In a deeply disturbing reminder of the persistence of child labour in India despite stringent laws, seven children — aged between 10 and 14 — escaped from a bangle factory in Jaipur on Monday night after months of severe exploitation.
According to police, the children, all from Bihar, had been forced to work up to 18 hours a day under brutal conditions before managing to flee.
Terrified and disoriented, the children hid overnight in a graveyard in Jaipur’s Bhatta Basti area until residents spotted them on Tuesday morning.
Concerned locals immediately alerted the police control room. Soon after, a team from Bhatta Basti police station, along with officials from the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), arrived at the scene and took the children into their care.
Station House Officer (SHO) Deepak Tyagi told The Indian Express that the children had been trafficked from their villages in Bihar under false pretences.
“They were told they were being taken on a trip but were brought to Jaipur two months ago and made to work 15–18 hours a day in suffocating conditions,” he said.
“Unable to bear the torture, they ran away but got lost in the labyrinth of narrow lanes and ended up hiding in a graveyard.”
Initially too frightened to speak, the children eventually revealed the name of their trafficker — one Samsad Miya — who allegedly brought them to Jaipur and handed them over to factory operators.
Police have arrested Miya under the Juvenile Justice Act and are investigating whether a larger trafficking network is involved.
The children’s accounts paint a horrific picture. They were reportedly given just one meal a day, often beaten if they fell ill, and forced to work long hours shaping fragile glass bangles with their tiny hands.
“We were not allowed to rest or talk.
If anyone stopped working, we were hit with sticks,” one child reportedly told authorities.
A Persistent Social Evil
While the incident has reignited outrage, the sad reality is that child labour in Jaipur’s bangle industry has been a known scourge for decades.
Despite frequent police raids and legal crackdowns, the illegal use of children in these cottage industries continues — though reduced in scale — highlighting deep-rooted social and economic failures.
Factory owners often prefer child labour because children’s smaller hands can perform delicate tasks like joining and colouring bangles more precisely.
Moreover, children can be made to work for less than half the wages of adults, making them the most “profitable” workforce for exploitative employers.
Poverty and Parental Complicity
Even more heartbreaking is the fact that in many such cases, the children’s own parents are complicit in sending them away — sometimes knowingly, sometimes out of sheer desperation.
Poverty, debt, or the false promise of a better life often pushes families into the trap laid by human traffickers. As a result, countless children are robbed of their childhoods, their education, and their futures.
Vivek Sharma, Director of Aasra Foundation Jaipur, an NGO that provides legal aid and rehabilitation for rescued children, said the problem remains widespread and systemic.
“Every year, around 4,000 children from Bihar are trafficked to Jaipur to work in bangle factories, but only about 20% are rescued,” Sharma revealed.
He added chilling details about the torture these children endure: “We have seen cases where factory owners cut the children’s feet with blades to stop them from running away.
Many suffer spinal injuries from sitting in the same position for hours. It’s a living nightmare — and it must end.”
Time for Governments to Act
Activists have repeatedly urged both the Rajasthan and Bihar governments to collaborate and create a comprehensive rehabilitation and prevention plan.
They stress the need for tighter enforcement of existing child labour laws, better monitoring of migrant labour routes, and stronger economic safety nets for families vulnerable to trafficking networks.
Child labour, though officially outlawed in India, continues to thrive in dark corners of industries like bangles, carpets, and fireworks.
Behind the glittering products lies the suffering of innocent children, treated not as humans but as tools of cheap production — robbed of their right to play, study, and dream.
Until society collectively decides to protect its most vulnerable, such stories will continue to surface, haunting the conscience of the nation.
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