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| Brick kilns earning J&K bad name | | Two more bonded labourers rescued from RS Pura | | Early Times Reporteer
Jammu | Apr 23
ET Exclusive
HISTORY SHEET
• April 23, 2008 / 2 rescued from RS Pura
• February 13, 2008 / 10 rescued from Reasi
• July 19, 2003 / 51 rescued from Gangyal
Earning a bad name for the state and its enterprising culture, yet another case of bonded labour has come to fore as the workers taken hostage by the Worklord could be rescued only after Police intervention.
Unlike Bihar and Madhya Pradesh Pradesh where bonded labour has worse prevalence, Jammu and Kashmir earns this bad name always through brick kiln owners. All major cases of bonded labour coming to fore in the state so far have been reported from the brick kilns.
In the latest case, two women working as bonded labourers in a brick kiln in R S Pura border belt were rescued by police today. Acting on the complaint of one Satnam Singh to Punjab police, a team from the state with the help of Jammu and Kashmir police raided the brick kiln in Kote Karamchand village.
They rescued Satnam's wife Raj Kumari and daughter Ladi, they said adding that Satham had taken some money from brick kiln owner Janak Raj, who had then taken the two women as bonded labourers.
Earlier this year, a similar case was reported from Reasi district where owner of a brick kiln had taken ten workers hostage after they demanded their due wages. On February 13 this year, one Gurbaksh Singh of Amritsar complained before the Jammu and Kashmir High Court that ten of his relatives have taken into custody by one Diwakar, owner of Maa Bhagwati Brick Kiln at Bhambla Road in Reasi district.
On his complaint the court had directed the SHO of Police Station Reasi to immediately visit the brick kiln to find out the matter.
Not long ago, on July 19, 2003 about 51 bonded labourers were set free from a brick kiln at village Asmailpur under the jurisdiction of Gangyal Police Station.
All the bonded labourers of all age group had been working in the brick kiln then for the over one and half year and they were living in a very pathetic condition. They were neither allowed to come out of the premises of the brick kiln nor provided any sort of medicare in case of any ailments.
Most of the bonded labourers were suffering from various ailments and were physically very week. They were brought in the brick kiln from Gurdaspur about one and half year back by some people, who promised them moon. Tt was only after spending some months in the brick kiln they came to know that they will spend their life as bonded labourers.
To deal with this ugly menace, Jammu and Kashmir has in place a law called Bonded Labourers Abolition Act 1976 but there is not monitoring mechanism to find out the places where labourers have put in bonded condition. |
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