TIRUVANNAMALAI: Seven bonded child labourers, including four girls, all of whom were under 16 years of age and hailing from the tribal village of Jawadhu Hills, were rescued by the police on Wednesday in Tiruvannamalai.
The children were handed over to the district Child Welfare Committee and their parents have been summoned for inquiry on Thursday. Police arrested two persons, identified as S Chinnaraju (32) and R Laxman (40) of Varakur in Athur Taluk in Salem district, for making the children work picking flowers in their farmland. “One of the children (Seenu) said that he had been working for more than a year in Varakur and had been engaged in picking flowers,” said the police.
Preliminary inquiries revealed that Chinnaraju and Laxman paid an advance of around Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000 to the parents of the children and took them as bonded labourers to their village.
“None of the children have been to school. The children were engaged in picking flowers from around 7 am to 4 pm with a few minutes break in the afternoon for lunch,” said a member of the Child Hepline (Tiruvannamalai), Murugan.