Bhagwan Ghukse was startled awake on a hot June night and made the decision to flee for his life.
Mr. Ghukse and five other daily wage employees have been held captive in a filthy shack in the western state of Maharashtra for the last month. Workers in the Osmanabad district of the state were employed by contractors to dig wells, but they were later coerced into bonded labor, which is against the law in India.
The police believe the men were tortured physically and mentally on top of working 12-14 hours a day digging the wells. Mr. Raut explained that because there were no restrooms nearby, the workers had to “do their business” in the wells they were digging and then clean up the trash when they were done. Many of them required medical attention for blisters and major gashes on their eyes and feet.
The story has been making news in India all week, and seven persons, including two women and a minor, have been charged with human trafficking, kidnapping, maltreatment, and illegal imprisonment under the Indian Penal Code. Two are still at large while four are in police custody (including the kid who was taken to a juvenile prison center).
According to the police, all of the victims were low-income, landless day laborers who had traveled to the town of Ahmednagar, located near Osmanabad, in quest of employment. Here, an intermediary contacted them and sold them for 2,000 to 5,000 rupees [$24 to $60] each to some contractors in Osmanabad.
The representative assured the workers that in exchange for digging the wells, they would be paid 500 rupees each day and provided with three meals. When the men agreed, he rounded them together in one spot, crammed them into tuk-tuks, poured alcohol into their systems, and drove them off to their respective destinations.
Contractors had their phones and identification documents taken from them at the well compound.
Mr. Raut stated, “After keeping them in such horrible conditions for two to three months, the accused would release the men without paying them a single penny,” and that they were looking into whether or not similar operations were still taking place elsewhere in the district.
The BBC was told by the families of three missing construction workers that after filing missing person reports, police declined to launch an investigation.
BBC asked police for comment on the claims, but they did not answer. However, an anonymous insider told BBC that police had delayed their response.
The employees claim they have not yet overcome the trauma they experienced, weeks after their escape.
Many of them are trying to start over, but they claim they keep falling into hopelessness whenever they recall the pain they endured.
One of the rescued workers, Bharat Rathor, said, “We were treated like slaves,” while displaying his injuries, which included a swollen eye and gaping blisters on his feet.
Nearly every day, the contractors would beat us until we were black and blue, and then they’d feed us stale chapatis (flatbreads) with salt and a few bites of brinjal. Farmers from the surrounding fields would occasionally come to witness our desperation, but they never offered assistance.
Mr. Rathor claims that after his father passed away, he moved to Ahmednagar to care for his sick mother. But how I made it through what I did there, only God knows.
Mr. Ghukse spoke of the inhumane conditions in which they were kept, including being beaten, drugged, and forced to perform manual labor for lengthy periods of time with inadequate rest breaks. Workers were tethered to tractors at night so they couldn’t flee. Mr. Gukse claimed the guys would beat them with sticks and then force-feed them alcohol if they were too distressed to sleep due to pain, hunger, or exhaustion.
I expected to meet my end in this place. But before that, I wanted to give fleeing a shot at least once,” he remarked.
Mr. Gukse and the other captives would spend every day working, being beaten, and going hungry, leaving them too fatigued to plot their escape.
Mr. Ghukse can’t recall whether it was June 15th or 16th because the days had long since begun to run together when he made up his mind to try it out. He knelt in the shadows, groped for the lock on the chain around his feet, inserted his finger inside, and twisted it for hours.
As he emerged through the gate, he caught sight of a big sugarcane field and made the quick decision to make a beeline for it. I was really lost. I only knew that I had to find a way to get home. I ran along a railroad track that bordered the field.
After Mr. Ghukse reached his village and reported the torture to the authorities, 11 more laborers were rescued from two wells owned by the same contractors.
“At first we didn’t believe the laborer, but when we reached the location, we were shocked to see the conditions of the men,” local police official Jagdish Raut, who is in charge of the case, told the BBC.
Like Maruti Jatalkar, he was forced to leave the Nanded district of India due to economic hardship, and his narrative is all too familiar. The eldest daughter of Mr. Jatalkar, a farmer, was scheduled to get married in May. Due to the lack of summertime employment opportunities in his hometown, he relocated to Ahmednagar and landed a position with the agent there.
Working at the well for a week to two weeks, his objective was to save enough money to pay for the wedding.
But he was unable to do either, as his daughter had already been married off by the time he was rescued. “That day, I cried a lot,” he stated.
Mr. Jatalkar said he is still shaken by memories of the roughly two months he spent alone in the well.
They locked us up first thing in the morning and wouldn’t let us out until after dark. It was where we went to relieve ourselves. They would beat us and tell us we could only have one meal if we requested for more.
A week ago, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) reprimanded the state government and ordered authorities to provide assistance to the workers in accordance with the country’s labor regulations, and while the workers say the pain is still fresh, they are hopeful about a new beginning.
Mr. Rathor says, “In the meantime, we’ll find work in our villages and earn whatever we can.” As the saying goes, “maybe life will get better soon.”
