Bengaluru: Fifteen trafficked bonded labourers including four child bonded labourers, aged between five and eight, were rescued by the Bangalore Urban District Administration and local Police assisted by International Justice Mission (IJM) from a brick kiln in Anekal, Bangalore Urban District.
The victims belonging to five families were held in bondage at the kiln for three to seven years. Three infants were also rescued taking the total number of victims to 18.

The supervisor of the brick kiln was arrested from the kiln and he has been remanded to judicial custody till May 25th while the owner of the kiln is absconding. A case has been registered at the Attibele police station under IPC 370 (Trafficking of Persons) andthe Bonded Labour (Abolition) Act, 1976.

Of the five families rescued, three families were trafficked to the brick kiln by agents from Odisha while the other two families came on their own in search of work. One of the trafficked families worked at the kiln for seven years while the other two have been working for five years each. The two families who came on their own have been working at the kiln for three years.

None of the families were allowed to go outside the brick kiln together. Most often only the male labourers were allowed to go to the market on Sunday evenings after their weekly payment to buy groceries for their family. When a couple was allowed to go to the market they had to leave their children behind. Often the supervisor accompanied the labourers to the market and also kept a close watch on them within the kiln even during the night so they don’t escape.

Ankit, a father of three, was told by the trafficker that he will receive good wages and a house when he was brought to Bangalore at the owner’s instructions seven years ago. He says, “After I began work in the kiln the owner told me that the sardar(agent) who brought me to Bangalore had taken Rs 40,000 in my name. He said my family and myself have to work to clear this debt or pay him Rs 40,000 if we want to leave. He told me he would break my legs if I attempted to leave this place before that.”

One year ago his wife and he desperately needed to go back to Odisha as his father in law had passed away. The owner only relented to let them go after forcing the couple to leave their three little children behind as surety. So they left their children with the other labourers, attended the funeral in Odisha and returned to work in five days. They borrowed Rs 5,000 from the owner for the trip andthe funeral expenses so they continued to be in his debt.

“Convergence is key to ending an organized crimes like bonded labour trafficking where whole families are kept in confinement and forced to work mostly in lieu of an advance,” says Esther Daniel, Director of Justice System Engagement at IJM. “Through Section 370 of the IPC, which is a non bailable offence with a minimum sentence of seven years, we have a strong law to combat this crime. What we now need is for the different departments working towards identification, rescue and rehabilitation of victims as well as the arrest and prosecution of perpetrators to come together in a convergent approach to end the crime of human trafficking in the state”.

Initially the owner had promised all the labourers a payment of Rs 300 for 1,000 bricks made, which a husband and wife team usually makes in one day. However a husband and wife team was only paid Rs 400 per week although the minimum wage for a single brick kiln worker is Rs 258.92 per day.

The labourers were exploited and worked seven days a week from 6:00 am till 7:00 pm on weekdays and till 3:00 pm on Sundays. On several occasions, the adults and the children were beaten by the owner and the supervisor if they felt the job was not done well or if the labourers said they want to leave. It was the job of the four children to turn the bricks as they baked in the sun. The children were paid between Rs 10 and Rs 20 a week each.

“I wanted to send my daughter to school but I did not have any money. So I brought my family and came to Bangalore thinking I can work and save some money to send her to school. But we ended up being trapped here,” said Sunil, a 30 year old labourer. “I told the owner that I need to go back to Odisha as my daughter is grown up now and I need to put her in school but he never let me go for three years and instead my daughter who is only seven is working here.”

The bonded labourers have received Release Certificates from the Government of Karnataka and they will be enrolled in IJM’s two year rehabilitation program for rescued bonded labourers in Odisha.