News Special Reports Tamil Nadu

Aavin Child Labour Issue: TN CM MK Stalin Lies Through His Teeth Calling Evidences “Fake”, Videos Show Children Sweeping & Cleaning

June 10, 2023
The Commune

There have been reports with indisputable evidence of Tamil Nadu state-owned milk cooperative Aavin employing children as young as 16 years as workers.

These children can be seen sweeping, cleaning, doing packaging work and other hard physical labour at the Aavin factory located in Chennai.

The issue came to light after it was reported that the children were not paid their due compensation.

Testimonies from the children reveal that they were employed as labourers as recently as April 2023. The affected children, some as young as 16 years old and studying in the tenth and eleventh grades, have come forward to provide evidence that they were forced to work at Aavin. They were allegedly made to work for 8 hours and sometimes over time for which remuneration were not paid.

“Nobody can stand near that freezer for even a minute. But we stood for more than half an hour and one hour. What are they going to get by saving that money? How will they be able to digest it?”, a 16-year-old boy laments.

They highlighted that they decided to work since they needed money to purchase clothes for school, indicating dire financial circumstances. The lack of salaries received by these young workers has further exacerbated the situation.

It has been alleged that DGM Rajasekhar told one of the boy to bring in more boys like him to work. The boy apparently asked whether boys of his age (less than 18 years) are eligible to take up the job to which the DGM allegedly said that he would take care of it no matter whichever official asks about it.

This boy brought 20 more like him who he says were involved in ice-cream making. Rajasekhar told the boy to bring more boys and around 50 more children studying class 10, 11 and 12 were brought to work. The 50 includes several girl children as seen from the attendance register pictures released to the media by the children. One of the boys who worked there said in an interview that every government staff employed in that Aavin factory knew that they were underage for the work.

Rajasekhar reportedly forced them to sweep, clean and made them work for more than 8 hours and threatened to not pay them if they disobeyed his orders. Another person who has been named by one of the affected boys for ill treatment is Shanumgasundaram.

The DMK Minister in charge of Milk and Dairy Development of Tamil Nadu, Mano Thangaraj, has continuously denied the allegations, despite mounting evidence to the contrary. He has questioned the authenticity of the records and the credibility of the children’s testimonies. The denial by the DMK Minister has shocked the children as they feel they’ve been left in lurch.

Following suit, when Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin was confronted with the question during a press meet he vehemently denied it calling all the evidences as “fake”.

When a reporter asked about media reports of Aavin using children as labourers, CM Stalin who can be seen visibly tensed lied through the teeth saying “It is fake news. That day itself the Minister denied it. It is a planned fake propaganda. The evidences are all fake and are not real.”

It is noteworthy to mention that CM Stalin has relied on his Minister’s denial to deem the reports about the issue as fake.

Despite the mounting evidence of Aavin engaging school going children as labourers, the Dravidian Stockist media have look the other way.

Leftist and Dravidian Stockist outlets like The News Minute have not even reported about the incident.

Critics of the DMK argue that had this matter happened under the AIADMK’s watch, it would’ve been made a matter of prime time debate.