Gujarat: Contractor, suffering from cancer, hands over child labourers to police, asks to help them reach home

Ahmedabad: A confession made by a dying person can potentially help him to alleviate any guilt, regrets, sins or secrets that he might have had in his life. In one such incident, a 53-year-old contractor, nearing his death, handed over six child labourers to the police on and asked to help them reach home safely on Saturday.

The contractor had brought the children, aged between 13 and 14 years, from Uttar Pradesh’s Chandauli district to Gujarat to make them work as labourers. He has been diagnosed with the last stage of throat cancer. He is also a native of UP and lives in Jetpur town of Gujarat’s Rajkot district with his wife, son and the six children that he had brought from UP to work as child labourers. He told the police that he was dying and wanted to make sure that all the children reach their homes safely.

The officials from the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit of the CID examined the medical reports of the sick contractor and confirmed that he was actually on his death bed. The six children did not complain of any ill-treatment meted out to them and the officials did not arrest the contractor. However, a record of the incident was made in Jetpur Police Station’s diary. The officials also refused to disclose the identity of the contractor as he was already nearing his death due to the incurable disease, according to a report of Ahmedabad Mirror.

An officer said that as the sick man expressed his desire to send back the children to their homes in UP, his friend rang the Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), an NGO. The NGO passed on the information to the police and the children were brought back. ADGP Anil Pratham told AM, “Our primary work is to save the children, hence we did not file an offence in the matter.” He added that he had witnessed such an incident for the first time in his life where somebody had handed over trafficked children himself.