Hindustan
Times: New Delhi: Thursday, November 01, 2012.
A seemingly
innocuous Right to Information (RTI) query has forced the Delhi Police to rein
in employees who may be encouraging child labour.
Issued by its
Special Protection Unit (Women & Children) or the SPUW&C, a new
notification has instituted physical checks to ensure that no police officer
employs any person aged below 14 years for any task either at a police station
or his/her residence.
"The
Central Government's Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act prohibits
the employment of persons younger than 14 years across the country with
employers liable to be penalised in accordance with law. Why should police
officers be treated differently?" asked a Delhi Police officer.
This means is
that the next time you are served tea by a child, or see a young teenager going
about household chores in a police colony, a simple complaint against the
child's identified employer(s) irrespective of his/her rank -- can land them
in serious trouble.
The penal
provisions of employing children below the age of 14 attract a fine of up to R
20,000 or imprisonment up to one year or both.
Sources said
the notification came after the Delhi Police received an RTI query about the
number of children employed as helps at police stations and by police officers
at their residence in early October.
As per
procedure, a copy of the same RTI query had been dispatched the SPU (W&C),
one of the Delhi Police's special units mandated with the self-explanatory task
of ensuring the protection of women's and children's rights, which took it
rather seriously.
"So, on
October 8, the police headquarters was directed to circulate the notification
prohibiting all officers from employing children below the age of 14 years.
Random checks will be conducted to identify and penalise those disobeying the
notification," the officer added.
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