Madura

23 minors found working in fireworks units

Many minors were found engaged in cracker making at a fireworks unit near Kanniseripudur here on Friday.

During a routine inspection, a mobile inspection team of Department of Industrial Safety and Health, led by its Joint Director, Prema Kumari, and Deputy Director, Chithra, found the girl children working in the amorces unit of Rita Fireworks and amorces factory near Thiagarajapuram.

The officials found that many schoolgoing children were working with their parents in the same unit. “The parents claimed that since it was a lockdown, the children were working in the unit,” an official said. The children were brought to the Government Hospital in Virudhunagar and their age was ascertained. While seven of them were below 14 years of age, 16 of them were adolescent.

The children were sent home with their parents. An official said that the factory management would be prosecuted under Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986.

Collector R. Kannan said that office-bearers of the fireworks manufacturers were issued a stern warning against any such recurrence.

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