A 16-Year Search, 72 Freed From Bonded Labour, and Justice on Hold

Brother's 16-Year Search Freed 72 From Bonded Labour. Accused on Bail, Survivors Unpaid

Trigger warning: Mention of injury and trauma

For 16 years, Govind* had every reason to believe his sister was dead. But a stubborn voice in his head refused to accept it.

Soon after her wedding, he recalls, she left their village in Mokhada, Palghar, with her husband in search of work. The family never heard from her again.

Sixteen years is a long time to hold on to hope. Govind held on anyway. In May last year, that hope led him to a stone-cutting site in Sangamner, where he found his sister sitting on a pile of dirt. He lifted her in his arms and walked her out. That day, 72 people were freed from bonded labour in one of the largest rescues Maharashtra has seen in recent years.

More than a year later, the reunion remains the only part of this story with a happy ending. The men accused of holding these families are out on bail. The police complaint against them left out the gravest charge the facts supported. And every one of the 72 survivors is still waiting for the compensation the law promised them, a promise designed precisely so that people like them do not fall back into rebondage.

Also Read:Human Trafficking: Indian Workers Trapped in Bonded Labour in Malaysia

A Whisper From the Stone Quarries

The breakthrough came at the start of 2025, from an unlikely messenger.

Vasant*, an acquaintance from Govind's village, had just returned home from his 'job' at a stone-cutting unit in Sangamner, in Ahilyanagar district, around 150 km away. He told Govind he had seen a woman at the site who looked like his lost sister. But he cautioned him that bringing her home would be tough. The contractor wouldn't be pleased.

Vasant knew this better than anyone. He had worked at the site for five years. He had tried to run away but never had the money to. Then he found a reason the contractor would find hard to dismiss: he said he needed to go home to sign the papers for the Gharkul Yojana, the government housing scheme that provides financial aid to economically weaker sections to build permanent homes.

The contractor said no. So Vasant offered the only collateral he had, his own sister, who was also working at the site. He promised he would sign the papers and come back. He had to, or his sister would bear the consequences.

"He (the contractor) gave me Rs 1000, put me on a bus to Nashik, and I came home," Vasant shares.

Once home, he told Govind about the woman he had seen. Govind turned to a local NGO, Shree Amrutvahini Gramvikas Mandal, which helped him approach the Tahsil Office in Sangamner.

Also Read:Ghaziabad Bonded Labour Survivor Gets Release Certificate — The Probe Impact

Three Sites, One Morning

Dilip Gunjal, founder of Amrutvahini, says the operation was

Brother's 16-Year Search Freed 72 From Bonded Labour. Accused on Bail, Survivors Unpaid

Trigger warning: Mention of injury and trauma

For 16 years, Govind* had every reason to believe his sister was dead. But a stubborn voice in his head refused to accept it.

Soon after her wedding, he recalls, she left their village in Mokhada, Palghar, with her husband in search of work. The family never heard from her again.

Sixteen years is a long time to hold on to hope. Govind held on anyway. In May last year, that hope led him to a stone-cutting site in Sangamner, where he found his sister sitting on a pile of dirt. He lifted her in his arms and walked her out. That day, 72 people were freed from bonded labour in one of the largest rescues Maharashtra has seen in recent years.

More than a year later, the reunion remains the only part of this story with a happy ending. The men accused of holding these families are out on bail. The police complaint against them left out the gravest charge the facts supported. And every one of the 72 survivors is still waiting for the compensation the law promised them, a promise designed precisely so that people like them do not fall back into rebondage.

Also Read:  Human Trafficking: Indian Workers Trapped in Bonded Labour in Malaysia

A Whisper From the Stone Quarries

The breakthrough came at the start of 2025, from an unlikely messenger.

Vasant*, an acquaintance from Govind's village, had just returned home from his 'job' at a stone-cutting unit in Sangamner, in Ahilyanagar district, around 150 km away. He told Govind he had seen a woman at the site who looked like his lost sister. But he cautioned him that bringing her home would be tough. The contractor wouldn't be pleased.

Vasant knew this better than anyone. He had worked at the site for five years. He had tried to run away but never had the money to. Then he found a reason the contractor would find hard to dismiss: he said he needed to go home to sign the papers for the Gharkul Yojana, the government housing scheme that provides financial aid to economically weaker sections to build permanent homes.

The contractor said no. So Vasant offered the only collateral he had, his own sister, who was also working at the site. He promised he would sign the papers and come back. He had to, or his sister would bear the consequences.

"He (the contractor) gave me Rs 1000, put me on a bus to Nashik, and I came home," Vasant shares.

Once home, he told Govind about the woman he had seen. Govind turned to a local NGO, Shree Amrutvahini Gramvikas Mandal, which helped him approach the Tahsil Office in Sangamner.

Also Read:  Ghaziabad Bonded Labour Survivor Gets Release Certificate — The Probe Impact

Three Sites, One Morning

Dilip Gunjal, founder of Amrutvahini, says the operation was kept tightly under wraps. "We made the plan in the Sangamner Tahsil Office. Only we, Govind, the informants, the Tahsildar, the SDM and the Labour Department knew of what we were about to do."

On the morning of 15 May 2025, three teams of revenue officials, labour officials, police and an Amrutvahini representative set out at 7 am. Tahsildar Dhiraj Manjare says the scale of what they found took them by surprise. "When we reached the site, we got to know that there were two other locations too where stone cutting was happening," he shares. The sites, at Shendewadi, Pimpalgaon Depa and Taskarwadi in Sakur, lay 10 to 15 km apart, so the officials split up and carried out parallel rescues.

