Rescued bonded labourers sitting huddled in a one-room shelter at 7, Jantar Mantar, said that had the Centre or the State government given them work in their village they would have never left ‘home’ to work as daily-wage labourers.
Twenty-six people consisting of 14 women and 12 men, who were taken as bonded labourers from Chhattisgarh to work in a brick kiln in Aurangabad, Bihar, were rescued two organisations - National Campaign Committee for Eradication of Bonded Labour and Bandhua Mukti Morcha - last week. “All of us belong to the Schedule Caste and we are landless agricultural labourers, who were forced to leave our village in search of a job. The various schemes that the government has brought in for our welfare never reach us. They are taken away by those who have knowledge,’’ said Rohit Kure, one of the labourers.
“If the government can provide us some work in Chhattisgarh which would ensure that we have two meals a day we will never leave home. Poverty and our helplessness to change the state of affairs is making us vulnerable to exploitation,’’ he said.
He and his sister were taken to the kiln with the promise that they would be given Rs. 545 per 1,000 bricks.
“Things were fine in the initial weeks but then the owner withheld our money and refused to let us go back home. He told us that we were sold to him by the person who had arranged our jobs at the kiln. There were no schools or hospital available at the kiln. Towards the end, we were made to work without wages,’’ said Ranjit Kure, another rescued labourer.
“What hurt us most was the fact that despite working so hard very often we had to go hungry,” said Sarita. National Campaign Committee for Eradication of Bonded Labour’s social activist Nirmal Gorana said that they had already written to the Aurangabad Collector about the situation and would now work towards ensuring that these people get compensation.
