The rescue was carried out after Chief Secretary Lila Mani Poudel ordered the Ministry of Labor and Employment and the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare to do so as soon as possible.[break]
The Labor Office, the Central Child Welfare Board and Child Development Society (CSD), an organization that works for child welfare, were on the rescue committee.
The committee took the action on the basis of research conducted by CSD in 2010, which showed an increase in child labor in the sari embroidery workshops of Thankot.
“Today´s rescue was conducted on the basis of our research report,” said Yuvraj Roka, program coordinator at CDS. “The incidence of child labor is high at sari embroidery workshops, brick factories and carpet factories and they work as long as the owner wants them to,” said Roka.
According to the committee, all the rescued children are from the Terai. Among the 39 child workers, 16 are from Sarlahi district, four from Mahottari district and the remaining 18 are from Sitamadi, India.
The children were sent to work by their own parents to whom the workshop and factory owners pay some money every year.
“Their parents became selfish and sold their children to the factory owners,” said Roka. “Many of them have brought over their own relatives as it is easier to persuade the parents,” added Roka.
The rescue committee claimed that such factories are profiteering from the children´s work and ruining their lives.
The factories owners rejected such blame, claiming that the private agencies are only using the issue as a tool to gain popularity. According to them, they are providing the children schooling and leisure. They are also providing them an opportunity to earn some money and help their families, they claimed.
“Once, the CDS visited my factory to take classes for the children for six months and I allowed them to do so,” said Jahawar Fakir, a factory owner. “During that time they should have told me not to use children for my work,” he added.
“They collected all the material in the name of education and showed it to the government,” said Fakir. “I have now come to know about their strategy,” he further added.
A year ago, 127 children were rescued by the same committee and kept at Carnet Nepal, an organization working for children. Those children were rescued from sari embroidery work in Bhaktapur. But most of the children were later found doing the same work at Thankot.
“They were re-integrated with their families, but their parents forced them to do the same work in order to make some money,” said Roka. “Strong mechanisms are needed to stop this,” he concluded.
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