Kalahandi: A strong mafia controls bonded slavery in Odisha and almost 3 lakh people are trafficked out of the state every year. The mafia controls the illegal labour market worth over Rs 500 crore with an iron grip.
For people like Nilambar Majhi and Dialu Nial there is no option other than bonded labour. Both belong to families of landless labourers in Kalahandi, and are ideal victims for the middlemen for labour contractors.
One such middleman told CNN-IBN how families are loaned Rs 10-15,000 for medical treatment or a marriage. Unable to repay, they fall into the bonded labour trap and then entire families are forced to work year after year in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
"If the labourers take money and do not go to work then it's our job to threaten them and even beat them up to go to Andhra and Karnataka. We are paid Rs 1,000 per head of labourer sent as commission from the contractor," said an agent who refused to be identified.
Bonded labourers are treated virtually as slaves. They are poorly fed, over-worked and unpaid. Many laborers revealed how anyone trying to escape or protest faced brutal violence.
"My daughter-in-law was pregnant and still she was forced to work. When I protested boiling water was thrown on me by the brick kiln owner," said bonded labourer Sabitri Kumbhar.
There are about 1,500 middlemen active in Bolangir district of Odisha alone, feeding an illegal labour market worth over Rs 500. For a status check, CNN-IBN went to Kantabangi railway station in Bolangir, the hub of such labour trafficking. Hundreds of bonded labourers were seen sitting with their children in the cold, right next to the railway police station with the middlemen and contractor's musclemen guarding them. The police do nothing and sources say that local politicians across parties protect the mafia.
"The dalals (middlemen) and contractors are closely related to the mainstream political parties here and they fully protect them," says Ajit Panda, a social activist on bonded labourers in Nuapada.
Rural employment guarantee schemes are poorly managed and corrupt with Odisha's Labour Minister also helpless in the face of the nexus.
"I agree if the authorities are not hand in gloves these sort of things would not have happened. I would ensure the law which already exist on this is properly implemented and if required new provisions would be added in the law over the issue," Odisha Labour Minister Bijayshree Routray says.
It's because of the nexus between the middlemen, local police and the politicians that bonded labour problem is thriving in Odisha and no matter how much money the government spends on several welfare schemes like NREGA, these poor labourers continue to suffer.
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