The mother of the 10-year-old child labourer rescued from his employers on Thursday is in Patna but it will be some time before she can comfort him.

Earlier, the child's employer came in the way and now it is government rules that stop the little soul from finding solace in his mother's lap.

The boy is now in Apna Ghar, a government-run facility where rescued destitute children are kept. He would have to undergo various counselling sessions, which would take at least four days, before he can spend quality time with his mother Sita Devi. For now, he can spend just a few minutes in his mother's company, under the watchful eyes of Apna Ghar officials.

"The kid has faced trauma and hence special counselling sessions, which would help him open up and forget his past agony, are a must. It is done separately and the boy would be kept in the company of other children, during this period, before he can be handed over to his mother," an official at Apna Ghar told The Telegraph on condition of anonymity.

He said similar counselling sessions would be organised for the mother, separately, to advise her against making her son do child labour again.

Experts backed the idea of counselling the child but said they had reservations about organising separate sessions for the mother and the child by keeping them apart.

"The mother and the child should be counselled together. Only then would the child be able to come out of mental trauma. The child needs his parent's support through all this," said Pramod Kumar Singh, head of department of psychiatry at Patna Medical College and Hospital.

He, however, justified the idea of holding counselling sessions for the child, claiming it would help the boy overcome the mental trauma he has been undergoing.

While the mother and the child come to terms with harsh realities, Patna police have failed to nab city builder Anil Rai, against whom an FIR was lodged after the recovered child narrated his ordeal on Thursday.

"We have no clues yet on the builder. Police are on the job," Sachivalaya additional superintendent of police (ASP) Shibli Nomani said. Shastri Nagar police, with whom the FIR has been lodged, comes under the jurisdiction of Sachivalaya ASP.

The police have only managed to trace the child's mother so far. His father works as a labourer in Punjab while his mother and siblings reside in Dhaka, a sub-divisional town in East Champaran, around 190km north of Patna.

The boy's case exposes the labour department's failure to put effective checks on the menace of child labour.

One can see several young boys working at different places while moving on city roads and residential colonies.

All this is happening even though labour department assistant commissioner Govind claims a task force is in place and keeps conducting raids to free children engaged in different works.

Even Puran, the man who rescued the child, thinks the city is indifferent to child labour. "I was shocked to see people telling all kinds of things to this child who had run away from the clutches of his employer. But nobody came forward to help him. Only then I took him with me," he said. Puran is an aide of JDU state unit president Bashishtha Narayan Singh. He rescued the boy from Bailey Road near Shastri Nagar turning around 7.30am.

When Bashishtha heard about the child, he called up Bihar Child Rights Protection Commission and handed over the child to its member, Aparna Singh.