Bhubaneswar: A migrant labourer from the Kalahandi district of Odisha was forced to cremate his six-year-old son in Telangana as his owner did not allow him to return to his home state to perform the last rites.
The aggrieved father, identified as 35-year-old Bunga Baria, was working in a brick kiln near Hyderabad as a bonded labourer. He had failed to repay the loan he had taken from his employer there. Baria claimed that the massive dust and pollution near the brick kiln, where he was working, choked the child who recently succumbed to his chest ailment.
Baria had moved to the work site along with his wife and son and they lived in a tent. Dust from the brick kiln is believed to have triggered pulmonary problems in his six-year-old son Naresh.
“He would cough and have congestion and we thought it was because of the dust. We wanted to move out but we had no choice until we paid off the loan,” Baria said. He claimed that despite several requests the employer and his men did not allow Baria to take his son to the hospital. Subsequently, the child’s health dipped.
The boy’s condition worsened even after medication and he died Sunday evening. It is alleged that despite repeated pleadings, owners of the brick kiln did not allow them to go home with the body. “We don’t know where they took us but we cremated our son there. It is unfortunate that we could not follow the rituals on the death of our son only because we are poor,” sobbed Baria.
A number of rural migrant workers from Odisha often land up at the brick kiln sites of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana where many become victims of bonded labour. “While the number of debt bondage cases in the state is on the rise, the state has no proper data to measure the scale of migration, particularly as bonded labour,” said Neenu Thomas, Director of the International Justice Mission — an organization working for rescue and rehabilitation of bonded labour and trafficking victims.