Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi lauds govt attempt to root out black money

“It is a positive step towards creating a more prosperous India for the future generations. The dream of development and child slavery cannot co-exist. I congratulate the government for the courage it has shown," Mr Satyarthi said in a statement last night. He said it is 'a lesser known fact that human trafficking and child labour are amongst the largest sources of black money' and went on to add that, the announcement by the government 'will go a long way' in fighting exploitation of children and corruption in an organised manner.  

"I commend the boldness of the step taken by our Prime Minister Narendra Modi to put an end to black money and corruption," he said. "Every single rupee earned by the traffickers and slave masters is black money. This move (by government) will break their backbone," he said. Mr Satyarthi claimed according to a study conducted by Global March against Child Labour, 21 lakh crore Indian rupees are generated 'by enslaving young girls in brothels'.

"Another study conducted by Bachpan Bachao Andolan reveals huge sums of money which is blatantly stolen in the name of wages paid to labourers," he said. "I have come across innumerable incidents where the agent or middle man earned at least five thousand rupees for the placement of young boys in bonded labour and in cases of girls sold for prostitution and child marriages, this amount was around two lakh rupees," he said.