Little did 17-year-old V Subramani realise that by accepting an advance of Rs 3,000 from a sugarcane plantation owner of Pudukkottai, he had unwittingly sold himself to a life of slavery for the next eight years.
Three generations of the family of Subramani, a native of a small hamlet in Villupuram district belonging to the tribal Irula community, had eked out their living from the outskirts of Pallinelinur village. They had been barred from settling inside the village because of “lack of space”. Illiterate and with three younger sisters to support, Subramani worked as an agricultural labourer at nearby Eripakkam to supplement the family’s income.
So, when M Pandurangan, owner of 42 acres of sugarcane plantation in Pudukkottai, approached him and offered `900 for every tonne of sugarcane crop cut, he took it up eagerly, clueless of the ordeal that awaited him.
“We started around 6 am and worked till 11 am, with a 15-minute break for lunch,” he told Express. “It was verbal abuse or assault for the slightest delay,” he said.
Along with 200 others, Subramani worked till 6 pm. Ask him about his daily wages, he does not know what they were. The horror continued when Subramani got married and his wife Anitha, like other women, was forced to deliver her two children aided only by a mid-wife.
After eight years of bondage, hope finally dawned when Subramani received a call from a National Adivasi Solidarity Council member in April. They were finally rescued on May 29 by the RDO and three NGOs.
