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Malpe: 19 child labourers rescued from port

Malpe : As many as 19 child labourers employed at Malpe port were rescued on Tuesday, December 16.

Ten boys and nine girls who were employed to transfer fish from the boats were rescued in a joint operation by the Labour Department, Primary and High School Department, Udupi Child Labour Planning Commission and Child Welfare Department.

The children have been handed over to the district Child Welfare Committee.

A probe in this case has been initiated.

Labour Department official Jnanesh said that 18 out of the 19 children were outsiders and only one boy hailed from Udupi. On asked if it was a case of child trafficking, Janesh said that it did not look like one from the outset as the children had joined work with either their parents or relatives who were employed in the port.

 A case cannot be filed under the Child Labour Act as the conditions do not hold good. However, the department is considering to provide them rehabilitation, Jnanesh said.

Kaup’s metamorphosis towards ’Kapu’ begins

Kaup :  If all goes well then name of Kaup will be changed to Kapu. With this the Englicised word ’Kaup’ will make way for the locally used name of the place, which is ’Kapu’.

The change has been put forward by Udupi District Deputy Commissioner Dr R Vishal as according to him in English Kapu is grammatically correct than Kaup. 

Dr Vishal said when the name of the place is referred as Kapu in Kannada, there is no point in referring to it as Kaup in English.

In the earlier days due to some reason the name was spelled as Kaup which remained unnoticed. The same spelling too was mentioned in gazette notification as a result even for official purposes the same spelling was used. However that doesn’t mean that the same name should be continued and action should be initiated to make necessary changes, Dr Vishal said.

According to the procedure the Gram Panchayat and Kapu Abhivradhi Samithi (Kaup Development Samithi) have to send the proposal to the state government and once approved the government will send the gazette notification on name change. Once the order comes from the state government the change will be made, explained the DC.

I have already taken up the matter with Gram Panchayat and Kapu Abhivradhi Samithi have welcomed this. The process is likely to start soon, he added.

Kaup Gram Panchayat President Usha Shenoy said “it is better to change the name to Kapu. The places were named during the British administration and it was accepted that way. But now that the suggestion has been made we will pursue it.” 

The transition from Kaup to Kapu is going to be smooth as most of the official correspondences are in Kannada, she added.