The Tiruvarur District Child Welfare officials rescued two children from the misery of grazing cows in bonded labour conditions near here.
A 15-year-old boy, son of Mathiazhagan and Mathiponnu of Malaiyur in Pudukkottai district, was handed over to Moorthy of Ramanathapuram district for grazing cows, sheep and goat.
The boy was with Moorthy for five years now and when rescued by the officials he had reportedly told them that he had studied up to Standard V and that Moorthy had given money to his parents but he did not know how much Moorthy had given his parents for sending him to work with his master.
Interestingly, he revealed that his master would give away a goat every year to his parents as complement.
The officials also secured the release of a 17-year-old boy of Budalur in Thanjavur district from the clutches of Samikannu of Ramanathapuram who had “bought him off” from parents Natarajan and Rajam for Rs.70,000 and claimed that he had been with Samikannu for the past seven months.
The two children deployed as boned labourers were rescued by a team led by the Tiruvarur District Child Welfare Officer Abhirami and Mannargudi All Woman Police Station Inspector Meenakshi and handed them over to Mannargudi RDO Selvasurabhi. The RDO disbursed Rs. 1,000 each to the two boys as bonded labour redemption relief and directed that steps be taken to reunite the children with their parents.
