TNN | Nov 21, 2013, 06.41 AM IST

MANGALORE: The Child Welfare Committee (CWC) on Wednesday found that a teacher had employed two students of her class as child labourers. 

CWC chairwoman Asha Nayak said they visited the house of a private school teacher near Kottara based on a tipoff that her students were doing household work. "The owner denied he used schoolkids for house work. After much grilling, we found the teacher would identify poor students and on the pretext of giving them shelter and sending them to school, was making them work in the house,'' Asha said. 

The CWC members got the phone number of a child's parents and the kid admitted he was picking arecanuts and peeling them. The teacher had kept two boys, one studying in third and the other in the fourth standard. "Peeling arecanuts is hard labour. We couldn't refer the case to the labour department as technically the accused was sending the children to school though they sometimes missed classes. The teacher and her husband didn't find anything wrong with it," Asha said. 

Asha said earlier complaints to higher authorities and the education department hadn't yielded any result and the source who gave the information was a bit sceptical of any punitive action. 

Asha said: "We told the teacher she couldn't do such a thing and there are care homes which look after such children. The teacher said she wasn't aware of it." CWC will issue notices to the teacher, her husband and the kids' parents.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mangaluru/Kids-made-to-work-at-teachers-home/articleshow/26124214.cms?