Two boys who were ‘sold off’ as bonded labourers to a cattle owner by their mother in Kalpar Village near Erwadi escaped from his clutches recently. A Good Samaritan helped the duo petition the administration for relief.
The mother of the boys, Eluvakkal, reportedly found it difficult to make ends meet after the death of her husband a few years ago. She allegedly handed over her two sons, Kumar (12) and Muniswaran (9) to the cattle owner at Sevvur and accepted money in return. She then married another person at Kalpar near Erwadi.
The boys were made to rear cattle and do domestic chores, they said. Kumar said the cattle owner treated them as slaves and did not provide them sufficient food. They were fed porridge everyday and Kumar literally lived with 200 goats while his brother was engaged in household chores, he said.
Kumar said their mother would rarely visit them except for the times when she came to collect money from the cattle owner. She did not even give them pocket money. In an opportune moment, the boys escaped from the house at Sevvur and approached Veerammal, a businesswoman from Sithenthal in Erode, when she was waiting for a bus and asked for money to buy food. She, instead, took them along with her to Erode.
Hearing about the incident, the cattle owner reportedly contacted her over the phone and asked her to hand the boys over to him. After the phone call, she sent her son Saravanan along with the boys to submit a petition at the Collectorate. There, they met District Revenue Officer Jayaraman.
Kumar said that his mother failed to meet them for a long time and that he was informed that his mother had married once again and was living in Erwadi. They wanted to live away from their mother’s sight.
Further action would be decided by the district administration, the DRO said.