40 minors rescued from child labour

Coimbatore: Tirupur district administration officials rescued 40 labourers between 15 and 18 years of age from a private spinning mill near Alathur on the outskirts of the city on Tuesday.
This is the first time in the last few years that such a large number of minors have been rescued from a spinning mill in the district.
Based on a tip-off, officials from social welfare department, district child protection office, police department and directorate of industrial safety and health, and childline authorities raided the spinning mill and rescued the 40 labourers, comprising of 37 girls and 3 boys.
The rescued minors have been sent to child care homes in Palladam, Periyar Colony and Thanneerpandal.
“They were brought in from different districts including Tiruvannamalai, Vilupuram and Vellore through middlemen in the last two months,” said a source privy to the inspection.
M Premalatha, chairperson of Child Welfare Committee (CWC), said, “Based on a complaint, we have inspected the spinning mill. As the children were forced to work against their will, we rescued them.”
To ensure unauthorized labourers at workplace, similar inspections would be carried out at other industries and mills too, she said.