Hyderabad: After rescuing 400 child labourers from the Old City, the biggest challenge that the authorities are now facing is to accommodate and rehabilitate them.

There is no space in rescue homes at Saidabad and Ramanthapur. The new batch of children rescued has been shifted to the Aradhana home at Saroornagar where they are cramped for space. Many have to be lodged in a library and an isolation rooms meant for sick kids in Saidabad.

Because of unavailability of space, child labour department officials and the child welfare committee have sent back more than 70 children to the police, stating that they are above 14. The cops have been forced to house them in private places, like function halls.

As per the Supreme Court, employing a child below 18 years of age is a crime while as per labour law,the minimum age is 14 years. The children are suffering even after being rescued due to the space crunch and not enough officials to take care of them. The rehabilitation process is also going slow. While the capacity of the Saidabad rescue home is 150, currently 219 boys have been put up there.


“Many kids have been shifted to the library, and isolation rooms where generally sick children are put up,” said a source from the rescue home. There were already over 150 permanent inmates here before the child labour rescue operation. Sources said more than 100 children have also been put up in two halls at Ramanthapur Don Bosco home.
“Over 100 kids have been crammed into these two halls at Don Bosco home. Few are kept in sick rooms,” said a source from the home.

According to district child protection officer, Md. Imthiyas, who is in-charge of the children’s rehabilitation, the process will take a few more days. “We have a meeting with South Central Railway officials on Monday to know about the availability of special coaches. We can only send the first batch of children to Bihar when we get special coaches,” he said.

Meanwhile, there is also a lot of confusion in the rehabilitation process as more than three government departments are involved. While the labour department only consider kids under 14 as child labourers as per the labour law, the police considers kids below 18 years of age as child labourers.