For four men trapped for more than a year in an illegal stone-cutting mine in the rugged, hilly terrain of Anantapur district, Don did not break his promise but bore the burden of difficult and long working conditions along with minimal safety protection. Throughout the day, braving extreme weather, Santhala Anji, his 18-year-old son and two others had to cut 100 stones with only an iron hammer and a chisel.
This was the plight of bonded laborers who were rescued from an illegal stone cutting unit near Chennampalle village last month.
The community is engaged in stone cutting
Hailing from the Vadde community, the BC community is mainly engaged in stone cutting. Five years ago, Anji had taken a loan of ₹1 lakh from her employer Vadde Narayana Swamy to get treatment for a lung infection. This is where Anji’s life took a turn. Not just Anji, other members of the small settlement outside Chennampalle village had different reasons for taking a loan from Narayana, but they all met the same fate. “They (the loan shark’s henchmen) reached the village at 6 am on Monday. Even if we were not well or had some other emergency in the family, we had to accompany them. If we expressed our inability to accompany them on any day, they did not hesitate to beat us up or abuse us,” Anji narrated her ordeal.
The workplace, an illegal stone cutting site near Sunakalamma temple in Chennampalli village, is a vast expanse of hilly terrain. “We had to cut stones into different sizes, and each of us was given a target of cutting at least 100 stones. The work was hard because we used traditional methods. We broke the rocks’holiday (iron hammer)’ and one’uli (A small chisel)’. We were not given any machines or safety equipment. We didn’t even wear masks, even though the work involved the risk of dust pollution,” he explains. The Hindu.
Anji and the other three were not allowed to return home after their work. Another victim, 40-year-old Vadde Kumaru, says, “They provided a small temporary hut at one of the highest points in the area. Be it rain or intense heat, we had no other option but to stay in the hut during the night.”
Kumaru had taken a loan of ₹50,000 from his employer five years ago. He says his employer told him ‘Rashan Bayyam‘(PDS rice) and vegetables which was enough for a week. At night he was given a quarter bottle of liquor.
He says, “We used to wake up early in the morning and cook our own food. By 6 in the morning we had to start cutting stones and this continued until we completed the work of cutting 100 stones.” He was allowed a lunch break, but to fetch a glass of water, he had to walk two kilometers to reach the motor. “In the scorching heat, when the motor (bore) ran dry, we had to depend on small holes and pockets in the hills for water, where water accumulated,” he says.
He got leave on Sunday. “They dropped us near a stream at an agraharam, five kilometers from our village, and we walked from there to our home,” says V. Shiva Kumar, 18, Anji’s son. He was forced to work to repay a loan of ₹1 lakh taken by his father. He is the eldest of five siblings and, like many other children in the village, is uneducated.
rescue operation
The matter came to light after Anantapur-based NGO Rural and Environment Development Society (REDS) submitted a representation to the district administration. Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO), Anantapur, M. Ram Mohan called a meeting of all stakeholder departments the next day. Labor Deputy Commissioner of Anantapur G. The Labor Department, led by Lakshmi Narsaiah, tasked a team of officials to monitor and supervise the rescue operations as per the provisions of the Bonded Labor System (Abolition) Act, 1976. On June 4, officials from various government departments including labour, factories, revenue, social welfare and police along with representatives of REDS and International Justice Mission (IJM) conducted a rescue operation and freed the workers from bondage.
District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) Secretary N. Rajasekhar personally participated in the operation, walking about two kilometers to the spot where the laborers were working and from where they were rescued.
What followed was a cumbersome official process to “officially free” them from bondage and grant them rehabilitation.
“This case had all the aspects of bonded labour. Although they were not chained, there were restrictions on their movements. They are in debt bondage. They were kept in difficult working conditions without basic safety gear and proper diet,” says Narsaiah.
