The International Labour Organization says that there are more than 60 million bonded child workers in India. These children are denied their fundamental rights to childhood, education, fair remuneration and adequate health care and living conditions because they are forced to work more than 12 hours every day. Most of them are held as slaves in factories where they are subjected to beatings and widespread disease.
Fighting Child Labor Through Direct Action
Since its inception in 1989, SACCS has addressed this problem using a two-pronged strategy that involves both direct and indirect action. SACCS Direct Action Rescue Operations plans raids against industries known to use child labor. SACCS receives tips that identify industries using child laborers. Sometimes, parents whose children have been taken into bondage approach them for help. SACCS organizes its own teams, families of stolen children, local supporters and a few policemen armed only with sticks to forcefully free the children. They open the factory doors at night and remove the children before the owner receives word. In order to secure police protection, the local administration receives information about the impending raid beforehand. However, they never reveal exact details, so as to avoid collusion between the administration and the industries.
After the release of the children, official certificates must be secured from the local administration. Because the administration is sympathetic toward the industries this can take a long time. The children are then introduced to SACCS rehabilitation programs. These programs provide free education before returning children to their families, when that is possible. Through its direct action raids SACCS has released more than 65,000 laborers from servitude in the last two decades.
SACCS intervenes directly at the site of the abuse: the factories where children are enslaved. Their actions not only rescue thousands of children, but build community awareness of the problem. Word spreads about the freed children and the conditions in which they were held. Their actions also make it impossible for the government to continue to be complicit in child labor. Once made aware of the problem and SACCS’s intended action, the government can no longer protect the factories without being publicly exposed.
Bravery Amidst Dangers in Child Rescue
This is also a dangerous tactic that could have repercussions for the children and the community, forcing the factories to hide the problem even more deeply or to move to another area. The SACCS team members may themselves be in physical danger and must plan for a number of contingencies. But when a problem is this extreme — whether it is child slavery, human trafficking or unlawful detention — there are sometimes people brave enough to take that danger upon themselves.
There may be other types of exploitation situations where this kind of tactic might be considered (see this example from Bangladesh).
Human rights defenders must undertake a critical risk assessment when working in situations where corruption, especially within the police force and other law enforcement structures, is high. Since their cooperation is necessary for protection, this tactic will not work if the police are invested in the exploitation issue (such as child labor). For more ideas on how to engage police officers to protect human rights, see these tactics in Brazil and Nigeria. The protection and safety of the victims must be the foremost priority. Follow-up tactics are necessary to ensure that victims receive needed services.
