Brave 22-Year-Old Girl’s Secret Operation Rescues 111 Children Working in a Gujarat Factory

Jharna Joshi, a 22-year-old student from Ahmedabad, took up a secret operation and rescued 111 kids working as labourers in one of the biggest ceramic units in Morbi on Friday.

According to M C Karia, deputy labour commissioner, Rajkot region, this is the biggest ever rescue operation of child labourers in Saurashtra.

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Picture for representation only. Source: Wikimedia

100 of the children are girls and they were rescued from the Sonaki ceramic unit located on Ghuntu Road.

“I came to my cousin’s house in Morbi in the first week of April to spend my vacation. One morning, I saw the children being transported in buses. These were not school buses so I followed the bus and found that they were being taken to a factory,” Jharna, a second year Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) student told The Times of India.

To find out more about their ages, Jharna decided to take up a job in the ceramic unit. While the factory didn’t have any vacancy in the office, they offered her work in pasting and design of cups and saucers. After working there for 15 days, she came to know that most of the children were below 18 years and they were forced to work from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm. They did not have the permission to go outside and some were even forced to work in high-temperature areas like furnaces without any water or food supply.

Jharna then approached the concerned department to file a report. “I wrote to the chief minister’s office and personally visited Gandhinagar on May 24. Finally, I was assured that the action will be taken on Friday,” she said. Officials from different department jointly raided the unit and rescued the children. This includes those from the social defence department, police, and labour and employment department along with a factory inspector and child protection officer.

Watch the video here:

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