India ? On Thursday, a local nongovernmental organization freed 50 child laborers who worked more than 15 hours a day without being paid or allowed to visit their parents.

The children – all boys aged between 8 and 14 whose parents are poor farm laborers in the eastern Indian state of Bihar – had been brought to New Delhi to work in small factories making elaborately embroidered fabric called “zari.”

The embroidery requires working with very fine needles on which the children often hurt themselves.

“We freed these 50 children after some frantic parents came to us saying that they were unable to get in touch with their children,” said Kailash Satyarthi of the Bachpan Bachao Andolan, or Save the Children Mission. The children were held captive in the factory and not allowed to visit their parents.

On Thursday, some of the children described to reporters how they often were slapped and beaten with leather belts.

“For two years, these children have worked for free. … This is a sort of slavery,” Satyarthi said. “There are a million such places where the child labor laws are laughed at.”