CHENNAI: Imagine, having an ineffable pain breaking your confidence every day for seven long years. Finally, one day you are rescued and you start to dream again...“I will do whatever it takes to educate my six-year-old daughter. She will never be exploited like me,” says Bavani, one among the 13 bonded labourers, rescued from a rabbit and poultry farm.
Most days, they will work for 17 hours toiling hard to make ends meet, and still make a meagre amount less than Rs 100 per day per family. Hands that should hold a book were busy handling rabbits- the kids too toiled hard. The revenue department of Tiruvallur rescued 13 persons, including six children, from bonded labour at a rabbit and poultry in the district, during the third week of December. Most of them have no identity proof or bank accounts, let alone know how to count years or money.
For the first time in seven years, the rescue has given them a chance at identity within the system. Applications are en route for getting Aadhar, ration card, Schedule Tribe (ST) community certificates and a bank account. For the last many years, work has been an arduous but choiceless task for Bavani and her husband. “We were in dire need of money. We received an advance of a few thousand rupees and joined the rabbit farm. We were promised Rs 3,000 a month,” she says. The couple used to get Rs 100 per day. Their day would start at 3 am with making the rabbits breed.
This would be followed by cutting grass, feeding chickens and rabbits, cleaning barns, filling water pits and other odd tasks that went on till 8 pm. Yet, when the month came to an end, they barely received over Rs 1,000 as some amount of money was often deducted for rations provided by the landlord or small advances they took throughout the month. Bavani has eight children, six of whom are girls. “My children are growing up with my mother-in-law and other relatives. Even if they simply visit us, the farm owner would ask us to send them back, blaming them for things that go missing,” she says, adding that the owner would not grant leave even when her children were not in good health.
“We were not even allowed to go when one of our relatives died. When we ask for something he doesn’t like, he would use foul language,” she rues. A revenue official from Tiiruttani, who headed the rescue operation, said that 13 persons from five households were rescued. “None of the children rescued ever went to school. In fact they were cutting grass for rabbits. The children are between 2 and 10 years of age,” says the official. The official adds that one of the rescued households had a widow with three children earning Rs 3,000 a month.
There were only about a dozen staff handling thousands of chickens and rabbits. Kandasamy Krishnan, Secretary General of National Adivasi Solidarity Council (NASC), says, “This was a clear case of bonded labour. There was a single 20-year-old man, a couple who stayed without children, another couple with children and the single mother. All of them were very weak and were paid the same.” This rescue has given them a new chance at a better life. “Along with the help of revenue officials, we have applied for their identity proofs and bank accounts. Once they receive their documents from authorities concerned, they will have a fresh start,” Kandasamy concludes.