17 'bonded labourers' sent home in Tirupur

Coimbatore: Tirupur district administration officials and police on Monday sent 17 members of a family from a brick kiln unit at Tirumalapalayam in Dharapuram to their homes after they claimed that they were forced to work as bonded labourers.

The incident came to light on Saturday after K Annamalai of Villupuram informed the district administration and police about the plight of the labourers.

He had received a message from a labourer, who is his relative. The message said that last Wednesday, when they were picking unused onion from a nearby field, they were attacked by their employers.

NGOs from Villupuram and Coimbatore reached the Dharapuram tahsildar’s office on Monday, where five labourers were brought for inquiry.

They belong to the irular tribe in Villupuram and had joined work in January. “We were given Rs 100 for cutting 1,000 stones. We were let out only to buy grocery items,” a labourer told TOI.

The workers were given an advance and were treated as bonded labourers, said K Palanisamy, a member of the Villupuram-based NGO Social Awareness Society for Youth (SASY).

But Dharapuram sub-collector Pavankumar Giriyappanavar said there was no prima facie evidence of bonded labour. “There was a clash between two groups of labourers in the kiln. We brought five people for inquiry. They said they wanted to go home with their relatives. So, we arranged a vehicle for the 17 people on Monday evening,” he said.

“We have launched an investigation. If we find conclusive evidence of bonded labour, we would act,” an official added.