A house of dreams -Shriya Mohan

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published Published on Apr 1, 2021   modified Modified on Apr 3, 2021

-The Hindu Business Line

A model rehabilitation project for 100 families of rescued bonded labourers kicks off in Tiruvannamalai, granting them dignity of shelter and livelihood

* Ready to be inaugurated in the next few weeks, the neat rows of green and white houses... carry the smell of fresh paint and brimming hope of its 564 residents

* The colony is the Tamil Nadu government’s attempt at creating a model rehabilitation village that weaves together bonded labour rescue, rehabilitation and livelihood generation

* There are five aspects to eradicating bonded labour — identification, rescue, release, rehabilitation and finally the prosecution of the violator

* “The only thing we want for our children is to be slaves to nobody,” says a parent

***

The memories are a decade old, but Vijaya still remembers how her skin seared under the hot sun as she lifted bricks on her head and loaded them onto a truck. It burned despite the collared shirt she wore over her sari and the cloth she used to wrap over her head and face so that her eyes appeared like slits when she walked against swirls of dusty scorching winds.

At one of the large brick kilns at Perumbudavakkam, in Tamil Nadu’s Thiruvallur district, Vijaya and members of her family worked at the beck and call of the employer every day for over 15 hours with barely any time to eat or sleep. They would be woken up at the stroke of midnight and were made to work until sunrise. And then again during the day.

Vijaya was in bonded labour — a term that she had not heard of, and unaware that it was an illegal practice. She and three other poverty-hit families of neighbouring Tiruvannamalai district had been offered a collective loan of 50,000 by the brick kiln employer. In exchange, they would have to work along with their families at the kiln until they paid it off. The money was like godsend.

Except that it wasn’t. The families were made to move into box-sized rooms with no toilets, fans, without the guarantee of sane working hours or steady payment schedules. All physical movement was monitored. None of them was let out of sight. If one of them tried to escape, the others were beaten up as punishment.

“It took me two months to realise that something was wrong... and that we were trapped,” Vijaya says. The loan amount, they were made to believe, could never be paid off; it was a debt that grew fat with interest each day.

Three years passed.

It was in 2014 that Vijaya and the others were rescued by the Tamil Nadu government after she chanced upon a Good Samaritan, who heard her woes and reported a complaint to the local RDO (revenue divisional officer). The owner was arrested by the local police. That was when she learned that they had all been held as captive bonded labourers. She earned a certificate of release from the revenue department, and got a compensation amount of 20,000 credited to her account. But, being a single parent and a mother of two children, earning a sustainable livelihood was still fraught with challenges.

Six months ago, Vijaya and her family were relocated to the Irular colony, officially known as Dr Abdul Kalam Puram, at Tiruvannamalai district’s Meesanallur village, Vandavasi taluk. The colony, with its 143 newly constructed houses built on 37 acres of land, is the Tamil Nadu government’s attempt at creating a model rehabilitation village that weaves together bonded labour rescue, rehabilitation and livelihood generation to transform the lives of those who were once victims of extreme exploitation.

Ready to be inaugurated in the next few weeks, the neat rows of green and white houses — with kitchens and built-in toilets, fitted with water connections, solar panels, biogas, lights and fans that hang from the high ceilings — carry the smell of fresh paint and brimming hope of its 564 residents.

Please click here to read more.


The Hindu Business Line, 1 April, 2021, https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/blink/cover/a-house-of-dreams/article34213016.ece


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