With Just Rs 500 #GiftEducation to a Child Rescued From Bonded Labour

The week has been long, D Sivakumar (30) informs us on his way back from a brick kiln in Tiruvallur, Tamil Nadu. Here, he spent the better part of the day interacting with over 40 families who have found refuge — along with permanent housing — in this government-operated shelter. Sivakumar explains, “Bonded labourers are majorly skilled in wood-cutting jobs or working in brick kilns.” So, this project, he adds, enables them to continue their work while being fairly compensated for it.

However, the day felt almost like déjà vu for Sivakumar, who was forced to work at a kiln shortly after his father passed away when he was just six years old.

Explaining his early foray into child servitude, he shares, “After my dad passed away, I began living with my aunt and uncle. One day, one of their neighbours took an advance [sum of money] from a kiln near the Karnataka border. I remember being sent to work at the site.”

No one seemed to worry that the fragility of Sivakumar’s arms was no match for the heavy loads he was expected to shoulder from 5 am to 8 pm everyday. “I would balance one brick on my head and two in either hand,” he recalls.

The story, while heart-wrenching, is unfortunately a commonality. The export and construction industry — which majorly accounts for child labour in India — manage to evade the long arm of the law, consequentially contributing to some appalling statistics: India accounts for 7.2 percent of the world’s population of child-bonded labourers.

In cases of successful crackdowns, there are gaps in rehabilitation. This means that by the time corrective action is taken, scores of young children have already traded their innocence for modern slavery. To them, hope for a better life seems a far-fetched concept, as it did to Sivakumar 23 years ago.

During his coaching sessions with survivors of child-bonded labour, he recognises their hesitancy to dream big. In an attempt to assuage their concerns, he tells them, “What is behind you is not your destiny. There is a beautiful future waiting for you.” Sivakumar credits his redemption to the strangers in his life — “The NGO that rescued me from the brick kiln, the people who helped re-enrol me in school, and everyone who believed in me”.

“I want to be able to do the same for these children,” he adds. And he could do with a little help from us.

‘Child labour is a strange life’

Like many child-bonded labourers, Sivakumar’s elementary education took a backseat. Fresh out of Class 1 when his dad died, the next few years saw him confined to the drudgery of the brick kiln. “As a child, doing such heavy work is not okay. But there was no one I could confide in. There was no one to help me,” he shares.

Things reached a hilt when the backbreaking job took a toll on his health and he fell sick. Naturally, his turnaround time on those days was slower than usual. But there was no room for mercy at the kiln. “The owner’s son-in-law started interrogating me. When I told him I wasn’t feeling well, he wouldn’t listen and started hitting me with his shoe and abusing me in the local language. It was very bad.”

For three years — before a sting operation in 2003 led to Sivakumar finding freedom at long last — he bore the brunt of these nefarious practices. After the rescue, when asked what he would like to do, Sivakumar, who craved some semblance of childhood, responded, “I want to study.” And, the NGO (which wishes to remain anonymous) made this possible.

However, this period wasn’t completely untouched by labour. He was still put to hard work by his relatives under the garb of domestic chores. “I had to take the cows and goats to the forest every day. Sometimes I wouldn’t be able to attend school for days because there wasn’t time. I really wanted to study but work would make me miss out on classes,” he recalls.

However, Sivakumar made up for it by taking computer courses offered to him by the saviour NGO. At the age of 21, with school behind him, he was ready to embark on his college journey. While Sivakumar aced his BCom degree, everyone was convinced that he would enter the corporate world, but he surprised people by pursuing a master’s in social work from Madras Christian College in 2022.

“I was always keen on serving society,” he reasons. Today, Sivakumar is putting his knowledge to good use in his role with the NGO’s ‘After Care’ wing, where he coaches child bonded labour survivors — helping them catch up with their peers in mainstream schooling.

Citing the example of Shiva, one of his students, Sivakumar says, “Shiva had failed his Class 12. My wife and I decided to coach him for free. We helped him attempt his exams and write his papers. Now he is pursuing his master’s in Tamil literature.”

Watching a child live their dreams, knowing he was instrumental in making it possible, is all the validation Sivakumar seeks.

Gift freedom to survivors of child bonded labour

Bonded labour has been branded illegal since 1976. But it persists; especially child bonded labour. This constitutes children working in conditions of servitude to pay off a debt that most often is incurred by the children’s parents.

While the Central Sector Scheme for Rehabilitation of Bonded Labourers is supposed to provide financial and non-financial support once they are issued bonded labour release certificates by district magistrates or sub-divisional magistrates, many bonded labour survivors find it tough to access their dues. “This is because most are not even aware that what they were doing was bonded labour,” Sivakumar explains the premise of the problem.

Victims of child-bonded labour have to navigate tremendous hardship. This includes working in the sweltering heat of a stone quarry, picking rags in city streets, and spending hours in the field. These atrocities barely scratch the surface of the difficulties they have to endure.

With many children being sentenced to this life from as young as five years of age, studies have found that by the time they reach adulthood, they become irrevocably sick or deformed, cutting their life span short. Through the scope of his work, Sivakumar is reaching out to these children (and adults) across 13 districts of Tamil Nadu. “I help them with education, access to livelihood, information about government schemes and any social service they might need. I mentor students from Classes 8 to 12 through career guidance programmes to explore their interests.”

Sivakumar shares that he also takes the students on exposure visits to colleges, malls, and workshops while also assisting them with college admissions and counselling. “We conduct regular follow-up meetings with students to check on their progress and offer any support as needed. We also help them through typing classes, internships, English classes, and tuitions.”

Acknowledging that it is tough to resume one’s education after a break, Sivakumar and the team offer individual counselling wherein parents and children are spoken to about the benefits of education. These sessions see Sivakumar driving home an important message: “Accept your story. I am here today because of the support of so many people.”

“Sometimes parents tell me, make my child a ‘Kumar’ too. It makes me happy,” he smiles.

Sharing more about his work, Sivakumar says, “Immediately after the rescue, we support the survivors in getting their caste certificate, Aadhar card, ration card, release certificates, and an immediate rehabilitation amount of Rs 30,000. We also help them open a bank account.”

He adds that along with this, the survivors are taken for exposure visits where they can get a sense of existing livelihood initiatives like poultry units, brick kilns etc. Along with this, routine trainings are conducted, the survivors are made aware of government schemes and monthly meetings with the Released Bonded Labour Association (RBLA) leaders are facilitated.

Currently, Sivakumar works with 22 children and 300 adults rescued from bonded labour. “We have managed to enrol 12 children into college this year and help many families with jobs,” he states proudly. 

You can help Kumar in his endeavour to make the dreams of these children a reality. Your funds will go towards the education of children rescued from bonded labour as well as those vulnerable to exploitation. Let’s give these children the futures they deserve.