Commissioner R. Karikal Valavan on Friday following raids during which Deputy Commissioner B. Ajay and Assistant Commissioners — Ashok Samrat and R. Chandrasekhar — were present. The notices were served for non-implementation of provisions of the Minimum Wages Act.

Mr. Valavan said they would prepare claim petitions on behalf of the boys and file them before the open courts to be conducted by Assistant Commissioners of Labour. The order stipulating payment of wages by owners of establishments to the boys will come up with a hefty fine for non-implementation of minimum wages, a fine that will be a minimum of at least two or three times and which can go up to 10 times.

The open courts stipulate that payment to boys' parents be made in the form of National Savings Scheme certificates or demand drafts. Later, the children will be rehabilitated and put in residential bridge schools through the National Child Labour programme.

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