More Than 50 Children Found Illegally Working In Ghaziabad Slaughterhouse In Child Commission Raid

A Ghaziabad-based company employed at least 50 children, more than half of them girls, for slaughtering animals, the chairman of National Child Commission said on Wednesday.

Chairman Priyank Kanoongo told Swarajya that a raid at the slaughterhouse was carried out on Wednesday where a total of 52 children were found to be illegally working. Of them, 33 are girls. Several children are physically challenged.

At the time of the raid, they were engaged in chopping parts of slaughtered buffaloes, he said. A team of Ghaziabad police was present at the raid.

Two days ago, the commission had contacted the Ghaziabad police about a tip-off it received about children working in the Dasna slaughterhouse.

“It is suspected that these children are trafficked from West Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and are being used by the perpetrators as child labour in inhuman and unhygienic condition,” the letter by the commission to the Ghaziabad Superintendent of Police said.

The tip-off came from a non-government organisation named Mission Mukti Foundation.

A first information report (FIR) would be filed soon in the matter under the Labour Act and various sections of the Indian Penal Code, police said. Yasin Qureshi, owner of slaughterhouse named International Agro Food is absconding.

A member of the raiding team said the children were employed in packing meat, besides chopping parts of the animal. The slaughterhouse prepares meat of buffaloes, and each child was being promised Rs 300 a day.

The children were brought to the National Capital Region with promise of jobs and shelter, the member said.

As per a report, the slaughterhouse is a major player in the meat industry and exports meat to Middle East, West Africa, Egypt and Far Eastern countries.