Rescued bonded labourers recall their woes

Bonded labor persists in India despite being abolished, with victims sharing harrowing tales of exploitation and rescue efforts.

Five decades after bonded labour was abolished in India, the evil continues to thrive in some districts of Andhra Pradesh as well as in some other States in India.

For small amounts taken as loans from unscrupulous employers, entire families end up working all their life to repay the debt.

Three persons, including two women, who were released from the clutches of their employers on the intervention of government and non-governmental agencies, poured out their tales of woe at an interaction, arranged by Jeevan Jwala, which has rescued bonded labour as its members, in Visakhapatnam on Wednesday.

T. Ajit (24) of Ayanambakam ST Colony in Chittoor district, K. Thenmoyi (31) of Puttur mandal in Chittoor district and Jyothi (39) of Chennampalli in Anantapur district had to suffer indignities and inhuman treatment at the hands of their employers as their family members had borrowed money for their needs and agreed to work for them without wages, and with only food to eat and shacks to stay.

“When I was barely eight years old, my parents had borrowed money from a person, who owned a stone crusher, at Kummarapalli in Kadiri. When my parents failed to repay the loan, the crusher owner employed my parents, two brothers, me and my sister to work at his unit. When I turned 12, he sold me to a brothel in Delhi. After three years of torture in Delhi, a customer helped me escape and sent me to a hostel in Hyderabad and subsequently the representative of an NGO helped me reunite with my family,” she recalled, welling up.

Ajit had to carry rice bags on his back all through the night, when he was barely seven years old. His sister, who had borrowed ₹20,000, had died while at work in the same rice mill and her seven-year-old son was killed in an alleged road accident just outside the rice mill, located on the outskirts of Renigunta.

R. Suneel Kumar, executive secretary of Social Activities for Rural Development Society (SARDS), Tangutur in Prakasam district, said that a Vigilance Committee was formed with District Collector Tamim Ansari as Nodal Officer, to prevent employers from exploiting gullible borrowers. He called for greater coordination among the stakeholder departments for the rescue of bonded labourers and providing them alternative employment.