Snehalaya Childline rescues 4 children from Railway track work. District Labor officer faces action

Feb 7th, 2011 Ahmednagar: 

Four children were found working under a contractor on railway tracks. Upon receiving the information, Snehalaya childline team immediately swung into action and took the police help to rescue them.  

The district labor officer Jairam Mitke did not take notice of complaints by Snehalaya against the contractor. He did not cooperate with the police to bring the guilty to justice.  It was unfortunate that the official whose primary responsibility was to protect children from exploitation was acting in the interest of influential contractors. He supported the contractor Suresh Mesu Damor and his supervisor Pankaj Patil who were using the children for railway track work, by not filing a case despite several complaints. 

Snehalaya childline team did not give up and escalated the matter to District collector.  The collector not only ensured that the case was filed, but also promised to take severe action against Jairam Mitke, for negligence of duty. The collector agreed that child labor is a grave problem in the country and praised the efforts of Snehalaya team in this rescue and pursuing the complaint against the erring officials.  Local newspapers covered the issues and brought to issue to public notice.