60-year-old bonded labourer from Andhra Pradesh rescued from goat farm in Sivaganga

60-year-old man rescued from bonded labour in goat farm after 20 years, now in government home with compensation.

A 60-year-old man, who was languishing as a bonded labourer in a goat farm for 20 years, was rescued by a District Task Force team in Sivaganga district on January 31.  

Appa Rao, a native of Andhra Pradesh, was discovered by the team while conducting a monthly awareness campaign in the district.  

I. Muthu, Assistant Commissioner, Labour Welfare Department, said the team comprising members from Labour Welfare, Social Welfare and Police departments, among others, inspected brick kilns, rice mills, poultry farms and goat farms in the district as part of Bonded Labour Abolition Day on February 9. 

Based on information, the team inspected a goat farm at Kadambankulam in Kalaiyarkoil taluk in the district.  During the search, they found an elderly man who spoke broken Tamil and identified himself as Appa Rao.

Twenty years ago, while travelling to Puducherry on a train he got off at a station to drink tea. “But the train left before he could climb aboard. After that, being broke, he wandered to different places on foot or by hitchhiking,” Ms. Muthu said.  

As Mr. Appa Rao was not fluent in Tamil and appeared to be suffering from memory lapses, he could not recall how he ended up in the goat farm. “As he was denied money by the goat farm owner to return to his village in Andhra Pradesh, he ended up staying on the same farm for 20 years,” she added.  

Annadurai, owner of the goat farm, was booked under section 143 (Trafficking of Person) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976, by Kalaiyarkoil police.