A team of the district labour department, led by labour superintendent Praveen Kumar, conducted raids at two Bakery units in Baghmara on Tuesday.

Following the raids, officials rescued 13 child labourers working in Hindustan Bakery and Bagharma Bakery.

Dhanbad Deputy Commissioner Uma Shankar Singh instructed the bust, acting on complaints of two different NGOs - Bachpan Bachao Andolan and Jharkhand Grameen Vikash Trust.

Talking to the media, Kumar said the raid was conducted as per labour laws and the rescued children will be presented before the district child welfare committee through the child line.

“We will lodge a case against the factory owner as per labour laws which prohibits employment of child labour,” he said. Kumar added that they have detected several anomalies in Hindustan Bakery with regard to employees and appropriate action will be initiated against the owner in accordance with relevant sections of labour laws.

The raid at Baghmara. Gautam Dey

Shankar Rawani, president of Jharkhand Gramin Vikash Trust,and part of raiding team, said, “We have rescued 25 chidren during the last two days, including 12 last night.”

“All the rescued children are residents of Jamtara, Deoghar, Madhupur, Narayanpur and Tundi (Dhanbad) and belong to extremely poor families” he further added. The children will be rehabilitated according to instructions from the DC.

All of the kids were presented before the child line in the afternoon after mandatory covid tests and medical checkup was conducted.

The father of a rescued child hailing from Narayanpur arrived in Dhanbad and said, “Poor financial conditions ate compelling us to send our children to work in bakery units.”