Two bonded labourers from Odisha, whose forehands were chopped off by a group of contractors in Kalahandhi district in December 2013, have been admitted to the Christian Medical College Hospital(CMCH) here for treatment, physical and social rehabilitation. They would be soon receiving sophisticated artificial limbs from the hospital free of cost.
Sources said that some illegal labour contractors had hired Nilambar Dhangada Majhi (35) and Dialu Majhi (19) and 10 others from tribal villages of Kalahandhi district in Odisha by paying each of them an advance of `15,000 along with the promise of work in Hyderabad.
Instead, the unsuspecting group was taken to work in a brick kiln in Chhattisgarh. When they realised they had been deceived, the labourers fled but Nilambar and Dialu were caught. The two said the contractors had demanded the return of the entire advance of `2 lakh for their freedom and when they could not comply, their forehands were chopped off.
Some of the NGOs in the region had rescued the two and this incident created a media sensation. Even though the Odisha government had apprehended the contractors and announced a relief assistance of `4 lakh, the two were not able to receive good medical attention.
“When we read about the ghastly incident, we immediately wrote to the Odisha government, offering our help to treat the two free of cost,” said Dr C E Eapen, the medical superintendent of the CMCH here. The response came from the Odisha government a couple of weeks ago and the victims were brought here, thanks to the gesture of the Sub-divisional Magistrate of Dharamgarh in Odisha, who had volunteered to meet their travel expenses.
Help from the CMC students and other NGOs were pouring in to take care of the rehabilitation of the labourers for the next two years.
Alice Auganthi, one of the directors of the International Justice Mission, an NGO, which had helped in the rescue and release order of the victims, said “This is just a tip of the iceberg as the problem of bonded labour was alarming.”
She and her colleague Hepzibah had come to CMC on Saturday to visit the victims as well as to sensitise the students and public to bonded labour.
According to Alice Auganthi, the IJM has so far rescued around 7,000 such labourers in the past 10 years. This is the first incident in which the NGO was able to not only rescue the victims but also provide them medical treatment and rehabilitation.
Quoting many studies done by the Human Rights Watch, she said that the country has around 40 million bonded labourers, of them 15 million were children. Poor women were tricked into such work with lucrative offers of loan. Eighty-six per cent of the rescued labourers belonged to the SC/ST communities, she added.