13 Rescued From Bonded Labour

July 18th, 2010
Deccan Chronicle Correspondent

July 17: The police has arrested a rice mill owner who made 13 members of three families bonded labourers for a harrowing seven years for not being able to repay a loan of Rs 3,000.

All the bonded labourers, including five women and three children, were rescued by district officials and given a sum of Rs 20,000 each for their rehabilitation.

The bizarre incident came to light about a week ago, when the Mathuranthagam revenue divisional officer (RDO) S. Annadurai received a complaint from Kutty, 28, a member of the Irula community, who claimed that the owners of Om Sakthi Rice Mill in Chittamoor village, Mathuranthagam, had detained three families, including his, as indented workers.

“He claimed that they were fed only one meal a day and had to work for over 14 hours daily,” said a revenue official. “He alleged that their children were not allowed to go to school and forced to work in the mill.”

On the directions of district collector Santosh K. Misra, a team of officials including the local tahsildar and RDO raided the mill on Saturday and rescued all 13 workers.

“Enquiries revealed that the three families were forced into bonded labour for borrowing just Rs 3,000 from mill owner Kandaswamy Chettiar,” said the official. “Even after serving for seven years, the mill owner claimed that they had not repaid the amount.”

The tashildar immediately filed a complaint with the Kanchipuram police who arrested Muthukumar, 25, son of Chettiar, who managed the mill affairs, and remanded him to custody.

Meanwhile, the victims were taken to the government hospital for a physical check up after which they were handed over the cash and sent back to their native village of Acharapakkam by the authorities.