New Delhi, Jun 10 (PTI) The Supreme Court Wednesday asked the Centre, Bihar and Rajasthan to respond to an NGO's plea seeking directions to ensure that child workers, who have stepped out in open while returning to their native places due to the lockdown, are rehabilitated now and not re-trafficked into factories.

A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde was hearing a fresh PIL filed by NGO ‘Bachpan Bachao Andolan', run by Nobel laureate Kailash Satayathi, which said these children, mostly from Bihar, were employed in bangles' factories in Rajasthan.

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They have now stepped out of the factories to catch home-bound ‘Shramik' special trains and this provided an opportunity to the authorities to ensure their rehabilitation, the NGO said.

The bench, also comprising Justices A S Bopanna and Hrishekesh Roy, took note of the submissions of senior advocate H S Phoolka, appearing for the NGO, and issued notices to Union Ministries of Home Affairs, Labour and Empowerment and the Railways besides the two states.

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The bench, conducting the hearings via video conferencing, then ordered tagging of the PIL with the another one on which it had issued the notices to the Centre and the NDMA. The other plea has sought framing of a policy to prevent child trafficking which has allegedly seen a sudden rise during the COVID-19 lockdown.

The plea said the objective of the petition was to ensure rehabilitation of such children, who were forced to remain unidentified and work in factories, under the law as they have now come out in open for going to native places due to the loss of work.

“It is of utmost significance to ensure that children who have gone back to their home states are not re-trafficked and thrown back into child labour.

In order to do so, it would be apposite that the data set of the migrant labourers who have registered themselves with the Rajasthan Govt. and are given permission to repatriate to their state Bihar, is shared with the State of Bihar...in particular the Bihar State Commission of Child Rights,” the plea said.

The Bihar State Commission of Child Rights should analyse the data of children below 18 years and identify as to who may have been trafficked or are not with their natural families.

“This information be shared by the Bihar State Commission of Child Rights with the Child Welfare Committee of Katihar District, Bihar or such other Child Welfare Committee in whose jurisdiction the home of the child is located for further follow up and action as per law,” the plea said.

The plea said that the Rajasthan government be asked to share the data of migrant labour wanting to return to Bihar with the Bihar government which, in turn, would analyze the same and take “appropriate action and rehabilitation in accordance with law, along with a copy to the Anti Human Trafficking Unit, Bihar Police for necessary action”.

The plea also sought a direction to the MHA, Railways and Labour ministries “to preserve the data of Migrant Labour received by them from the respective States on the National Migrant Information System (NMIS) portal”.

It said the central government be also asked to issue a direction to all states to share their data of migrant labour with the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights of the native state.

The Centre should issue a direction to the State Commission to analyze and identify the suspected child labour cases from the data set and forward the necessary information to the respective Child Welfare Committee of the concerned District for rehabilitation and protection, it said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)