Bhopal:Yet another case of freeing bonded labourers from Bundelkhand has come to the light, highlighting the issue of migrant labourers from the region. As many as 41 bonded labourers, all residents of Damoh and Chhatarpur districts in Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh were freed from a construction site by the administration in Gautam Buddh Nagar in Greater Noida.
BHOPAL:
In February this year, 19 labourers were freed from Kolhapur in Maharashtra after a 3-month ordeal . They were forced to work in a sugarcane field and all of them were also from Bundelkhand.
It has been learnt that better wages, almost double to what the state government pays in MP, lure these labourers to distant places such as Delhi and Noida.
The bus carrying 41 labourers arrived at Damoh on Saturday. Half of them belong to Buxwaha in Chhatarpur district bordering Damoh. They had gone to Delhi’s Sarai Kale Khan locality from where a contractor from Bihar took them to a construction site in Greater Noida. The labourers said they were paid only Rs100 first and then Rs500. After that no money was paid to them.
“Whenever we would ask for our wages, they would threaten us”, said Roshni Ahirwar, one of the labourers . Draupadi Bai, another labourer said, “We would work from 8am to 7pm. Many times we were not even permitted to go to the toilet”.
District administration officials learnt about the ordeal of the labourers and swung into action. With the help of two lawyers, the labourers were freed. The UP government arranged a bus for their return journey to Damoh, officials said.
