Over 2,800 child labourers rescued in Assam, compensation & rehabilitation remain low

Guwahati, Dec 16: More than 2,800 children employed as labourers – most of them in the commercial sector – have been rescued over the past five years in the State. However, follow-up action in these cases has been dismal, with authorities failing to ensure proper rehabilitation of the rescued children or take effective punitive measures against the employers involved.

An RTI query from The Assam Tribune revealed that around 1,264 cases have been lodged between 2020-2025 (till date) against the employers involved, but investigators could achieve conviction in only six cases during the period – three in Sivasagar district and one each in Lakhimpur, Sonitpur and Tinsukia.

No cases were lodged against the employers in Goalpara, Dhemaji and Hailakandi, while the number of cases in many other districts is extremely low compared to the number of rescues, according to the reply from the labour department.

“Engaging a child as labour is a cognizable offence under the provision of the Child & Adolescent Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act, 2016. As it is crime against children, legal deterrence against the employers is essential to combat the crime from the society,” an activist said.

Payment of back-wages is equally pathetic. Only a handful of the rescued children received back-wages in the districts of Goalpara, Golaghat, Hailakandi and Jorhat. In other districts, it was negligible. Laws mandate recovery of unpaid wages for child labourers, including overtime, from exploitative employers.

Fund allocation for immediate compensation from the State government has been meagre. Some districts got nothing during the last five years, while the total amount allocated by the government between 2020-2024 was Rs 5,20,000 – only across four districts.

Some other districts got funds this year, but districts like South Salmara-Mankachar, Baksa, Barpeta, Biswanath, Bongaigaon, Darrang, etc., got no allocation in the last five years. In nineteen districts, the rescued children did not get immediate compensation in the last five years.

The back-wages and compensation ought to be given to the child within seventeen days, according to an SOP issued by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights.

The Supreme Court of India in the MC Mehta vs State of Tamil Nadu and Others case had held that to ensure compliance with Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, an employer must be asked to pay a sum of Rs 20,000 as compensation for every child employed in contravention of the provisions of the Act and further by the appropriate government to contribute a grant of Rs 5,000 for such child employed in hazardous job.

Worse, the government also did little to rehabilitate the children.

The labour department had no information if the families of the rescued children were linked with any social security scheme.

Also, less than 300 children were enrolled in schools during the period. South Salmara led the districts enrolling 82 of the 94 rescued children in schools in the last five years, while Dhubri ensured that 135 of the 191 rescued children were admitted in educational institutions. In other districts, the number was negligible – most of them nil, raising concerns that some of them may have been re-trafficked.

Activists working in the sector said the government also does not have any strategy to deal with cases of domestic child labour.