Six bonded labourers from MP rescued in Theni

MADURAI: The revenue officials of Theni district , based on a tip from the Madhya Pradesh police, conducted an intensive search and rescued six bonded labourers including four of them in their late teens on Thursday evening. “We got information that four people were employed as bonded labourers, but managed to rescue two more people,” Uthamapalayam sub collector, R Vaidhyanathan, who led the rescue told TOI on Friday.

The communication was given by K Karthikeyan, the superintendent of police (SP) of Betul district in Madhya Pradesh. Since they worked in a bore well unit, they did not have any permanent place to stay and they kept moving from place to place for work. After searching for a few hours, the sub collector said that they stumbled upon a bore well unit in that locality.

“We were filling fuel in our vehicle when we saw the boys and men near the unit nearby and asked if they were from Betul. During inquiry we came to know that they are from the Gond Tribe and have been working for the borewell unit for the last eight months,” the sub collector said and added that four of them were aged around 18 and 19 years and the others were in their 30s and 40s.

Inquiry conducted by revenue, labour and police department officials revealed that these labourers were initially hired to drill bore wells in Madhya Pradesh and were brought here. “The labourer claimed that they were given only one meal a day (at 11 am or 6 pm) and they did not have a proper stay, were highly underpaid and worked for extended hours and were also verbally abused when they wanted to leave the place of work,” Vaidhyanathan said.

It is learnt that two more people from Betul worked in the bore well unit till a couple of months ago. While the rescued labourers claimed that the duo managed to escape, their employer had claimed that those two men went on leave after informing him. The owner also could not produce proper records to substantiate his claim that he paid them well.

Based on a complaint lodged by the sub collector the Cumbum North Police, the owner of the unit was booked under The Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976. Officials said that they are trying to get the employer booked under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act as the victims belong to the tribal community.

Officials said that the complaint and statement of the victims that was recorded in Tamil has to be translated to Hindi and should be read to them before obtaining their signature on it. Efforts were underway to get them compensation under the bonded labour Act. They are likely to be sent back to Betul by train from Madurai or Dindigul in a couple of days.