CHENNAI: Nearly 30 to 40 per cent of labourers employed in 76 spinning and textile mills in and around Dindigul are children aged between 13 and 18 years, says a study by the Campaign Against Child Labour (CACL).
The study was carried out in the wake of a news report published in Express on children being forced to quit school to work in cotton mills in Dindigul district. Based on the findings, CACL has come out with a 14-point charter which recommends replacing the Child Labour Prohibition and Enforcement Act with a new legislation that prohibits child labour up to 18 years in all forms of employment.
The fact finding team of CACL - TN and Puducherry, comprising of activists and legal experts, studied the condition of the children, taking up work during holidays and later being forced to drop out of school after mill owners withhold their salaries.
“Out of the 22 children rescued, we could confirm that 10 of them, who were forced to drop out of school to work in the mills, didn’t get back to school after their rescue. We could not get any information about the rest of the children,” said Thomas Jayaraj, former Convenor, CACL-TN.
The team members interviewed parents, children, managers of mills, labourers, labour unions and panchayat heads. During their visit to the villages, they found at least 30 vehicles in Vedasandhur and Vadamadurai villages transporting workers to these mills. It was also found that the children were made to work for over 10 hours at a stretch for a meagre salary of Rs 150 to Rs 180 a day.
“When we inquired, we found that there are 150 children working in one mill alone. Then imagine how many would be working in these 76 mills and others,” said Rajagopal, a team member, who showed a photograph of an agent bringing children to work in a mill.
Pandiyan said it was common for children to drop out after class eight and work in mills. Children who work in mills during the vacation were retained by the owners by denying their salaries,” he pointed out.