Mangalore: Child Labourer Rescued from Government Official's Residence
 
Pics: Dayanand Kukkaje
Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (PS)
 
Mangalore, Jan 3: A girl aged about 10 was rescued from the residence of deputy conservator of forests, Mangalore division located in Lalbagh here on Tuesday January 3.

The labor department officials rescued the girl after they were tipped-off about her employment in the house as domestic help.

Officials of the labour department and Child Development Project under the department of Women and Child Development raided the house of Palaiah, deputy conservator of forests on Tuesday morning and rescued Renuka of Hubli district.
 
Though Palaiah was not present at the time of the raid, his wife was. On inspecting the house, the labour officials found Renuka who had been employed in their house as domestic help for the last one month.
 
Senior labour inspector U S Deshpande said that according to preliminary inquiries, Renuka was brought to the house to clean the house and the garden and to water the plants.

She is the daughter of Basavaraj and Ratnamma. They shifted from Hubli to Padil here in search of work, and later the father got a job in a nursery. Hence Renuka’s education in Hubli was discontinued.
 
Speaking to the media, Renuka, who was in tears, said that she was studying in third standard and wants to go back to school. She was made to work from 9 am to 2 pm and was offered Rs 600 as her monthly salary.
 
Senior labour Inspectors H P Jagannath and Krishnamma also took part in the raid operation. The central labour department got an alert call from the media, and passed on the message about child labour in this residence to assistant labour commissioner in Mangalore.
 
After the labour department officials conduct the age proof test at Wenlock hospital, she will be produced before the Child Welfare Committee and arrangements will be made to admit her back in school. It may be noted that though she dropped out of school two months back, there was no effort by the education department to get her back to school.