US embassy cable - 05MUMBAI2093

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 MUMBAI 002093 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR DRL/IL, G/TIP, INL AND SA/INS 
DOL FOR ILAB: ROWEN, MEUGENIO, MMITTELHAUSER, SHALEY 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ELAB, PHUM, ECON, KCRM, KWMN, EAID, IN, Child Labor 
SUBJECT: NGO: OVER 16,000 CHILD LABORERS RESCUED IN MAHARASHTRA 
RAIDS 
 
REF: A: MUMBAI 1339; B: NEW DELHI 5323 
 
Summary 
-------- 
 
1. (U) A dramatic upsurge in Government of Maharashtra (GOM) 
attention to child labor issues and a series of coordinated 
raids in Mumbai resulted in the rescue of over 16,000 children 
working in hazardous industries in recent months.  Police, in 
coordination with the newly created child labor task force, 
removed close to 2,000 children from workshops during a 
prolonged series of raids between June 1 (Ref A) and July 17. 
Workshop owners later released another 14,400 child workers 
voluntarily in the face of high-level government attention to 
child labor issues, according to the NGO PRATHAM.  Although some 
children have returned to workshops in Mumbai and elsewhere, NGO 
representatives have tracked the return of several thousand 
children to their homes, often in other states including Bihar, 
Orissa, and West Bengal.  Task force members learned from some 
deficiencies of initial raids (Ref B) and began utilizing 
volunteers as counselors and temporary parole officers to 
minimize the victimization of the children.  Other states have 
sought to emulate Maharashtra's anti-child labor collaboration 
between the government, NGOs and the police.  However, the 
process of rehabilitation for the child laborers is hindered by 
legal and financial constraints.  Due to a lack of educational 
opportunities and extreme poverty in their home districts up to 
an estimated 40 percent of the rescued children may return to 
work in Mumbai or other cities.  End Summary. 
 
Voluntary Releases and Additional Raids? 
----------------------------------------- 
 
2. (U) Following the well publicized May death of a 12 year-old 
boy caused by physical abuse in a embroidery (zari) sweatshop, 
GOM Deputy Chief Minister R.R. Patil established a child labor 
task force to eliminate child labor in hazardous industries. 
The task force, consisting of GOM officials, NGO representatives 
and police, cooperated to plan an unprecedented series of raids 
on workshops employing children 14 and under in certain sectors 
such as zari workshops, goldsmith workshops, and balloon making 
units.  The raids were conducted between June 1 (ref A) and July 
17.  Bhagwan Sahay, Maharashtra State Secretary of Industries, 
Energy and Labor estimates that 1,920 children were rescued over 
the course of 6 weeks.  Of these only 2 percent of the children 
were from Maharashtra with the rest coming from Orissa, W. 
Bengal, Bihar, and Nepal.  Sahay acknowledged there had been no 
raids since July 17 due to the record monsoon flooding in Mumbai 
followed by several large city-wide festivals.  His Labor 
Ministry served notice to workshop owners to send all children 
under 15 home within six weeks.  Dr. Farida Lambay, co-founder 
of PRATHAM, told us that workshop owners voluntarily released 
over 14,000 more children in the weeks following the raids. 
Using their database of child laborers, PRATHAM tracked the 
return home of most of these children to their home districts. 
 
3. (SBU) The GOM announced in June its intention to remove all 
children 14 and under from hazardous labor by November 14, 
Nehru's birthday which is also celebrated as Children's Day in 
India.  According to Vikas Sawant, PRATHAM Child Labor Project 
Coordinator and child labor task force member, the goal will not 
be reached, but he praised the overall deterrent effect of the 
raids so far.  In the past approximately one raid had been 
conducted per year, which had been seen by workshop owners as a 
pro-forma affair.  Concentrated government attention to the 
issue has convinced many workshop owners that they now must 
respect the law.  He believes the task force will continue its 
work in earnest and additional raids will likely be necessary to 
convince "more politically connected" workshop owners to comply. 
 
 
PRATHAM 
--------- 
 
4. (SBU) PRATHAM has used its work helping child laborers to 
gather substantial data on underage working children in Mumbai. 
According to Lambay, PRATHAM was established with the goal of 
providing quality primary education for all children after a 
1994 survey showed 200,000 children out of school in Mumbai. 
PRATHAM focused initially on pre-primary education and bridge 
classes to help older children with no schooling and dropouts to 
catch up and join formal schools.  PRATHAM identified a 
significant need among working children for educational 
facilities.  With the refusal of workshop owners to allow the 
children to attend formal school, PRATHAM offered classes in the 
workshops themselves.  About 50 percent of the workshop owners 
allowed PRATHAM to offer classes for 30 minutes at first 
gradually going to three hours a day.  The NGO pressured 
employers to curb abuses and improve conditions and helped 
children maintain contact with parents through letter writing. 
Through this interaction PRATHAM was able to create an index 
card database of 21,000 working children with names, locations, 
birthdates, home addresses and often the name and signature of 
the employers.  This hard evidence of child labor helped PRATHAM 
demonstrate the scope of the child labor problem to the GOM. 
The child labor task force used the database to plan the raids. 
 
