Inspiration
Girl forces Guj govt into action, rescues 111 child workers
When 22-year-old Jharna Joshi from Ahmedabad discovered child labour in a ceramic factory in Morbi, she alerted the CM’s office, ultimately leading to the rescue of 111 children including 100 girls.
It is a scourge which invisibly exists across the country. It is a curse upon our younger generation from under privileged families. Yes child labour still exists and is pretty rampant in certain states, right under the nose of relevant authorities.
While most government agencies conveniently turn a blind eye, a brave and highly responsible 22-year-old college girl from Ahmedabad dared to take on and expose the tragic existence of child labour.
Jharna Joshi, a bachelors of business administration (BBA) student, orchestrated a covert operation that ultimately ended in the rescue of 111 child labourers from one of the biggest ceramic ware factory in Morbi. Of the 111 rescued children, 100 were girls, working in Sonaki ceramic.
Government agency officials admit that this was the biggest ever child workers' rescue in Saurashtra, which is home to busy and prosperous industrial clusters like ceramic, gold and imitation jewellery, brass and clocks to name a few.
According to Jharna, her suspicions were aroused when she saw a large number of children being transported in buses, which passed from near her cousin's house in a village near Morbi. What further cemented her suspicions was that they were not school buses. Upon cautiously following the buses she discovered that the destination was a factory.
Jharna immediately decided to dig deeper into the profile of children hired, before seeking any help from the authorities. Accordingly, she applied for a job there citing that she was a management student.
However, since there was no vacancy, the management offered her work in the department where cups and saucers were pasted and designed. In all of 15 days, Jharna discovered that most of the children were below 18 years and were forced to work in hostile conditions.
Jharna, a second-year student of the Himmatnagar-based College, revealed that the children were made to work as hard as adults from 8am to 6pm and not even allowed to leave the work area. "Many were even made to work in high temperature areas like furnaces. Even in such scorching summer, they were not even given cold water to drink," she said.
As per the law, children below 18 years cannot be allowed work for more than 4 hours per day. After confirming the true conditions, Jharna approached the concerned departments but was not given a satisfactory response. While most children would have given up at this stage, Jharna was made of sterner stuff; she wrote to the chief minister's office and personally visited Gandhinagar on May 24. Finally, her persistence paid and she was assured that the action would be taken on Friday.
Even Jharna might not have anticipated the response her letter would elicit. The said ceramic factory located on Ghuntu road in Morbi was jointly raided by the officials of social defence, police department, labour and employment department, factory inspector and child protection officer and the children rescued.
"We have initiated a process to verify children's age group. This was the biggest rescue operation so far in Saurashtra,'' said M C Karia, deputy labour commissioner, Rajkot region.
Kanaksinh Jhala, social defence officer, Rajkot, said, "The entire credit to this rescue operation goes to Jharna who should be honoured. It takes immense courage to undertake such a covert operation."
What is worrisome is that child labour was being engaged in a company like Sonaki Ceramics which is not a small fish but one of the leading names in Morbi and even exports its products to various countries. If large companies are not being responsible it is next to impossible for smaller, hole-in-the-wall units to comply with the law.
It was a laudable effort by the girl which should be rightly celebrated by the government and her college. However, it raises a very troubling question – If a college girl can go undercover to expose child labour, what is stopping the concerned government agencies to crack down on the erring units? It is just a sign of the extent the rot has spread in our system. Are the authorities listening?