BENGALURU: On a sunny afternoon, Poornima and her husband, after wrapping up their daily wage work, recalled their hard-hitting ordeal of being trapped with bonded labour for over four-and-a-half years, for a mere loan of Rs 20,000.
Married at 16, Poornima, hailing from the Ramanagara district, did not know what the future had in store for her. A month after her marriage, Poornima found herself working hard hours daily from 5.30 am to 7 pm at a brick kiln to repay the loan her husband Marappa had taken for the ceremony.
For over four years, Poornima and her husband with nine other men and five women lived in sheds next to the kiln and even while they both cut bricks throughout the day, they barely saw each other as the owner ensured both were separated.
Since their rescue in 2014, now 27-year-old Poornima made a turnabout in her life, an independent and self-reliant entrepreneur, helping other released bonded labourers (RBLs) through the Udayonmukha Trust led by the labourers to find their voice by selling handicrafts. According to data, Karnataka since May 2016 has rescued 2,562 such people.
“My husband was told by the owner that if you want to pay off the debt, bring your wife to the facility. Over time, he started to ill-treat us, be verbally abusive, and make us work extra hours, without any pay. The promised daily wages–Rs 300 for cutting 1,000 bricks were also not given.
There were no toilets and we had to defecate in an open field,” Poornima said. “During our periods, the owner was harsher on us, complaining that bricks were not properly shaped. Forget access to sanitary pads we were not allowed to change our blood-soaked clothes, until the evening till our shifts ended,” she said.
Through all these hardships Poornima conceived and gave birth to two sons, during their rescue one was six months old and the other one-and-a-half years old. She added that her sister-in-law had a miscarriage due to the extreme conditions and was not allowed to seek medical help to remove the dead foetus for a week.
After a tip-off in 2014 and a detailed investigation, the survivors were given Release Certificates (RCs) and offered rehabilitation and upskilling programmes by the government under the livelihood mission. Poornima learnt tailoring and with other members sells laptop and jewellery covers, tote bags, cushion covers and other items. She hopes that the government can help the group get an office in the city that could increase their sales compared to the one on rent in the village. “I want to scale up the business and be able to help other RBLs,” she added.
The couple wishes that their two sons grow up to become government employees so that they don’t have to do “coolie work”, said Marappa and prove that it is possible to reach great heights with persistence and perseverance.