— Photo. K. Ganesan
WOES ARE OVER: The 11-year-old child labourer (left), with his grandmother on the court premises.
MADURAI: “Any number of legislation to curtail employment of children aged below 14 has not achieved the desired results. This case is a typical example,” read a judgment passed by the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Thursday.
A Division Bench, comprising Justice D. Murugesan and Justice T. Sudanthiram, made the observation while disposing of a habeas corpus petition filed by a labourer from T. Krishnapuram in Madurai district, who alleged that the police did nothing to trace his 11-year-old son who went missing in December last.
Menial labour
The boy told the Judges that his father had sold him for a lump sum. He said his father had engaged him for menial labour at the Koyambedu vegetable market in Chennai.
Then he was employed in a brick kiln at Tambaram, before coming back to Madurai.
He was later sold to an agriculturalist at Nilakottai in Dindigul district for Rs. 4,000. He escaped from there and hence the habeas corpus petition.
Asked about his whereabouts in the past six months, the boy said he worked in tea shops, fish stalls and so on and managed to reach Usilampatti near here, where the police spotted him.
The boy told the Judges he did not want to live with his parents and was interested in pursuing education, which was discontinued after fourth standard.
Considering his desire to learn and extreme dislike for parents, the Bench directed the police to put him at a Government home, where he would be able to pursue his education up to Plus Two.
The parents were entitled to meet the boy, but should not, in any way, interfere with his education.
The police were at liberty to take action against those who employed the boy under the Child Labour (prevention and regulation) Act.
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