As many as 47 boys, aged between 10 and 17, were rescued today from nine different saree embroidery factories at Thankot.

Acting on a tip-off, a joint team of police, Child Workers in Nepal, Ministry of Labour, District Child Welfare Board, Central Child Development Board, Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare and other organisations working on child rights raided the factories near the Thankot Check Post at around 9:00am today. Most of the children are from Sarlahi and Mahottari, according to CWIN.

According to CWIN, the boys were brought to the sari embroidery factories by their own relatives to engage them as labourers. Preparations are being made to send children under 16 years of age to rehabilitation centres before handing them over to their respective families. 

“We are working to rehabilitate the rescued boys at different transit houses, as CWIN cannot accommodate them all,” Sagar Thapa of CWIN told THT. “CWIN has talked to transit centres. We will send the children to two or four different centres,” Thapa added. 

Thapa revealed that some of the 47 boys were rescued from a similar factory in Bhaktapur in July 2012. Over 80 embroidery factories are operating in the Kathmandu Valley, and more than 500 children — mostly below 14 years of age — are employed there, according to a research by Child Development Society. A joint meeting of I/NGOs working in child labour sector and the Department of Labour on June 4 had decided to rescue the minors from the embroidery units across the nation, marking the World Day Against Child Labour, observed on June 12.

Published on: 14 June 2013 | The Himalayan Times