CHENNAI: The ordeal of bonded labourers does not end with the government rescuing them. These victims are subjected to discrimination, from government offices to schools. They find it difficult to overcome hurdles and merge with the mainstream due to various reasons, and it all perhaps starts with the struggle to get the Rs 20,000 grant to start their lives afresh.
Sharing his experience, P Shanmugam says that after being rescued from abuse and overwork for over five years, he and his family now run a business making bamboo products in Tiruvallur. Life inside the brick kiln was an ordeal and he got a weekly salary of Rs 200. “After being rescued by the government staff, I was happy, but even after that, I feared as to how to run my family. Our relatives had stopped talking to us and we had nowhere to go and stay. Thousands of questions were running through my mind as I walked out of those gates. I was worried about running my family. I was scared even to pass through my owner’s house. It took many months for me to reconcile with my relatives and build back my confidence. I met officials to obtain all the valid documents,” he recalled.
“When I first approached officials, they would ask me to sit on the floor or look at my family differently. Despite being rescued, there were many nights when me and my wife went to bed hungry as we could only feed our children with the resources we had. Not knowing how to approach officials, I was not aware of what I was entitled to. However, with help from neighbours and some activists, I overcame that and today, I make a decent living. Following a petition to the Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare Department, I got Rs 6.4 lakh to set up my business,” he says.
Rescued bonded labourers Arul and his wife Pachaiyamma struggled to control their emotions as they recounted a similar tale of despair and helplessness. Rescued in 2012 from a stone quarry in Kancheepuram, Pachaiyamma says, “Though we were happy to walk out from the quarry, we had no place to go. We had to go to a relative’s house where five families were staying. During rains, we would stay up all night sitting as there would not be a place to sleep. After doing several odd jobs, we finally moved out. Even then, we would have nightmares. While we were figuring out how to make a living, we were clueless on how to approach officials to get basic things like family cards and voter IDs. We waited for a month before overcoming our fear of approaching them,” says Arul.
Similarly, S Raman, who was trapped inside the 14-feet compound wall of a rice mill at Kadambathur in Tiruvallur district for 35 years, said, “We had worked in the same rice mill for three generations. After living in fear and bondage for over 35 years in a place where even getting a meal was difficult, I decided to seek help. Once, I got the permission to go out for a temple festival and from a friend, I got a phone number. I made a call, pinning all my hope on the government. My efforts didn’t go in vain and a day later, a team of officials raided the place and rescued my family, along with 35 other families.”
Just like other rescued labourers, Raman feared standing on his own legs and starting his life afresh. “I faced discrimination everywhere and while that used to make me feel depressed, the thoughts of my children and family gave me strength,” he smiled. Raman, free for more than 14 years, is now part of the Tiruvallur district vigilance committee that helps and identifies such victims.
A few rescued victims have managed to overcome the trauma and their ‘captive mentality’, but many are still struggling and reluctant to seek help. Activists who work with rescued workers say that such victims require psychological help. Though they are free from slavery, they struggle to break mental shackles, burden of debt and fear of coping up with the outside world. This is where the absence of a rehabilitation programme by the government is felt.
In a bid to bridge the gap between the government and these victims, International Justice Mission (IJM), a NGO, along with the social welfare department of Madras Christian College, conducted a training program recently which around 30 rescued labourers from five districts attended.
A member of the team of students that identified such victims and helped in their rehabilitation said their children are also affected. “For instance, they are looked upon differently due to their clothes or their appearance. Children even refuse to go to school, and one child said he did not have friends because he does not bathe regularly. We had to raise awareness among parents about how to send children to school and how to carry themselves in society,” said Tamil, a post graduate student of Madras Christian College.
“The first official survey on bonded labour was commissioned in 1995 and at that time, the state had around 10 lakh labourers.
But after 1997, no surveys were conducted,” says Kandasamy Krishnan, secretary-general of National Adivasi Solidarity Council (NASC). As the rescue, relief and rehabilitation of these labourers involve multiple departments, the new state action plan calls for setting up a monitoring committee comprising senior officials from various departments and a district-level vigilance committee chaired by the district magistrate. Now, in the vigilance committee, rescued labourers are included to identify and help motivate the victims.
Though India banned bonded labour in 1976, the shameful practice continues in fields, rice mills and brick kilns around India. Activists point out that the days that follow their rescue is very crucial. “After they are rescued, they are entitled to receive `20,000 initially, but this amount is transferred to their bank accounts. And for people who usually don’t even have a family card or Aadhaar Card, opening a bank account is a tedious job and could take more than a month,” said a staff member of IJM not wishing to be named. “This is also the period when they are under utmost stress.”
Also, according to the rescued labourers, the high-level monitoring committee has not been functional in the last four years. They also want a good rehabilitation scheme and effective implementation of the Central Sector Scheme (CSS) that was launched in 2016. Under the CSS, `1 lakh should be given to rescued labourers but it has not been sanctioned to anyone since 2016. They also felt that a toll free number should be set up for victims to contact.
“Though they are rescued, they remain in trauma for a long time. They have a fear of the unknown. They wonder if we, the outside world, can be trusted. We have to work with them closely and assure them that they will be able to survive on their own,” said the IJM staff member.
What the law says
According to the definition given in section 2(g) of the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, bonded labour means service arising out of loan/debt/advance. It represents the relationship between a creditor and a debtor wherein the debtor undertakes to mortgage his services or the services of his family to the creditor for a specified or unspecified period with or without wages accompanied by denial of choice of alternative avenues of employment
Nowhere to go
Arul and his wife Pachaiyamma were rescued in 2012 from a stone quarry in Kancheepuram. Pachaiyamma told Express that after being rescued, they had no place to go. They stayed in the house of a relative, where five more families lived. After doing several odd jobs, they moved out, but the nightmares continued