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IJM Operation Frees Families from Rock Quarry Slavery
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Monday, 26 October 2009

CHENNAI, INDIA – When IJM and local government officials arrived at a rock quarry on the outskirts of a small village early on an October morning this year, the laborers were already hard at work. The men’s bare backs shone against the grueling sun and the women in threadbare saris bent over piles of rocks. A verdant field of rice paddies contrasted with the brown-clay sugarcane field in front of the rock quarry – a deep well where rocks were dredged up, piled and crushed into gravel.

This day would mark the beginning of new lives for these laborers, but it was not the beginning of their story. Like so many modern-day slaves, the forced laborers at the quarry first began working at the facility in exchange for a miniscule, one-time loan — a loan the quarry owner never expected to be repaid, but rather, had designed specifically to entrap laborers in her facility.

Fifteen years ago, Gopinath* borrowed approximately $10 from the quarry’s owner. The reason was sad but simple: “I didn’t have any money to feed my family, so I borrowed money.” He and his wife worked tirelessly, crushing boulders into bits of rock, but over the course of a decade and a half, rather than decreasing, their alleged "debt" ballooned from $10 to $325, vaguely attributed to interest and various other expenses by the owner.


TOP: Forced laborers leave the quarry for the last time, carrying their possessions with them.
BOTTOM: The freed slaves dismantle a flimsy lean-to they built for shelter when the quarry owner forbade them from leaving her facility.

When IJM investigators first met Gopinath, he told them: "For the past two days we were starving for food. When we go for work we pack kanchi" — the leftover, broken rice devoid of nutrients and resembling porridge. Despite 15 years of grueling work, Gopinath’s family has not tasted the fruit of their labor. Two of his three older children had married and were working at the quarry themselves; he and his wife had raised their eight-year-old daughter and two sons, ages two and four, within the walls of the small facility.

A couple of months before IJM intervened, the quarry owner began demanding that the families stay at her facility rather than in their nearby village so that they could begin their work earlier in the morning. The women and children — including a two-month old infant — slept under saris and tarps tied to three sticks, stuck into piles of sand or mud among the rocks they crushed by day. The owner refused to allow them to pursue work elsewhere, even if they told her it was to help pay back the advance she claimed they owed her.

Not only were they prohibited from working elsewhere, they were not free to go out for any reason, for any amount of time. When one of the laborers snuck out of the facility to see his grieving grandfather in the wake of his grandmother’s death, the owner arrived at his village the very same day, found him at his grandfather’s home and beat him. When neighbors asked why this woman was beating him, she answered: “He is my laborer. I can do anything to him; I have the right to do anything to him. How can you ask me?” She immediately forced the man back to the quarry.

But everything changed for the laborers held in the quarry on October 6, 2009. After uncovering the slavery at the quarry through an investigation, IJM partnered with local government officials to rescue and release the three families held there. Underneath the late morning sun, the government officials acted quickly, gathering the workers together and asking them preliminary questions to determine if they were living as forced laborers. Gopinath’s small sons, naked and with matted hair, clung to their mother with wide eyes.

The laborers easily packed their meager possessions into a couple of burlap gunny sacks – a small pile of vessels used for cooking and a few spare clothing items, strewn about the dead grass. They dismantled the tiny shelters where they had been sleeping, untying saris and tarps to reveal the brown sticks bent together to form pitiful tents. The men hoisted a few picks and other tools they used to break the rocks onto their heads and one by one they crossed the field, loading their lives into the waiting vehicle.

Some of the children were taken to a nearby hospital, including an infant boy covered in a contagious rash caused by chemicals in the rocks and the lack of proper hygiene facilities. The little boys were shy and reserved at first, mirroring the glazed eyes of their parents. But over the course of the afternoon, as government officials questioned the adults to establish the facts of slavery at the quarry, they started coloring with their sister and playing ball – enjoying the outdoor games that free children their age all over India play.

The operation concluded as the government official signed a Release Certificate for each of the adults – documentation that would legally free them from all debts claimed by the quarry owner and entitle them to government rehabilitation funds to rebuild their lives in freedom. When he handed the pieces of paper to Gopinath and his wife, they fell at his feet, overwhelmed by gratitude.

Though these families face certain trials in the days and months to come, they are now free – and will build their new lives with a strong network of support. They were taken back to their village, and IJM aftercare staff will continue to visit them and assist them as they rebuild lives in freedom. IJM advocates will fight to see justice served against the owner of the rock quarry that robbed Gopinath and his family of years of life as it was intended to live.
 
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