New Delhi, Oct. 30: Twenty-eight children embroidering clothes for British retail chain GAP were rescued from a Delhi factory today.

Police, labour officials and the NGO Prayas were involved in the raid on the unit in south Delhi’s Shahpur Jat locality.

Most of the children, between 7 and 12 years old, are from Bengal. Three were trafficked from Bangladesh, officials said. Three employers were arrested under the child labour act but were granted bail against personal bonds of Rs 40,000 each. They will appear in court tomorrow.

The raid came days after British daily The Sunday Observer carried a report on the use of child labour at the factory. “We have already suspended our contracts with the three persons. We are happy the raid today led to the rescue of the children,” GAP’s spokesperson in India said.

GAP, the police said, had cooperated with them in rescuing the children.

“We have no reason to believe that GAP knew about the child labour and kept silent,” a senior police official said.

Those rescued were produced before a child welfare committee, which sent them to a children’s home run by the NGO.

“It isn’t just about the three employers. There needs to be an investigation into how children continue to be trafficked into Delhi despite all the assurances of the government,” Prayas executive director Rajib Haldar said.

At the factory, the children were forced to work from 10am to 10pm daily. They had to eat and sleep in the same one-window room.

A textile industry association today vowed to counter the “campaign” that some Indian companies were using child labour to make garments for overseas markets.

D.K. Nair, secretary general of the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry, said in Coimbatore that the aim of the “campaign” was to block exports from countries like India and China.