In a major crackdown on child labour and trafficking, over 120 children were rescued from a mushroom manufacturing unit in Raipur by a joint team of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Women and Child Development (WCD), Police and NGO Association for Voluntary Action (AVA). After a four-hour-long operation, over 80 girls and 40 boys in the age group of 14 to 17 years were rescued from the unit where they lived and worked in extremely exploitative conditions. The children, mostly from tribal belts of West Bengal, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Assam, were trafficked from their home states and employed here by the local agents. Some of the children, now 17, had been living and working here for the last six years with no escape.

In a letter to NHRC, Association for Voluntary Action alerted the authorities about the unit employing children and forcing them to work under exploitative and bonded conditions where “they were subjected to severe exploitation, restrictions on movement and coercive practices amounting to human trafficking and bonded labour.” When the team rescued the children, they admitted to living in tiny, dingy rooms in the factory itself and said that they were often made to work for 12-15 hours and were hardly provided any dinner ever.

NHRC Member Priyank Kanoongo immediately alerted Senior Superintendent of Police, Raipur District and a team, led by DSP Nandini Thakur, raided the unit without any delay. Children were immediately taken into safety and are being counselled while the legal process has been initiated. Association for Voluntary Action is a partner of Just Rights for Children which is the country’s largest network of NGOs working for child protection across 451 districts. With its 250 NGO partners spread across the country, JRC leads interventions and rescues through its robust network.

Lauding the prompt action of various agencies, Bhuwan Ribhu, Founder of Just Rights for Children, said, “Imagine the plight of a 14-year-old child forced to work in freezing temperatures for 12-15 hours a day. This is the worst face of the organised crime of trafficking and one of the biggest impediments to a Viksit Bharat. I would like to congratulate the National Human Rights Commission, the local police and the Association for Voluntary Action for rescuing more than 100 trafficked children from a hazardous mushroom processing unit in Raipur. The government needs to take urgent measures to fast-track this case and ensure the rehabilitation of these children. The accountability of the officers who failed to detect this must also be fixed.”

“The work has just begun. The best laws and intentions need to be translated into action on the ground. Acting decisively through investigation, prosecution and accountability is our collective responsibility,” he added.

Mojo Mushroom unit is known for mushroom production at a minimum temperature, where large machinery and thin rod three-storey jallis are used to place mushroom packets. Children were made to climb these jallis and hang mushroom packets on them without any safety gears. Moreover, the soil used in this process was mixed with hazardous chemicals like formalin which is carcinogen and can cause cancer by mere inhalation. Long-term or high formalin exposure can cause death from throat swelling or from chemical burns to the lungs.

Speaking about the need to dismantle the kingpin of such establishments, Manish Sharma, Senior Director, Association for Voluntary Action, said, “The children in the unit were famished, bruised, sad and scared. We were shocked to see the dangers that lay in the unit there. But this rescue is only a temporary victory. This is the second raid of the same establishment in three months and clearly establishes that the owners of the unit have a clear and dangerous role to play in this. Even then, no relevant sections were included in the FIR. Unless the law strikes at those who run these factories and profit from these crimes against children, child labour and trafficking will not end.”

He also lauded the prompt action taken by NHRC member Priyank Kanoongo, Chhattisgarh’s WCD officer Sanjay Nirala and DSP Nandini Thakur who is also the head of Anti Human Trafficking Unit, Raipur, who immediately sprang into action.  

Acting on a tip-off by AVA, a similar raid was carried out at the same unit earlier in July. While a large number of labourers were rescued even then, no legal action was taken against the owner and no release certificates were issued for the labourers and bonded families. Association for Voluntary Action had since then been investigating and keeping a close eye on the factory. With solid proof and credible information this time, they informed the NHRC about the same which led to this major rescue operation.