Brother’s 16-Year Search Freed 72 From Bonded Labour. Accused on Bail, Survivors Unpaid
Trigger warning: Mention of injury and trauma
For 16 years, Govind* had every reason to believe his sister was dead. But a stubborn voice in his head refused to accept it.
Soon after her wedding, he recalls, she left their village in Mokhada, Palghar, with her husband in search of work. The family never heard from her again.
Sixteen years is a long time to hold on to hope. Govind held on anyway. In May last year, that hope led him to a stone-cutting site in Sangamner, where he found his sister sitting on a pile of dirt. He lifted her in his arms and walked her out. That day, 72 people were freed from bonded labour in one of the largest rescues Maharashtra has seen in recent years.
More than a year later, the reunion remains the only part of this story with a happy ending. The men accused of holding these families are out on bail. The police complaint against them left out the gravest charge the facts supported. And every one of the 72 survivors is still waiting for the compensation the law promised them, a promise designed precisely so that people like them do not fall back into rebondage.
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A Whisper From the Stone Quarries
The breakthrough came at the start of 2025, from an unlikely messenger.
Vasant*, an acquaintance from Govind’s village, had just returned home from his ‘job’ at a stone-cutting unit in Sangamner, in Ahilyanagar district, around 150 km away. He told Govind he had seen a woman at the site who looked like his lost sister. But he cautioned him that bringing her home would be tough. The contractor wouldn’t be pleased.
Vasant knew this better than anyone. He had worked at the site for five years. He had tried to run away but never had the money to. Then he found a reason the contractor would find hard to dismiss: he said he needed to go home to sign the papers for the Gharkul Yojana, the government housing scheme that provides financial aid to economically weaker sections to build permanent homes.
The contractor said no. So Vasant offered the only collateral he had, his own sister, who was also working at the site. He promised he would sign the papers and come back. He had to, or his sister would bear the consequences.
“He (the contractor) gave me Rs 1000, put me on a bus to Nashik, and I came home,” Vasant shares.
Once home, he told Govind about the woman he had seen. Govind turned to a local NGO, Shree Amrutvahini Gramvikas Mandal, which helped him approach the Tahsil Office in Sangamner.
Also Read:Ghaziabad Bonded Labour Sur
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: theprobe.in