Some Lessons Learned 
--------------------- 
 
5. (U) Several NGOs noticed deficiencies in the initial raids 
(Ref B) and took steps to mitigate the victimization of the 
children rescued from the workshops.  To prevent children 
themselves from feeling like offenders, PRATHAM organized school 
buses for the children for transport as opposed to police vans. 
After being rescued, the children were brought to remand homes 
which provided no physical separation between the child laborers 
and other juvenile offenders.  NGOs sent volunteers to the homes 
to provide educational activities and entertainment to the 
children.  Initially, workshop owners brought the parents of 
released workers or persons posing as parents to the remand 
homes to get the children.  These parents often turned over the 
children to the workshop owners immediately after gaining their 
release from the remand homes.  To stop such practices, PRATHAM 
and other NGOs sent voluntary parole officers to do case studies 
on each child.  The Child Welfare Committee responsible for 
acting in the interest of the rescued children began arranging 
transport for the children to their home districts. 
Responsibility for assuring the continuing welfare for these 
children was assumed by the magistrates and Child Welfare 
Committees in the children's home districts. 
 
Some Children Returned and More Steps Needed 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
6. (U) Some of the rescued children have returned to work due to 
extreme poverty at home and their parents' desire for them to 
learn a skilled trade.  In the slum area Madanpura in Mumbai 
PRATHAM had a record of 4,224 child laborers before the raids, 
whereas the number now working there is 198.  However, until 
authorities in the source districts for immigration to Mumbai 
are better able to provide education and economic alternatives, 
there is no way of knowing whether children would be sent back 
to work in other places.  Dr. Nilima Mehta of the Mumbai Child 
Welfare Committee estimated that up to 40 percent of rescued 
children may go back to work elsewhere.  Some children from 
Bihar became beneficiaries of NGO sponsored educational programs 
in the state.  Lambay explained that some children with release 
certificates received 5,000 rupees (about $111) and one acre of 
land.  Other children, whose parents promised in writing not to 
return them to child labor, were eligible for a 3,000 rupee 
(about $66) National Savings Certificate to be bought by the 
ex-employer.  However, overall economic prospects in the home 
districts for the many of the children are bleak. 
 
7. (U) Lambay hopes some prosecutions of workshop owners will 
provide a major disincentive to hire children 14 and under. 
However, she laments the slow judicial process, difficulties in 
applying several conflicting pieces of legislation relating to 
child labor, and the inefficient collection process of child 
labor related fines.  She advocates harmonizing anti-child labor 
legislation to ensure conformity and facilitate successful 
prosecutions.  According to State Labor Minister Sahay the 
government will seek jail time for the workshop owners arrested 
in the raids and try to ensure the owners pay the 20,000 rupees 
(about $444) fine per child.  Sahay claims to have met with 
workshop owners to explain the need to provide proof that all 
their employees are 15 or older, either through school records 
or medical tests.  Workshop conditions must be improved in line 
with the Factories Act. 
National Impact/Sharing the Model 
---------------------------------- 
8. (U) The Maharashtra model of government, NGO, and police 
cooperation in data sharing and planning raids received national 
attention.  Other state governments learned about the initiative 
in a recent chief ministers' conference in New Delhi and now 
other state administrators appear to be emulating the model. 
According to PRATHAM's Vikas Sawant, the model was used in Surat 
in Gujurat to target child labor in textile packing units.  His 
organization worked with government authorities and police in 
Surat in southern Gujarat to conduct 2 separate raids in August. 
 He estimates that 176 underage children were rescued in the two 
raids.  Most of the children had been brought to Surat from 
Rajasthan to work long hours packing saris in textile markets. 
 
Comment 
-------- 
 
9. (SBU) The overall effect so far of the workshop raids and the 
GOM's high level attention to child labor issues has been 
positive.  However, a long term solution to the problem will 
require sustained support for the work of the task force and a 
push to impose full criminal penalties and fines for violators 
of the law.  Significant legal and resource constraints need to 
be addressed to facilitate the successful prosecution of 
violators and ensure a victim-friendly rehabilitation and 
reintegration process.  Given the absence of universal primary 
education facilities in all states, the ultimate fate of the 
children rescued and sent home still troubles many practitioners 
working to prevent child labor in Mumbai.  However, the GOM 
should be credited for taking an initial but significant step 
forward to meeting its commitments to combat child labor in 
hazardous industries.  End Comment. 
 
OWEN