“According to the Act, bonded debt means an advance received, or deemed to have been received, by a bonded labourer. The Act further states that bonded labor system means a system of forced or partly forced labor whereby a debtor (the person who borrows money) enters into, or is deemed to have agreed to, a contract with the creditor,” explains Narsaiah.
illegal entity
“In our investigation we found that the stone cutting unit did not have any permission, lease or license,” says Narsaiah. After recording the victims’ statements and following due process, the four were issued “liberation certificates” from bondage, freeing them from the debt bondage and also making them eligible for immediate financial assistance of ₹30,000 each.
“Once the release certificate is issued to the victim, as per the Act, he is not liable to repay the bonded debt,” says Swamy, adding, “In this case, the laborers are released from making any payments to the employer.
The Deputy Labor Commissioner also says that the released workers will also be given compensation under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948. An application for differential wages under the Act has also been filed, and the amount has been calculated to be ₹5,43,216 for the four workers collectively.
“Since the order is given by a quasi-judicial body, he is entitled to be paid or can only fight in the High Court. Inability to comply will attract the Revenue Recovery Act, under which the employer’s assets can be auctioned to make payments to the victims,” he says.
The Labor Department had also felt the need to extend various welfare and other schemes to the victims. However, one of them, Manjula Munappa, 45, did not have an Aadhaar card. “We have started the process of getting an Aadhaar card for Munappa,” says Narsaiah.
Meanwhile, Collector O. Anand asked the BC and social welfare departments to examine the eligibility of the four laborers for BC welfare schemes and extend it on priority basis. The Central Sector Scheme for Rehabilitation of Bonded Laborers mandates convergence of all welfare schemes available to the community for long-term rehabilitation of released bonded labourers.
The bonded laborers who were working at an illegal stone cutting unit in Chennampally on June 4 were killed when officials went there to rescue them. Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Job card for victims
Similarly, DWMA Project Director was asked to issue job cards to the victims to facilitate them in getting employment under VB-G RAMG. The Medical and Health Department was also asked to organize medical camps for the workers and assess their health. While job cards were issued to the three bonded laborers who were released with Aadhaar cards, the other victim is yet to receive a job card. Recently a medical camp was organized in the village for laborers.
Narsaiah says, “As we focus on the economic and social rehabilitation of released bonded labourers, we are focused on providing immediate and permanent livelihood support, supplementing the household income of the released families, preventing recurrence of indebtedness and economic distress, eliminating the possibilities of families re-entering bondage or debt trap and ensuring financial stability through assured wage employment, while also facilitating their social and economic rehabilitation with dignity. Have been.”
When asked why the government machinery fails to identify such cases, leaving it to NGOs to help victims, a government official said that apart from shortage of staff, inspection in some categories of industries has been abolished due to ease of doing business norms.
“In the unorganized sector, as is the case in the present case, victims do not come forward openly despite having a village secretariat. NGOs have a close relationship with the rural people and interact with them regularly,” says the official.
REDS founder C. Bhanuja said that bonded labor continues to be prevalent in the district, and especially in the erstwhile Anantapur district. “Stakeholders involved in implementing the Act should be made aware of the legal provisions available for the abolition of bonded labor system,” she says, adding that many people do not come forward to complain or seek solutions from the government for fear of opposition from their employers. A representative of another organization working on the issue with the government, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the formation of vigilance monitoring committees would help address the problem. “The committee headed by the concerned district collector will meet once in three months and can conduct inspections,” he says.
412 bonded laborers were freed in 3 years
According to official figures, 412 people have been freed from bonded labor in the last three years. Only four of them have received initial financial assistance of ₹30,000. Officials are working with the victims to obtain their Aadhaar cards and bank accounts so that the funds can be deposited.
Meanwhile, even as the district administration is making efforts to provide rehabilitation, the AP Labor Welfare Board has released ₹10 lakh to each of the 26 districts for a corpus fund under the Central Sector Scheme for Rehabilitation of Bonded Labourers, 2021. Through this fund, the released bonded laborers will be given financial assistance of ₹30,000 each.
