Click to play videoKatihar (Bihar): In last few years, with the reduction in the outflow of labourers from Bihar, the heat of labour crunch is being felt by daily-wage labourers in Punjab and Haryana.
The labour contractors are now resorting to arm-twisting tactics to ensure Bihari labourers don't flee the farms of Punjab and Haryana.
Those who dare are beaten up, kept chained for days together and subjected to other inhuman treatment.
Ganesh is one of the lucky few who managed to escape after 10 days of confinement. He was kept chained by his labour contractor because Ganesh refused to complete his committed tenure at an aluminum factory in Punjab.
"He took him from here saying he will be made to work on the site. But he was not taken to any site, instead was kept under lock and key,”
Many labourers like Ganesh who want return are being terrorised by the goons of labour contractors. The increasing job opportunity in Bihar has not only created a manpower scarcity in developed states but has also deprived the labour contractors of their business.
Finding new labour team to work in the fields and the factories of states like Punjab and Haryana is not an easy job anymore. Hence, the arm twisting.
“We got to know last evening that my brother was being kept as a bonded labour. When I went to see him, he was crying and alleged he was beaten up,” says brother of a bonded labour, Sanjay.
Keeping human beings chained for days unless family coughs up money and public thrashing of labourers who try to escape has become common. The administration is waking up to the problem only now.
“This is inhuman behaviour. The administration has to take note and the labour superintendent will be informed,” says District magistrate, Katihar, Devottam Verma.
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