Gujarat Police launch drive to end child labour, arrest school dropout rate

Ahmedabad: Amid concerns over school dropout rates, Gujarat Police have launched a month-long campaign statewide, titled ‘Operation Childhood Freedom’. The drive aims at identifying child labourers, rescuing them and facilitating their return to education.The drive, being conducted under CID Crime (Women Cell), seeks to address one of the key factors linked to school dropouts by cracking down on the practice of child labour.Officials said the campaign will have four phases. The first involves mapping hotspots and collecting data on school dropouts. In the second phase, police teams will conduct inspections and rescue children engaged in labour. The third will focus on presenting rescued children before child welfare committees for rehabilitation and enrolment in schools. The final phase will involve legal action against individuals and establishments employing children.Under the initiative, authorities have set a target of rescuing over 5,000 child labourers, inspecting over 50,000 suspected locations and gathering more than 10,000 intelligence inputs. Police will also use tech-based intelligence to identify vulnerable areas and establishments.As part of the campaign, outreach efforts are being undertaken to sensitise traders, factory owners, restaurant operators and other employers about laws prohibiting child labour and the importance of ensuring children remain in school.The initiative comes close on the heels of Operation Milap, a month-long statewide exercise that concluded recently and resulted in the tracing of 1,470 missing persons. The operation, launched on May 7, reviewed pending missing persons cases registered across Gujarat since 2007.Of the 1,470 persons traced, 852 were women, 342 were men, 234 were minor girls and 42 were minor boys. Surat city police recorded the highest number of missing persons traced at 341.