India: Police find 26 child laborers at New Delhi factories
JAINTIA HILLS, INDIA – APRIL 16: A boy works at a coal depot on April 16, 2011 near to Lad Rymbai, in the district of Jaintia Hills, India.
Police raided factories in New Delhi today and rounded up 26 children who were working at dangerous textile factories and metal processing plants, the Associated Press reported. "Some of them were working in acid and metal," Kailash Satyarthi of India's charity Save the Child told the AP.
The Child Labour Act from 1986 allows children to be employed, but only in industries that are not categorized as “hazardous," Can-India reported. And in 2006, the Indian government ruled that no child under the age of 14 should legally work, the Times of India reported. Yet activists say the law is regularly ignored.
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"The laxity of the labor department is the main reason behind its poor implementation," Nisha Sharma, a social activist, told the Times.
During Tuesday's raids, five men were arrested for employing the children. Some of the kids, meanwhile, were crying about being taken away from their work, the AP reported. They were sent to a state welfare home.
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