Bangalore: Ten enforcement teams consisting of about five members each will conduct raids to identify and rescue working children aged below 14.

M.A. Sadiq, Deputy Commissioner, Bangalore District, told presspersons here on Tuesday that raids would be intensive for the next three months and would continue subsequently as and when complaints were received. The teams would be formed in a week, he said.

Employing children as domestic help and in hotels and restaurants is now punishable with imprisonment ranging from three months to a year imprisonment and/or a fine of Rs. 20,000. The Union Government notification was issued on July 10, 2006 and came into effect on Tuesday.

Helpline

Mr. Sadiq requested people to report cases of child labour by calling the helpline number 1098. Those calling need not identify themselves.

Mr. Sadiq said sensitisation programmes for officials in various government departments and awareness programmes in terms of distribution of pamphlets, posters and public discussions would be organised. Publicity would also be given through television, radio and hoardings, he said.

Since many instances of government officials employing children had been reported, Mr. Sadiq said he had obtained an undertaking from officials in the district that they would not employ children in their houses or offices.

Under the Domestic Child Labour Elimination Project (DCLEP), over 500 children had been rescued and 200 of them had received compensation totalling Rs. 13,56,000 through the Child Welfare Committee, Mr. Sadiq said.

A pilot initiative of the DCLEP, in collaboration with UNICEF, was launched in Bangalore about a year ago.

Rehabilitation

On rehabilitating rescued children, Mr. Sadiq said that under the DCLEP, three residential schools had been started to provide shelter and education in case the parents of the children could not do so. The National Child Labour Project had 39 such schools where education was being provided to such children, he said.

Suchitra Rao of the DCLEP said that to provide relevant education to rescued children, a suitable curriculum had been developed. The Directorate of State Educational Research and Training (DSERT) had developed a module called Chinnarangala, she said.

A second Chinnarangala module and abhyasa pustakas (exercise books) in six subjects were also being developed, she said.

To prevent parents from sending rescued children back to work, employment had been given to 700 women under the Udhyogini scheme and 1,100 parents under the Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana, she said.

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