All police stations can now probe child labour cases

All police stations in the city will now be responsible for looking into cases of child begging and child labour cases in the city. Earlier, only the Juvenile Aid and Protection Unit (JAPU) under the enforcement branch of the Mumbai police was the sole investigating branch for such cases, but now the responsibility has been handed over to the police stations.

This new initiative, which will be kicked off on June 6, has been aimed at reducing the burden on the short-staffed JAPU. Sources in the Mumbai police said that this initiative would have a direct impact on reducing the number of child begging and child labour cases in the city.

Speaking to The Asian Age, an officer of JAPU, who did not wish to be named, said that while there had been a drop in the number of child rescued from begging jobs and employed as workers in factories and hotels, a lot needed to be done. “Now, a police station will handle the whole investigation from start to finish. From registering an offence, rescuing the children, investigating the case to arresting the accused, the onus will be on the police station,” said an officer.

The officer further said this move was also done considering the Indian Labour Organisation’s theme for the year ‘World against Child Labour’. While this is observed on June 12, the Mumbai police wanted to kick off the initiative a week before.

The officer further said that the JAPU officer would not intervene in any cases. “If a police officer or a police station wants our help, we will definitely provide it. In fact we are even ready to train officers if there is a need while dealing with such cases,” he said.

The officer added that JAPU would also act as a supervising authority. “We will look at the overall progress of such investigations and the graph of the number of children being rescued,” he said.

The senior officer lauded the initiative and said that the move would bring better focus to the issue. “If an offence is reported in the jurisdiction of a certain police station, then it can tackle it directly. Currently, the SS branch along with the JAPU officials, rescue the children and then register an offence with the local police station,” the officer said. “This makes it a tedious process,” he added.