On 20 February 2025, under the BREADS Child Safety Net initiative, Don Bosco PYaR, Kalaburagi, in a joint operation with the Labour Department, District Child Labour Project, Railway Police (RPF & GRP), Railway Station Manager and CHILDLINE, rescued eight child labourers from the Kalaburagi railway station.
The rescued children were barefoot and in torn clothes. Aged between 14 and 16 years, their reports of their working conditions revealed a highly exploitative system. And one, that ironically, was functioning right in the government’s view. The children were “sourced” from a tribal community in Madhya Pradesh by a contractor, who made an arrangement with the village Pradhan (Head) and Dalal (agent). The children were made to work on railway track maintenance (clearly adult work) for more than 12 hours daily without enough food and a proper place to sleep; all of which, violate the rules of the Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 2017. The children were paid INR 400 for a full day’s labour.
Following their medical examination, which ascertained their ages, the children were produced before the District Child Welfare Committee (CWC), and then admitted to a Boys shelter home. FIRs have been filed against those contractors and Dalals under various laws: Bonded Labour Act, Child Labour Act, JJ Act.
For the children and their families, who live in ignorance of modern laws and human rights, the meagre income they receive after paying commissions to the various parties, is still an important contribution to the family’s survival. Labourers from north India migrate south because the wages are better, and often, the working conditions too.
This rescue highlights the depressing fact that despite multiple laws in place, free compulsory primary education, digital access and various government and non-governmental interventions, vast populations of children and adults are left behind. To fend for themselves as best they can, against the old systemic evils of caste, illiteracy and poverty with the added complexities of modern technology, communications and transport. For some people, without the required support to navigate them, modern technologies can be further disempowering.
In a world, where access to knowledge and opportunities should be the right of every child, these children from vulnerable communities are deprived of a proper education, trapped in a cycle of poverty and the perpetuation of forced child labour. With proper support, guidance, and rehabilitation, children and their parents can be helped to break this cycle. BREADS’ Child Safety Net mission offers just that, in the hope that children trapped in similar situations, have the chance to reclaim their childhood, their dignity, and their dreams.
