While doctors are struggling to save the fingers of the 13-year-old boy whose hand was crushed in the roti-making machine at the children's home in Dongri earlier this week, the police have instituted an inquiry into the alleged instance of child labour inside the shelter.
Officials from Dongri police station visited the home at 2pm on Saturday and recorded statements of eyewitnesses, including children and staffers.
The shelter home houses children in conflict with law and children in need of care and protection in separate sections. The home is run by a Matunga-based non-profit Children's Aid Society for the state government. Of the 77 sanctioned posts for staff in the home which houses 400 children, over thirty per cent are vacant.
The age of the boy remains ambiguous, as Shankar Jadhav, superintendent of the home, claims that he is sixteen. He has no qualms about stating that boys are made to work in the home.
The labour law in India does not permit children under 14 years of age to work in hazardous or non-hazardous set ups. Moreover, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) does not allow any child below 18 years to practise any kind of work.
However, Jadhav said that the boy was assigned to assist in making rotis. "After cooking, while the boys were cleaning the machine, he put his hand in. The machine has to be kept on while cleaning. When his hand went inside, it was injured by the blade. The machine was immediately turned off and the boy was admitted in the hospital," said Jadhav. He added that cooking is a part of the 'work-training', that boys undergo at the home.
The 13-year old's index, ring, middle and little fingers were crushed. Doctors are of the opinion that half of his little finger will eventually have to be amputated to prevent gangrene and septic infection.
The boy hails from Malad and had fled to Warangal in Andhra Pradesh where he was employed by a private contractor to work on a road construction job. "He was rescued by the child welfare committee there and was sent to Dongri to be repatriated with his mother. The boy is with us for a month now as his mother has not turned up to claim him. She is expected to come on Monday," said Jadhav.
"Now that a case has emerged we are conducting an inquiry about the boy. We are otherwise not even allowed to enter the home without permission," said senior police inspector Sandeep Dal.
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