Brick-making brings dignity to rescued workers

Siragugal livelihood group has helped 40 of its members work on their own terms in a brick kiln

Kala Ramesh is 40 and is now her own master. A freed bonded labourer of Tiruvallur district, she is the mother of four children. Thanks to the initiative of the district administration and an NGO, she is one of the 40 members who own a brick kiln. Named Siragugal, meaning wings, the members of this common livelihood group make bricks on two acres of land from the seed money provided by the government.

“We stopped taking loans after we were freed from the clutches of bonded labour and have been surviving as daily wage labourers. Now, the District Collector and other government officials have made us owners of brick making unit. I now have the freedom to fix my own work time. Nobody questions me when I go home to make breakfast and send the children to school,” she said. A couple of days ago, Collector Alby John Varghese, along with District Rural Development Agency Project Director V. Jayakumar, visited Veeravanallur near Tiruttani, where the unit has been established. “We celebrated the occasion beating our traditional drum, the Dholu. In the month of Aadi, we will thank Kanniamma, our ‘kula deivam’, with pongal in this unit and thank the gods for sending such nice officials to our help. I have no words to thank them,” said Ms. Kala, who belongs to Irula community.

Mr. Varghese said that so far, all the rehabilitation efforts for bonded labourers, who were released, have been in trades with which they were not familiar with. “Since they are skilled in brick making, we thought it would be easier for them to continue to make them. We will be buying their bricks for constructing houses under the PM Awaz Yojana. The district Mahalir Thittam will provide them with marketing support. Another 60 families, who are involved in cutting trees, have been given cutters and they will sell the seema karuvelam to the kiln. If they have wood in excess, it would be made into charcoal,” he said.

Mr. Jayakumar said that they would earn ₹900 per 1,000 bricks that they make and it would take them a day to make them. “Although it is a back-breaking work and is labour intensive, they are happy since they are used to it. Only, they are their own bosses now. The government has provided them the land, two loads of clay, permission to dig more clay, a borewell. A shed is under construction,” he said.