'They don't see sunlight for years'

'Is it not deplorable that even after 75 years of Independence, there are people in our society who have been denied freedom?'

in 1976, Parliament passed the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act.

It was a shame that bonded labour existed even in 1976, and it is even more shameful that it exists even today in some areas.

For A Mahaboob Batcha, a social activist, rescuing those in bonded labour and rehabilitating them started 40 years ago. In fact, giving freedom to those in bonded labour has become his mission in life.

In 1996, he was joined by a young advocate, Selvagomathy, and together they must have rescued 5M000-7,000 men, women and children from bonded labour.

Here, Mr Batcha and Ms Selvagomathy narrate unforgettable memories of their rescue operations to Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier.

The beginning, after shooting off a letter to Justice P N Bhagwati

In the late seventies, I (Bacha) was a student activist trying to end the unfair and unjust practices happening in our society.

I was very disturbed to read a news item about how undertrials were brought to the court handcuffed.

I decided to go to the court with my camera and take some pictures.

Subsequently I wrote an article in a weekly published from Hyderabad by civil liberties activist Dr Mukundan Menon.

What I did next was, along with a cutting of this report, I wrote a letter to Justice P N Bhagwati seeking his attention to what was happening in the country.

To the surprise of all, including myself, there came a reply from the Supreme Court taking the letter as a writ petition, and giving directions to the local police to take immediate action.

With that letter, the entire direction of the practice changed.

Next, a wrong arrest and languishing in jail

The next turning point in my life was when I happened to cover a demonstration by hundreds of autorickshaw drivers in Madurai.

Though I was there with my camera to cover the event, I got falsely implicated and arrested by the police. In the commotion, I lost my camera.

The days in custody changed my life forever.

My interactions with the inmates made me realise that majority of the undertrials are in jail for years, and they had no knowledge of the legal provisions available in the country.

They languished in prison only because there was no awareness.

They were not even aware that they could apply for bail.

That was the condition of all the poor and uneducated undertrials.

I was arrested under Tamil Nadu Public Property (Prevention of Destruction) Act although I was not part of the protest at all.

I was released on bail soon, but I came out a changed man.

The motto in my life became provide legal help to all those who had been in shackles because they were not provided any legal support.

Starting the SOCO Trust to provide free legal help

The first thing I did after I came out of prison was to organise a workshop on legal aid to the poor which was inaugurated by Justice V R Krishna Iyer and attended by many luminaries.

In October 1982, I started the SOCO Trust with the aim of providing legal aid to those who could not afford it.

We organised 45 days long paralegal training camps for the activists working among tribals, Dalits and rural poor.

I wanted at least one paralegal worker in a village so that he or she would be able to offer help to those who are in need of legal assistance and guidance.

From legal aid to rescuing people from bonded labour

As I continued my work offering paralegal training in the rural areas, I came to know from a journalist that around 200 tribal families were kept as bonded labourers in a mangrove in a village in the Western ghats region of Ramanathapuram District.

I was told these people were given less than a quarter kilo of rice, a few betel leaves and tobacco as monthly wages.

As there was no proper road to the mangrove, I cycled to this remote area to find out the truth.

After that, I wrote a letter to Justice Bhagwati informing him that many tribal families were kept as bonded labour in a village in Tamil Nadu.

Justice Bhagwati treated the letter as a writ petition and appointed a three men commission which included me, to study and submit a report to the Supreme Court.

When our team reached the mangrove, we were horrified to find that the tribals were kept captive for so long that they were not even able to identify a ten rupee note. They said, it was a Rs 7 note!

That was when we realised that they had not even seen a currency note in their lives.

Selvagomathy, a young lawyer joins Batcha

Let me admit, when I (Selvagomathy) joined the SOCO Trust in 1996, I had no idea what it was doing.

I joined because there was a vacancy for a law graduate. But when I entered the premises of the Justice V R Krishna Iyer Hall from the kind of positive vibration I got, I knew my life was going to change.

Within a month after I joined, we got an intimation that around 30-40 people including children were kept as bonded labour in a brick kiln in a small village in Sivaganga district.

The day before Batcha Sir and the others were planning to leave for the village, I asked him, 'Sir, can I also come with you?'

As a person who encourages young people, he let me join the rescue mission.

From that day onwards, I have been part of all the rescue missions that we have undertaken. In fact, the first mission was a major turning point in my life.

After the rescue, they told us that after work, they were locked inside a room where they didn't even have toilet facilities.

It was horrifying to know that pregnant women and children were chained inside dark rooms.

We brought all these people to our place, and they were kept in our community hall, before handing them over to the officials at Tirunelveli as the bonded labourers were from that area.

Before they boarded the van, every one of them told us, 'We are breathing free air after so many years.'

I can never forget those words. How we take our freedom for granted!

I was sure then that I had chosen the right path!

Children as bonded labourers

This is one rescue mission we can never forget.

There are many murukku and snacks manufacturing units in the Usilampatti taluk of Madurai, where they employ children as bonded labourers.

It is not that these children came directly to this place for work.

There are agents who wait at the railway stations, parks and outside the theatres in Madurai city to catch children who wander around after running away from their homes. These agents lure them by promising jobs, shelter and food.

But they are actually sold to these company owners, from where they have no escape.

There are also agents working in these states where the buy children from extremely poor families by giving Rs 1,000 or Rs 2,000 to the parents promising jobs for their children.

From that moment, these children become bonded labourers.

In these murukku factories, these children are abused and made to work from morning till night with just a small piece of cloth around their waist.

Most of them do not even get to see sunlight for years. They may not be chained but they are chained to such a miserable life.

We have rescued hundreds of such children from these companies. Then we rehabilitate them.

I still remember a young boy called Arumugam whom we rescued in 2003. This boy became blind when the company owner assaulted him mercilessly with a plastic wire.

With our support, he underwent vocational training after completing Plus 2. Today, he is married with two children, and has a job in a government press.

It is so gratifying to see him happy and settled in life.

The two pillars of strength

If not for our two patrons, Justice V R Krishna Iyer and Justice P N Bhagwati as two pillars of strength, our fight against rescuing people from bonded labour would not have been easy.

In our efforts to take law to the common people, to the grassroot level, it was Justice Krishna Iyer who helped us immensely, from the early 1980s till his death.

Justice Bhagwati and Justice Shivraj V Patil also used to come to even the remotest villages in Madurai regularly to give lectures to common people.

Even today, there are hundreds of bonded labourers in rice mills, quarries, brick kilns, mangroves, etc, unknown to many of us.

Like Justice Bhagwati used to say, even when people are denied minimum wages, it is forced labour.

Is it not deplorable that even after 75 years of Independence, there are people in our society who have been denied freedom?

Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com