Training of the skills of young people rescued from Tamil Nadu. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
About 143 young adults from Western Bengal, who worked as workers, were rescued between 2019 and 2024 from gold production units in Tamil Nadu. Many of them scripting their own achievements. The information obtained from the NGO and the West Bengal Government pointed out that 60 children and young adults were saved in September 2019, 22 February 2023, 54 in July 2023 and seven in November 2024.
Dipankar Bera, 20 years, survived from a jewelry shop in Chennai, now works as a junior officer, operates a chain of fast food restaurants after training in the Hooghly center at the National Skill Development Corporation.
Dipankar, who lives in Hooghla, remembers the days when he was locked inside the production unit of jewelry in Chennai and says his life is now so different. “With the support and training of the government I now have the right job. I have the designation, the right salary, sheets and benefits,” he said.
Dipankar’s story is also repeated into the experience of Al Amina (18), who returned to school and enrolled in a computer course and raised his dream to become a cyber security expert. Amin is also a community advocate and increases awareness, so other young adults fall into the same trap of work.
“Working in a unit of jewelry was exhausting. We and other boys at my age worked for hours and created hundreds of gold jewelry daily. Hard chemicals and metal dust left their hands tinted, scarred and burned,” said Youth of North 24 Parganas.
Chiranjit Mondal (21) works as an economy staff in the company for management of food services and facilities and will not be ashamed to admit that working conditions in Tamil Nadu, where it was saved and where he is now working. “Employees where I work are treated with me.
All three, Chiranjit Dipankar and Amin, were rescued by the Police Tamil Nada from the production units of gold jewelry in the southern state.
Psychological and career counseling for those who have saved
An official of the Ministry of Labor of West Bengal said that the entire rescue and their bringing and passing on their parents is the convergence of various departments and non -governmental organizations. The official said that those who were rescued were provided by psychological and career counseling to overcome trauma and continue in more dignified conditions. The state government also provided instructions and training to young people within the “Utkarsh Bangla” program.
“West Bengal has no problem with ties or child labor. Those who are rescued, come from other countries, and in the case of tied workers they are workers from other countries who work here,” the official said.
Officials of the West Bengal government said that young adults who are rescued are not forced to go, but join the work of other villagers or their relatives from the same neighborhood. Although the 1976 custody Act is abolished according to the Act on Binding (abolition), the bound work continues to remain in hidden informal sectors, especially affecting the poorest and most vulnerable communities.
Young adults are falling on such practices for pretexts of employers who provide skills in sectors as the production of gold ornaments.
Published – 1 May 2025 01:16
