Two boys rescued from bonded labour in Mannargudi

The Childline number ‘1098’ received a call on February 1, in which the caller had informed that two children were found grazing goats at Nagarajapuram village near Mannargudi and that they were staying in a makeshift tent.

Based on the information, the Tiruvarur Childline officials decided to rescue the children. Accordingly, the team members, C Prahalathan and E Gandhimathi, conducted a fact-finding mission.

The children were identified as K Arulpandi (15), a seventh standard drop out, and D Kannan (12), a fifth standard drop out from Atrangarai Street in Orathanadu.

The team also found out the father of Arulpandi died when the latter was one year old. The father of Kannan has been working as an agricultural labourer. 

Upon further enquiry, it was found that one K Karmegam (60) of Kalayarkoil in Sivagangai paid Rs 20,000 each to the families of the children as advance and employed the duo as bonded labourers for a period of two years.

The rescued children were handed over to K Padmavathy, the Revenue Divisional Officer of Mannargudi. The RDO issued a bonded labour release certificate under the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act to the children.

The two boys would be produced before the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) in Tiruvarur and then produced before the CWC in Thanjavur, the native district of the children.

Based upon the assessment of the CWC, they would be either be admitted to a government children home or reunited with their families, sources said.