When they're forced for distressed migration Wednesday, 27 May 2020 | AJIT PANDA | NUAPADA

 Eight-year-old Dipti, daughter of a migrant worker, living with her parents in a brick kiln in Thiruvallur district of Tamil Nadu received a phone call of this correspondent on Sunday evening and without waiting for any conversation from the site, she hurriedly said, "We are leaving the kiln now; father is packing our things."

She was elated because the family's long wait for returning to their village had ended due to intervention by some activists and an NGO called the International Justice Mission (IJM). 

Dipti along with her parents Gobardhan and Jema and two younger siblings Tripti (4) and Udit (1) was in a brick kiln of Tamil Nadu. The family had left the village six months ago to work in the kiln named Vinod Chamber located in Athur village of Solabharam block in Thiruvallur district. The couple had taken an advance payment of Rs 60,000 from a Sardar (labour contractor) in November to work in the kiln for about five months. Dipti was in class II in a village school. She had to leave the school to accompany her parents to the kiln.

Gobardhan owns half an acre of agricultural land in his village. It is a low land but without having assured irrigation, which yields 500 kg of winter paddy on an average every year. "I have not cultivated that for last five years," said Gobardhan. "Because, it has been mortgaged" he added.

There are basically two reasons for farmers like Gobardhan to mortgage their plots as the last resort; first to meet expenses of treatment and secondly for wedding. Gobardhan entered into this debt trap five years ago to meet the expenses of his sister's wedding. "Mortgaging the land saves us from paying interest, because the loan giver cultivates that land and takes all produces as his interest." argued Gobardhan. He said that the mortgage helped him get Rs 20,000 which he would not have got from any other sources. He does not calculate how much harvest the loan giver gets every year from the land.

Jema, however, is always calculative and regularly insists upon repaying the loan. She even had managed to get a loan from a micro finance institution and released the land last year, but unfortunately her plan shattered when she suffered severe post delivery complications. "Land was mortgaged again and in addition we had to incur a loan from another microfinance agency to meet the expenses of my treatment," she said. And finally to repay the loan of two micro-finance agencies, they took advance for working in the brick kiln. "We need about Rs 10,000 more to repay the loan of the micro-finance agency and Rs 10,000 to release our land," said Gobardhan. The couple don't know form where they would arrange such a huge amount. However, the couple for the time being are happy that they have been rescued and are travelling to their village. Will they return again to the kiln next season? It remains a moot point.

The story of Gobardhan and his family is not an isolated case. Neither is Dipti the only child there in the kiln to help her parents at the cost of her right to live a dignified life. There were 64 Diptis and Udits this time in Vinod Chamber brick kiln, living in dehumanised conditions, fortunately rescued with the help of the International Justice Mission, some journalists and human rights activities.