Bonded labour continues to haunt the Odisha government.

This has come into focus after the death of Kanhu Mallick, a labourer from Suleikela in the Belapada block of Bolangir district. He had died last Sunday soon after returning home from Andhra Pradesh.

While Kanhu, 42, managed to return home, many others are still languishing in their respective workplaces and unable to escape from the clutches of labour contractors. Following complaints of torture, the state government rescued 5,440 migrant labourers from other states in the past six years. At least 60 migrant labourers from Odisha have died while working outside the state since 2018.

Trade union leader Suresh Panigrahi said: “In November, Kanhu had received an advance of Rs 80,000 offered by a middleman and travelled with his wife and two daughters to work in a brick kiln and subsequently fallen critically ill because of harsh working conditions. The owner of the brick kiln held his 11-year-old daughter captive at the kiln, demanding repayment of the total advance he had paid to the family. Following media reports, the government intervened and rescued the girl. We need to have a re-look at the bonded labour issue.”

A person becomes a bonded labourer when his/her labour is demanded to repay a loan. Labourers in distress are often lured by traffickers who offer huge cash advances in return for their labour for a fixed time without being paid, often as a way of repaying debt.

The traffickers under the garb of labour agents continue to flood the vulnerable pockets of Balangir, Nuapada, Kalahandi and Bargarh districts to recruit “cheap labourers” and engage them at undisclosed worksites such as brick kilns, stone quarries, aqua/seafood culture and processing units, often located in remote and inaccessible areas in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka, point out union leaders.

Odisha labour minister Sarada Prasad Nayak said 5,440 migrant labourers had been rescued from other states since 2018.

Satyaban Gahir, president of Swarnavahini (a collective of rescued bonded labourers), said: “The labourer contractor offers huge money as advance to the poor. This amount is taken to settle the previous debts or meet an immediate need in the family, some take it to release their mortgaged land.

“The families often follow the middlemen with empty hands. Once at these sites, the workers are under constant supervision, denied basic rights such as freedom of movement and subjected to physical violence and psychological trauma. The only apparent means of escape is to repay the initial advance an impossible task.”