Stories on Bonded Labourers
500 BONDED LABOURERS RESCUED IN NUAPADA
Friday, 20 December 2013 | PNS | NUAPADA | in Bhubaneswar
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The Nuapada district administration, with the help of the local police, rescued over 500 bonded labourers from THE Khariar Road railway station on Thursday afternoon.
Acting on a tip-off, a team of local police and senior district officials raided the railway station and rescued the labourers. The rescued labourers belonging to Nuapada, Bargarh and Chhattisgarh were being taken to Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh by some brokers to work there as bonded labourers, the police said.
RESCUED 315 LABOURERS TRAPPED AGAIN IN NUAPADA
Saturday, 21 December 2013 | PNS | NUAPADA | in Bhubaneswar
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Surprisingly, 315 of 615 bonded labourers rescued by the police team on Thursday were again trapped by the labour contractors from the midst of their journey to village in Nuapada district on Friday. On a tip-off, the police team led by Nuapada SDPO Ashish Singh again rescued them from a village school in the district. According to reports, the contractors while taking 619 labourers, including 172 children, to Faizabad to engage them in the brick kilns, the police rescued them from Khariar railway station and its nearby areas.
The police arranged vehicles and sent the rescued labourers to their respective villages. But 315 of them were again trapped by the contractors halfway and were taken to a nearby village Jenjera and kept them in the high school building for the night halt. Getting clue from reliable sources, the police raided the high school early in the Friday morning and rescued the labourers again. Sources said, these labourers have taken about Rs 1 crore in total from different contractors as advance.
After rescuing the bonded labourers, the police have started a manhunt to nab six contractors involved in the trapping case. “It is very difficult to locate the contractors within the labourers, but we are sure they would be nabbed,” said the SDPO.
“One of the labour contractors involved in the business is a very influential member of a political party. It is difficult for the police to nab him,” said one official unwilling to be identified.
76 MORE LABOURERS RESCUED IN NUAPADA
Monday, 23 December 2013 | AJIT PANDA | NUAPADA | in Bhubaneswar
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The district administration of Nuapada rescued 76 more migrant labourers, including eight children, from two different places Sinapali and Khariar in the district on Saturday. Later the labourers were sent back to their respective villages by the police.
Out of the total rescued labourers, 45 are resident of Bharuamunda under Sinapali block and the other 31 belong to Patdarha, Baglore, Salebhata, Govindpur, Pelnapada, Rebidi and Kerapadar villages of Boden block in the district. “The police did not seize the jeep which was carrying four more labourers and the contractor,” said the rescued labourers.
The total number of migrant labourers rescued in past three days in the district has reached 1,010 adults and 180 children, the police said, adding, “We cannot assure that the rescued labourers will stay back in their villages.”
The District Labour Officer (DLO), who arrived at Khariar on Sunday to take stock of the situation, said that there are 28 registered contractors in the district this year. “The contractors have the licence for taking 2,500 labourers in total, but unofficial sources revealed that the number of labourers taken illegally outside the State under distress condition is more than 60,000,” said the DLO.
According to local NGO Lokadrusti, which made provision for the safe return of the labourers to their respective villages, the panchayat and the block offices should arrange jobs for the labourers to save them from distress migration. Meanwhile, the BDOs of Boden and Sinapali assured the migrants that they would be provided jobs in their villages within three days.
BALANGIR, NUAPADA IN CENTRE’S BONDED LABOUR ERADICATION SCHEME
Wednesday, 01 January 2014 | PNS | BHUBANESWAR | in Bhubaneswar
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The Centre on Monday decided to implement a special livelihood project in the two districts of the State in order to put an end to bonded labour menace.
In a letter to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh said the project would be implemented under the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) in 10 critically vulnerable districts including Odisha’s two-Balangir and Nuapada.
The NGOs will be an institutional partner of the ‘Bandhua (bondage in Hindi) Campaign, 1947’ to combat bonded labour, the missive said.
The decision assumes significance in the wake of an incident recently occurred in Kalahandi district in which palms of two migrant labourers were chopped off by some contractors on December 15 this year.
Ramesh said bonded labourers will be identified through self-help groups (SHGs) and they will be provided with alternative livelihood and proper rehabilitation. They will be given soft loans, vulnerability reduction funds and special projects for alternative livelihoods including skill development interventions.
“The Mission would appoint a State-level point person to monitor and ensure that objectives and activities are executed in letter and spirit,” he said.
Commenting on compensation announced by the State Government for the two victims, Ramesh said “Keeping politics aside, we must all acknowledge that Odisha is one of the worst-affected States on the issue of bonded labour”.
According to NRLM Chief Operating Officer Sarada Mulaleedharan, the State Rural Livelihood Missions (SRLMs) would be the leading partners of the project.
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