NEW DELHI, Nov 1: Indian police on Thursday rescued 77 child textile workers in the third raid this week following reports that a local supplier to US clothing chain Gap was employing minors.
The children were embroidering saris and Indian wedding clothes in dingy rooms in a New Delhi neighbourhood when police and activists, accompanied by reporters and television crews, swooped.
“We are taking down their addresses, so that they can be sent to their parents,” a police official said after the raid.
But one employer denied that the workers were under age.
“Don’t take him away. Look, he has a moustache,” protested Saurabh Alam.
Kailash Satyarthi of the Global March Against Child Labour, an umbrella organisation of activist groups, said activists would care for the children “till the time they are sent to their parents”. The children were as young as 10 years old and mostly from the impoverished state of Bihar in the country’s east.
A few dozen children were rescued in two similar operations this week, said Bhuwan Ribhu of the Save the Childhood Foundation, which works to rehabilitate child workers.
India’s textile industry has come under renewed scrutiny after Britain’s Observer newspaper reported on Sunday that a Gap supplier in New Delhi area employed child workers.Gap responded by withdrawing some garments from sale.
But the reaction at the government level has been one of anger, with India’s trade minister and industry bodies dismissing the controversy as an attempt to malign the booming country’s image.
“Do you think they can do this (media coverage) in China?,” Amit Mitra of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry told business leaders on Wednesday.—AFP
NEW DELHI, Nov 1: Indian police on Thursday rescued 77 child textile workers in the third raid this week following reports that a local supplier to US clothing chain Gap was employing minors.
