By Palanivel Rajan

Copyright thehindu

The bonded labour system, though was officially abolished in Tamil Nadu, persists as a form of modern-day slavery in numerous villages near Vadipatti taluk in Madurai district.

Vadipatti and its adjacent areas, known for their crusher units and stone quarries, are also home to lush green farmlands sprawling across several acres. Most of the farmlands, owned predominantly by members of a land-owning community, have been under their families’ control for generations.

On one such property, amidst the tall coconut trees in Angapankottam village under the Kutladampatti panchayat lives 85-year-old Pechiyammal.

She has lived there alone for more than 60 years. Ms. Pechiyammal arrived at the farm six decades ago with her daughter from a nearby village and has since dedicated her entire life to growing and watering crops on the three-acre land.

As ownership of the farmland moved to the next generation, the current owners, unwilling to have an elderly woman living ‘unnecessarily’ on their property, have decided to evict her. Balancing herself on a wooden handstick made from a broken branch, Ms. Pechiyammal, in a frail voice, declared her decision to fight back to claim her labour rights over the land.

“As a young woman with a toddler 60 years ago, I had no option but to seek refuge in a farmland which provided a roof and food to feed my child,” she explained. To prove her commitment to the owner, she took up all agricultural jobs, even those conventionally considered men’s work.

“I dug ponds, sowed land, planted saplings, fetched water, removed coconuts and fruits, and did many other works just for food and a roof,” she recounted. Since her needs were limited to mere survival and raising her daughter, she never felt the need to ask for a proper wage from her employer.

“Not having the courage to question or even plead was secondary,” she observed, “but none of us, both men and women employed as wage-less labourers, felt it was the right thing to do against those (owners) who offered us food and a roof.”

As life went on, and after her daughter moved away following her marriage, Ms. Pechiyammal took the entire burden of farming onto her shoulders, working even harder to compensate for her daughter’s absence. She said she never complained about the hard work or the exploitation until the new owners — he son and daughter-in-law — told her to leave, deeming her no longer ‘productive.’

Stressed by their decision, Ms. Pechiyammal has chosen to resist and refused to leave the farmland unless they pay her ₹10 lakh or transfer three cents of the land into her name.

C. Raveendran, 39, another bonded labourer born and raised on a nearby farmland, is waging a similar fight against his landowner. He revealed that he is the third-generation wage-less labourer in his family.

Recalling the past, he explained that around the 1960s, the land-owning communities, seeking to protect their livestock and crops, hired members of the Kallar community, who were traditionally known for guarding.

“As the livelihood of the Kallar community members was in transition, men shifted their families from several nearby villages to the farmlands to work free of cost to improve their living conditions and feed their families,” he recalled.

Caring little for wages, they worked their entire lives, serving their owners by taking care of their farmlands.

Mr. Raveendran said that in order to assure their gratitude to the owners, his parents and grandparents had their children work in the fields too.

“This created a generation of uneducated people, and only now are we realizing what education could do to improve our lives,” he added.

This realisation, coupled with the new landowner’s unwillingness to retain the workers, has led to their frustration over their past unawareness of the meaning of labour, profit, and exploitation.

“Due to my affiliation with a labour union, I realised what we lacked and started fighting back. The fight I began continues even after the farmland where I worked was sold to a new owner,” he noted.

Though he no longer lives on the farmland, he continues to graze his livestock there to assert his rights over the property. Unwilling to give up on the choice he made about a year ago, he vowed, “No matter what, I will fight the owners until I am paid ₹10 lakh for the work my father, grandfather, and I did to raise the barren land into a money-yielding business.”

The fight, he emphasised, is not just for him, but for the 200-odd families still locked up in similar farms in areas like Vadipatti, Kutladampatti, Seminipatti, Ramayanpatti, Poochampatti, Andipatti, Kattankuma, Iyankottai, Sholavandan, Iyankurivithurai, Kurivithurai, Manadimangalam, and Karupatti, among others.

C. Mathivanan, district secretary, CPI-ML, has taken up the issue to press the district administration to define the families as bonded labourers.

He worried that the authorities, due to their unawareness of such social structures, were being overly strict about technicalities . “A few officials claim that since there are no brick kilns, there can be no bonded labourers,” he added.

However, the system practised by the landlords — not officially termed or understood as bonded labour –involved hiring workers not for a wage but through ‘payment in kind’ (the act of paying for goods, services, or interest with something other than cash).

“Though the workers are not locked up in closed enclosures, they are tied with invisible shackles ,” he asked. “When they are made responsible for guarding the farmland, including the crops and other materials, in return for just a few coconuts or other yields or food, how should this be considered?” Mr. Mathivanan asserted that the system practised in the areas around Vadipatti is merely an extension of the zamindari system.

A senior revenue official stated no such system could be in practice without the administration’s knowledge. However, he assured to examine the issue.

Revenue officials later confirmed they had visited the houses of the alleged bonded labourers in the area. “Their complaints have been recorded for further investigation,” an official said.

When contacted, Collector K.J. Praveen Kumar said he would check with the officials about the existence of such a practice.