30 children out of school rescued from fish factory premises in Udupi

Thirty children were taken out of a fish factory in Brahmavar taluk of Udupi district on November 3 in an operation carried out by a special women's police team, Akka Pade, along with officials of the Education Department, the Udupi police said.

According to the police, the children are the offspring of employees of the fish factory and had been living on and around its premises. Their ages range from six to 14. The police said they were not attending school and were being denied an education.

All 30 children were produced before the Child Welfare Committee, the statutory body constituted under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, which is empowered to decide on the care, protection and rehabilitation of children found to be in need of it. Seven girls were shifted to a girls' home and the remaining 23 boys to a boys' home, the police stated.

The operation brings into focus the legal position on schooling and child labour in India. Under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, education is a fundamental right for every child between the ages of six and 14, and the state is obliged to ensure free and compulsory schooling, including admission for children who have dropped out or never enrolled. The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2016, prohibits the employment of children below 14 years in all occupations and processes, with limited exceptions such as helping in a family enterprise, provided such work does not interfere with schooling.

The Udupi police have not stated that the children were employed at the factory. Their account is that the children were living on the premises with their working parents and were outside the school system. The involvement of Education Department officials indicates that the operation was concerned with ensuring that the children are brought into school and provided care, rather than with a workplace violation alone.

It was not immediately known whether the factory's management faces any action, what steps are being taken to enrol the children in school, or when they will be reunited with their families. The Child Welfare Committee's decision on their longer-term care, and any follow-up by the Education Department on enrolment, will determine what happens next. Officials did not give further details.

Karnataka has run periodic drives to identify out-of-school children and bring them into the education system, and district administrations in the coastal belt have in the past carried out inspections of workplaces where children of migrant and local workers are found living. Child rights bodies have repeatedly flagged the risk that children living on work sites, rather than in settled homes, slip out of school records altogether.

The rescue also highlights the role of Akka Pade, a special women's police team, in outreach work involving women and children. Such teams are routinely deployed in operations where children are to be interviewed, moved to shelters or handed over to the Child Welfare Committee, so that the process is handled with sensitivity.

Each of the 30 children will now be before the Child Welfare Committee, which is required to record their circumstances, examine whether they need care and protection, and arrange education and rehabilitation. The committee's orders, and the extent to which the children are subsequently enrolled in school, will be the measure of whether the November 3 operation achieves its purpose.