HYDERABAD: When 13-year-old Kuppammal got married decades ago to her 15-year-old relative, she did not realise she would be trapped in bonded labour for 10 years trying to repay a loan of Rs 100 that her grandfather-in-law had borrowed from a wealthy man.
Now past 40, she recollects how as a young couple from the Irula tribe, they, as well as her in-laws, were forced to work at a rice mill in Tamil Nadu under tough circumstances.
“It was almost a 24x7 job. While the men carried the load and shifted rice bags to and from the godown, we (women) used to pick and clean the paddy, parboil it and sort it,” Kuppamal told TNIE at the National Technical Consultation in Human Trafficking held in Hyderabad on Thursday.
“There was hardly any time to cook and eat,” Kuppamal added. “You know, we used to start making porridge at around 8 pm and by 10 pm, we would have finished eating, cleaning and would continue with our work. The porridge we made for dinner would be the breakfast for the next day,” she recounted.
During her 10 years at the rice mill, Kuppammal lost one of her babies. She then had to make her two young daughters also work at the mill. “My eldest daughter turned seven and we were still in the mill and she was not allowed to go out for education. That is when we decided that we had to move out and the International Justice Mission helped in rescuing us,” she said.
Almost two decades after her rescue, Kuppammal who is now part of the Released Bonded Labour Association (RBLA) in Tiruvallur, works with other survivors of human trafficking in an attempt to rebuild their lives.
RBLA, which is an association of almost 10,000 survivors across five districts in Tamil Nadu, has closely worked with the government trying to generate work opportunities for their community.
“The government has now built two brick kilns for the community to work and earn. There is also a block printing initiative, of which I am a part,” Kuppammal shared.