COIMBATORE: The abominable practice of hiring child labourers is on the rise in the city, especially in gold-smithery units. Compared to last year, the first eight months of 2023 show a significant rise in child labour violations reported in the city and most of the children are from West Bengal, said police.
The child labour issue is being continued in the city for several years. However, earlier it was concentrated in the betel nut factories in Thondamuthur and tea estates at Valparai, where Assamese worked in large numbers. Lately, there has been an increase in the number of migrated child labourers employed at gold smithery units in Coimbatore city, especially in areas under the police station limits of Variety Hall Road and Bazaar stations where more gold smithery units operate.
According to the data shared by National Child Labour Project (NCLP) Coimbatore, in 2022 they registered 16 FIRs with the police and rescued 30 children across the district. But in the last eight months of 2023, the number of FIRs registered has increased to 22 and 36 children were rescued. Of this, 19 were from the city and most of them were found working at smithery units and other industries.
TV Vijayakumar, project director of the National Child Labour Project said, “All these children were rescued based on the specific information and in our direct field inspections. It is likely that more child labours engage in this work. We are taking steps to prevent child labour through continuous field inspections and awareness campaigns. The rescued children are sent back to their native through the district child welfare committee.”
He added that these incidents can be curbed if it is made mandatory that no child labour should be employed to get the license for jewellery and smithery units. Commenting on the matter a senior police official said, “This year alone, we have rescued more than eight child labourers from the jewellery workshops in the city. Mainly migrant labourers from West Bengal are employed in jewellery shops as they are skilled in making innovative designs. But these labourers started using this job opportunity to teach work techniques to their children and started settling here as a family, involving children in the work.”
B Muthuvenkatram, president of the Coimbatore Jewelry Manufacturers Association said that they are more conscious to prevent issues of child labour. “We have 600 jewellery manufacturers in our association and all have been strictly instructed not to engage child labourers. I accept that a few involve such violations and we are working along with the officials to curb the practices. Recently we passed a resolution asking our members not to employ child labours,” he said.