Some of the rescused labourers at Tamil Nadu's Tiruvallur distict.
Authorities in Tamil Nadu have rescued 333 bonded labourers from a brick kiln in the Tiruvallur district. What is extremely shocking is that 75 of those rescued are children.
Authorities say the workers, all migrant labourers from Odisha, were paid just Rs. 200 per week for every ten thousand bricks they make. An agent had brought them to Tiruvallur in December after paying them an advance of about Rs 14-16,000. They had been told that they would have to work for six months.
They were reportedly housed in thatched sheds with no toilets. Some children were also made to work.
The Tiruvallur District administration is issuing release certificates for all 258 adults, along with a relief Rs. 20,000. Of this, they have been paid Rs. 1,000 as interim relief, and will receive the remaining amount once they reach their respective hometowns.
"The brick kiln, GDM Chambers, had not renewed its licence and hence it was functioning illegally. We would arrest the owner, Munusami. We are on the lookout for him," said Tiruvallur Deputy Collector Rahul Nath. "The workers also allege they were often beaten up," he added.
Authorities are now planning a crackdown on about hundred brick kilns across the district.
A chronic shortage of manual labour in Tamil Nadu, thanks to host of factors like migration and relatively higher levels of educational attainment, has led to an influx of a large number of labourers from poorer regions of the country. Activists say the Tamil Nadu government needs to look at the issue from the paradigm of human trafficking.
"The labour shortage has led to trafficking of workers from the north and northeastern states. Middlemen lure them, promising a lot, but nothing is being done, and they get trapped," says Mathew Joji of the International Justice Mission, which assists authorities in the rescue and rehabilitation of bonded labourers.