CHENNAI: Around 9 am in the last week of February, a week before Sathya delivered her child, she boarded a bus from Karur. Biting down immense pain, tired and alone, the 27-year-old embarked on a 12-hour journey to reach her hometown T Kolathur in Thiruvennainallur taluk of Villupuram district.
“There was a lot of pain, I cried all along” Sathya said after juggling multiple buses to reach home.
“They held my husband back and sent me alone,” Sathya told her mother-in-law, her voice filled with anguish. Her husband Moorthy, while toiling away at work, unsure of his pregnant wife’s whereabouts, prayed for her safety, sitting along the Cauvery river bed in Aranganathampettai village. Caught in bonded labour, the 28-year-old thought at least his wife was out of it and safe somewhere. Until she wasn’t.
Ten days later, Sathya returned with her newborn in hand, back to the brick kiln that sucked the life of the Irular tribal couple.
The kiln sits deep inside Aranganathampettai near Nerur Thenbagam panchayat in Karur, beyond the roads branching off from Nerur Sadasivam temple towards the Cauvery riverbed, an area where locals and NGOs allege rampant illegal sand mining.
A local NGO worker, who did not want to be named, said the long stretch of road along the riverbank is lined with sand pits and moving trucks, and access to the kiln was tightly monitored.
Inside one such kiln owned by Manimaran, Moorthy and Sathya spent their nights cutting bricks under generator lights. Work, they said, usually began around 10 pm and stretched till 9 or 10 in the morning. In between, they also carry raw bricks and load baked ones onto vehicles. Their journey to the brick kiln started with a meeting with Mary and her husband Ayanar.
They were known to the couple from their earlier work in Chennai in 2021. Moorthy said the pair remained in touch for years. “They said they would give Rs 50,000 for a couple,” Moorthy recalled. Along with Sathya, they also took her 14-year-old niece, who lost her parents at a young age.
Couple Moorthy and Sathya spent their nights cutting bricks under generator lights, working from 10 pm until 10 in the morning; in between loading finished bricks onto vehicles or carrying raw ones
Before moving to Karur in late 2024, the couple had worked in brick kilns near Vridhachalam where wages were paid weekly and workers could leave whenever they wanted.
But it was different in Karur. “They wouldn’t give us leave when we wanted,” Moorthy said.
According to workers, most of their wages were adjusted against the advance amount, while they were allegedly paid only small sums every week.
“For 1,000 bricks, they agree on Rs 800-900,” Moorthy said. “Even if three people worked, they only gave Rs 1,000.”
The workers also alleged that their movement outside the kiln was tightly monitored. “There was no problem with drinking water, other than that everything else was unsafe. They tortured us,” Sathya recalled. Even during my pregnancy, I was made to do hard labour. Even when I begged them, they would not let me rest.”
Sathya was never taken for hospital check-ups and they made sure she did not go out. “If I was in pain, my husband would buy balm from the market. Either that or a bath in hot water,” Sathya said. “I continued to work almost until my delivery. When I asked for a rest day, they would say, ‘Didn’t you know when you took the money?’.”
On March 4, Sathya delivered a baby girl in her native village after undergoing surgery. She remained in the hospital for six days and stayed at home for 2 days before being called back to the kiln. “They called and said my husband was alone and not working. I returned to the kiln with the newborn child,” she rued.
Sathya said the child did not receive vaccinations for more than a month as they continued staying at the kiln. “Even if the baby got sick, they would not let us go to the hospital,” she said.
Moorthy said tensions escalated when the couple repeatedly asked to leave the kiln together. During one confrontation, Moorthy alleged that he was assaulted. “I got chest pain and blood came from my nose and mouth,” he recalled.
After the assault, Moorthy somehow managed to contact his uncle Pandian in Villupuram. Then through a series of calls involving activists, District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) officials, information about the workers eventually reached officials involved in the rescue operation. The rescue operation began on May 18. Officials from the DLSA, Revenue Department, Labour Department, Child Welfare Department and Vangal Police entered the kiln and rescued four workers.
The rescued labourers were later produced before the Karur Principal District Judge.
Release certificate procedures under bonded labour laws were initiated through the Revenue Department and rehabilitation measures, including opening bank accounts, were arranged.
A formal request seeking criminal action has also been submitted against the kiln owner, Manimaran. However, as of Sunday, an FIR is yet to be filed.