NEW DELHI: A shocking 99% of child labourers rescued in Delhi are originally from outside the city. More appallingly, due to a weak tracking mechanism to keep tabs on rehabilitation of the rescued children, they fall back into the same trade and end up getting sexually abused.

These facts were revealed by Delhi government's labour department in an affidavit filed recently before the Delhi high court on a plea filed by Save the Childhood Foundation to tackle the problem of child labour.

"At present, there is no tracing and tracking mechanism for rescued children, i.e. if a child is repatriated to his home state, there is no mechanism to trace him if he is once again trafficked to the capital. Inadequate and weak tracing and tracking mechanism has resulted in a number of cases of trafficked girls being sexually abused," said the labour department in its affidavit filed before a division bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice R S Endlaw. The Delhi government sought directions from the court "to authorities to address the issue for better coordination with central database backup".

In its five-page affidavit, the labour department informed the court about several problems it faced in the process of rescuing child labourers. It said that though various departments like MCD, police, labour, health, revenue, social welfare and NGOs were performing their respective roles and duties, over a period of time, it was observed that the procedures and systems needed to be further strengthened and streamlined for better coordination among various stakeholders in a time-bound manner.

"Presently there is no mechanism to determine the domicile of parents of children who actually belong to Delhi. The issue needs the court's directive and if the court approves, the responsibility on the issue of identification may be entrusted to social welfare department," it said.

Submitting that from 2009 till May 2014, 4,310 child labourers were rescued, the labour department said that that 99% of those rescued belonged to other states and only 19 children were from Delhi.

It, however, said that due to the absence of a "streamlined mechanism", the process of repatriation of the rescued kids was difficult. It also asked HC to prescribe a time limit of 45 days for revenue officials to recover the rehabilitation amount of Rs 20,000 per child from employers operating/owning hazardous establishments/units as it was not easily done.

The affidavit also stated that it was not receiving utilization certificates from district magistrates of other states to whom Delhi government sent Rs 25,000 per child for their welfare. It sought a direction from HC to direct the district magistrates, in charge of disbursing the amount, to furnish utilization certificates within 45 days.