Half of Saved Labourers in TN from North

The New Indian Express: Madurai: Friday, 14 November 2014.

Nearly 50 per cent of bonded labourers rescued from various industries in Tamil Nadu in the last four years since July 2010 are from North India, reveals an RTI reply.

The information obtained by Evidence, a Madurai-based NGO through RTI from the Revenue Department, revealed that out of the 864 bonded labourers rescued from nine districts, 379 belonged to North India. While 230 were Schedule Tribes, 90 were Schedule Castes and 20 from other communities. Ironically, the Revenue Divisional Officers (RDOs) tasked with abolition of bonded labour, had not recorded the caste identity of rescued labourers.

According to the RTI reply, 509 were rescued from Tiruvallur district, 146 from Kancheepuram, 63 from Pudukottai, 56 from Thanjavur, 25 from Tiruppur, 15 from Erode, 15 from Tirunelveli and eight from Namakkal district between July 2010 and June 2014. The department had stated that there were no bonded labourers in Nilakottai, Theni, Tiruchy, Tiruvarur, Thoothukudi, Karur and Dindigul districts, while no information was provided about the remaining eight districts.

Besides, officials from the Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare Department (in-charge of distributing relief), instead of providing Rs 20,000 as relief to the rescued North Indian labourers, distributed only Rs 1,000 and sent them back to their native places, claimed A Kathir, executive director of Evidence.

As per the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976, the rescued SC/ST labourers should be provided a relief amount of Rs 90,000 each. But in the last four years, none of the rescued  SC/ST labourers had been provided with this amount, he alleged. Though the State sanctioned Rs 1,78,80,000 for rehabilitation of bonded labourers, the Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare Department had spent only Rs 38, 91,000 in the last four years for the purpose.

Only six of those rescued received Rs 20,000 each, 165 were provided Rs 19,000 each, three received Rs 2,000 and the remaining 690 received only Rs 1,000 each. Only three among them have received a 2.5-cent land as provided for in the Act, claimed Kathir.