Odisha’s bonded labourers are using smartphones to help rescue fellow workers in distress

A group of young bonded labourers from various migrant-prone districts in Odisha have banded together under the banner ‘Shramavahini’ with a mission to ensure swift government response to distressed victims of bonded labour.

Odisha’s migration-prone regions are not new to reports of labourers being held hostage as bonded labourers and subjected to sexual harassment, inhuman physical torture and denial of due wages. The practice may not go on for longer.

A group of young bonded labourers from various migrant-prone districts in Odisha have banded together under the banner ‘Shramavahini’ with a mission to ensure swift government response to distressed victims of bonded labour.

They have put smartphones to their best use by alerting government agencies through social media. Their past experience of going through physical torture is also coming handy in their new mission.

Of late, this network, which boasts over 4,000 members, is observed to be active in social media outreach when cases of distressed labourers requiring assistance from either government or non-government organissations surface.

“Too often, the voices of migrant labourers who suffer under the cruel yoke of bondage and torture in other States go unheard by the local administration. By the time help reaches, it is too late -- at times with someone losing his life or losing a limb,” said Satyaban Gahir, secretary of Shramavahini.

He said the Shramavahini brigade aims to combat this issue by reporting such cases to the district administration and concerned officials, thereby facilitating the rescue of distressed labourers as quickly as possible.

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