Burdened by debt, bonded to life of toil

Dawn broke not with promise, but with a burden of arduous and long working conditions, accompanied by minimal safety protections, for four persons trapped by a ₹1-lakh debt at an illegal stone-cutting quarry on rough, hilly terrain in Anantapur district for over a year. Through the day, braving extreme weather, Santhala Anji, his 18-year-old son and two others were put to cut 100 stones with just an iron hammer and a chisel.

This was the plight of the bonded labourers who were rescued last month from an illegal stone-cutting unit near Chennampalle village.

Community engages in stone-cutting works

Hailing from the Vadde community, a BC community primarily engaged in stone-cutting works. Five years ago, Anji took a loan of ₹1 lakh from his employer, Vadde Narayana Swamy, to undergo a lung infection treatment. This is where Anji’s life took a turn. Not just Anji, the other members of the small settlement outside Chennampalle village had different reasons for taking loans from Narayana, but the fate of all of them turned out to be similar. “They [the henchmen of the debtor] arrived in the village at 6 a.m. on Mondays. We had to go with them even if we were not feeling well or there was any other emergency in the family. They did not hesitate to assault us or humiliate us with the choicest of abuses if we expressed our inability to go with them on any day,” Anji recounts his ordeal.

The workplace, an illegal stone-cutting site near the Sunakalamma temple in Chennampalle village, is a vast expanse of hilly terrain. “We had to cut stones into various sizes, and every one of us were given a target to cut a minimum of 100 stones. The work was arduous as we used traditional methods. We broke rocks with ‘sutti (iron hammer)’ and an ‘uli (a small chisel)’. We were not given any machines or safety equipment. We didn’t even wear masks, though the work involved exposure to dust pollution,” he tells The Hindu.

Anji and the other three were not allowed to return home after their work. “They provided a small makeshift thatched hut at one of the highest points of the terrain. Whether it rained or it was a hot summer, we had no other option but to stay in the hut during the nights,” another victim, 40-year-old Vadde Kumaru, says.

Kumaru took a loan of ₹50,000 five years ago from his employer. He adds that their employer provided them with ‘ration biyyam’ (PDS rice) and vegetables that was sufficient for a week. At night, they were given a quarter bottle of liquor.

“We were up early in the morning and cooked our own food. By 6 a.m., we had to start stone-cutting, and it continued till we complete the task of cutting 100 stones,” he says. They were allowed a lunch break, but to fetch a glass of water, they had to walk two kilometres to reach a motor. “In harsh summer, when the motor [bore] dried up, we had to depend on small holes and pockets in the hillocks for water where it was stored,” he says.

On Sundays, they got a break. “They dropped us near the stream at Agraharam, five kilometres away from our village, and we walked from there to reach our homes,” Anji’s son, 18-year-old V. Shiva Kumar, says. He was forced to work to repay the ₹1-lakh loan taken by his father. He is the eldest of five siblings and, like several other children in the village, is uneducated.

Rescue operations

The issue 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, convened a meeting of all the stakeholder departments the next day. The Labour Department, led by the Deputy Commissioner of Labour, Anantapur, G. Lakshmi Narasaiah, entrusted a team of officials with monitoring and supervising the rescue operations as per the provisions of the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976. On June 4, officials of 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 got the labourers released from bondage.

District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) secretary N. Rajasekhar personally participated in the operation, walking nearly two kms to reach the place where the labourers were working and from where they were rescued.

What followed was a cumbersome official process to get them “officially released” from bondage and provide them with rehabilitation.

“This case had all the aspects of bonded labour. Though they were not chained, their movements were restricted. They are under debt bondage. They were put under arduous work conditions without basic safety gear and a proper diet,” Narasaiah says.

“As per the Act, bonded debt means an advance obtained, or presumed to have been obtained, by a bonded labourer. The Act further states that the Bonded Labour System means the system of forced or partly forced labour under which a debtor (the person who takes the money) enters, or has, or is presumed to have agreed with the creditor,” Narsaiah explains.

Illegal unit

“In our inquiry, we found that the stone-cutting unit does not have any permission, lease or licence,” Narasaiah says. After recording the statements of the victims and following due process, the four were issued “Release Certificates” from bondage, which made them free of debt bondage and also eligible for immediate financial assistance of ₹30,000 each.

“Once the victim is issued a Release Certificate, he or she is no longer liable to repay the bonded debt, as per the Act,” he says, making the labourers free from making any repayment to the employer, in this case Swamy.

The Deputy Commissioner of Labour also adds that the released labourers would also be compensated under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948. An application for the difference in wages has also been filed under the Act, and the amount was calculated at ₹5,43,216 collectively for the four workers.

“As the order has been given by a quasi-judicial body, he is entitled to pay or can contest only in the High Court. Inability to comply will attract the Revenue Recovery Act, under which the assets of the employer can be auctioned to pay the victims,” he says.

The Labour Department had also found the need to extend various welfare and other schemes to the victims. However, one among them, 45-year-old Manjula Muneppa, did not have an Aadhaar card. “We have initiated the process of getting an Aadhaar card for Muneppa,” Narasaiah says.

Meanwhile, Collector O. Anand asked the BC and Social Welfare departments to examine the eligibility of the four labourers for BC welfare schemes and extend the same on priority. The Central Sector Scheme for Rehabilitation of Bonded Labour mandates the convergence of all welfare schemes available to the community for the long-term rehabilitation of released bonded labourers.

Job cards for victims

Similarly, the DWMA Project Director was asked to issue job cards to facilitate the victims in getting work under VB-G RAM G for employment. The Medical and Health Department was also asked to organise a medical camp for the labourers to assess their health. While the three released bonded labourers with Aadhaar cards were issued job cards, the other victim is yet to get one. A medical camp was recently organised in the village for the labourers.

Narasaiah says, “As we are concentrating on the economic and social rehabilitation of the freed bonded labourers, we are focusing on providing immediate and sustainable livelihood support, supplementing the household income of the released families, preventing recurrence of indebtedness and economic distress, eliminating the possibilities of the families re-entering bondage or a debt trap and ensuring financial stability through assured wage employment, while facilitating their social and economic rehabilitation with dignity.”

Asked why the government machinery fails to identify such cases, leaving NGOs to come to the rescue of the victims, a government official said inspections had been done away with in certain categories of industries owing to ease of doing business norms, in addition to the staff crunch.

“In the unorganised sector, as in the present case, the victims do not come out openly even though there are village secretariats. The NGOs have a deeper connection with rural people and interact with them regularly,” the official says.

REDS founder C. Bhanuja stated the prevalence of bonded labour continued in the district, and more particularly in the erstwhile Anantapur district. “The stakeholders involved in implementing the Act should be made aware of the legal provisions available for the eradication of the Bonded Labour System,” she says, adding that not many people come forward to complain or seek redressal from the government, fearing backlash from their employers. A representative of another organisation working on the subject, along with the government, on condition of anonymity, said the constitution of vigilance monitoring committees would help address the issue. “The committee headed by the respective district Collector will meet once in three months and can conduct inspections,” he says.

412 bonded labourers released in 3 years

According to official figures, 412 people have been released from bonded labour in the past three years. Of them, only four have received the ₹30,000 initial financial assistance. Officials are working with the victims to get their Aadhaar cards and bank accounts so that the amount can be deposited.

Meanwhile, even as the district administration is making efforts to provide rehabilitation, the A.P. Labour Welfare Board has released ₹10 lakh each to the 26 districts towards a corpus fund under the Central Sector Scheme for Rehabilitation of Bonded Labourers, 2021. Financial assistance of ₹30,000 each will be given to the released bonded labourers through this fund.