It was only when they reached the site that Gunjal understood why escape had never been an option. "There was no village nearby," he explains, adding, "when we reached, we saw the conditions in which they were living: some were breaking stones, others were sitting around, the children were sleeping in the sun. When the officials from the Labour Department asked the people about how they were living, they said they did not have proper food to eat. They had to cook their own food but were not given groceries. There were no rooms, just tents spread out."

Also Read:  Saharanpur Bonded Labour Crisis: Children Expose Exploitation

Plastic Sheds, Half a Bhakar and No Medicine

The adults cut stone. The children were sent out to graze sheep.

Govind describes a life stripped of the most basic dignity. "They used to be paid Rs 500 for seven days. The children were put to graze the animals. The condition was very bad. The children would be fed half a bhakar (flatbread made of sorghum) a day."

Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, he says, there was no respite. "They were never given medicines. They are human. Of course they will fall sick."

SDO Manik Aher, who held additional charge of Sangamner at the time, confirms what the officials saw. "There were no toilets. They were living in small plastic sheds. The children hadn't bathed in months. When we questioned the contractor about this, he said that this wasn't his responsibility and that the people should have seen to it."

Trapped by Rs 15,000

Most of those rescued belong to the Katkari tribe, one of Maharashtra's Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups. Most Katkari families own no land and survive on labour, migrating for work usually found in brick kilns and on construction sites. That poverty makes a cash advance almost impossible to refuse, and that is how the trap was set.

According to Gunjal, the contractor handed workers advances of Rs 15,000 each. Once they took the money, they could not leave until it was repaid. Even when they managed to repay it, the contractor refused to acknowledge it, often quoting inflated amounts such as "a lakh," Gunjal says.

This is debt bondage in its simplest and cruellest form: a small loan that becomes a life sentence, and eventually a family inheritance. Children are born into it and put to work inside it. It is also far from rare. India has at least 11 million people living in modern slavery, more than any other country, according to Walk Free's Global Slavery Index 2023.

Also Read:  Moga Bonded Labour Scandal: Officials Shield Slave Masters

The Illusion of a Job

What makes bonded labour so hard to break is that many of its victims do not see themselves as captives.

When officials questioned the labourers, Aher says, some even had "positive things" to say about the contractor. "They said he gave them money and they got employment. We asked them if they were ready to go home, and they said if they got a chance they would, but if not, they would continue living there."

The illusion of opportunity ran parallel to the reality of bondage. The contractor, for his part, had his version ready. "The contractor said he was just running some construction work and that the people here were cutting stones and being paid," Manjare shares, based on the enquiry conducted during the rescue.

Sixteen Years, Then a Pile of Dirt

A social worker who has worked closely with Govind, and who asked not to be named, says he found his sister "in a very distraught state." The grinding work, she says, had pushed many at the site into drinking, his sister among them.

When they were reunited, he learnt she now had three little children. "I was so happy to see her. I thought that finally I would be able to celebrate Raksha Bandhan. She is my only sister," he says.

Asked if he feels angry about the years she lost, he goes quiet. His silence says enough.

A Damning FIR, Diluted Charges

The case against the accused rests on FIR No. 158 of 2025, registered at Ghargaon police station at 10.09 pm on the night of the rescue, with a government labour officer as the complainant. On paper, it is a damning document.

It records that the workers had gone to Nashik for daily wage work about a decade earlier, and that two men, Subhash Rathod and Madhukar Dalvi, brought them to Sangamner to break stones. It says the two exploited the workers' poverty and lack of awareness for about 10 years, paid them between Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 a week, subjected them to physical and mental exploitation, and did not let them go home even when they wanted to. It notes that the accused knew the workers were Katkari, a Scheduled Tribe. It also records that five children, the youngest just seven, were made to graze sheep for four other men: Sopan Chitalkar, Vitthal Bichkule, Manik Hande and Baban Karande. The children's wages, Rs 10,000 each and Rs 50,000 in all, were taken and kept by Dalvi, according to the FIR.

Yet the charges that follow are strikingly light for crimes this grave. The main charge under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita is Section 146, unlawful compulsory labour, which carries a maximum sentence of one year. The three sections of the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act carry up to three years and a fine of just Rs 2,000, and are bailable. The heaviest charges, under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and the Juvenile Justice Act, carry up to five years.

What the FIR leaves out is more telling than what it includes. It describes people recruited from one district, moved to another and held in forced labour for years, which is the textbook pattern of trafficking. Debt bondage is recognised as a practice similar to slavery, and trafficking under Section 143 of the BNS is meant to punish exactly that. When it involves more than one person or a child, trafficking is non-bailable and carries 10 years to life. It does not appear in the FIR. Neither does wrongful confinement, although the FIR itself says the workers were not allowed to leave. There is no charge for the assault and intimidation it records, and none for cheating over the children's wages Dalvi allegedly pocketed.

Also Read:  Bonded Labour: Over 50 Victims, Including Children, Trapped in Moga

Out on Bail

Soon after the rescue, Deputy Superintendent of Police Kunal Sonawane of Sangamner said three of the six accused had been arrested and efforts were on to trace the others. Today, according to everyone interviewed for this story, even those arrested are out on bail. Attempts to reach the accused for comment were unsuccessful.

With charges this light, bail was almost a formality. The one charge that would have made it difficult, trafficking, was never filed. So a woman who lost 16 years of her life, and scores of others who lost a decade or more of theirs, must now watch the men accused of holding them go about their lives, while their own lives remain on hold.

A Law With Deadlines, a System Without Urgency

The law is not silent on what the survivors are owed, or on how quickly they should get it. Its timelines are tight for a reason. Families like these walk out of bondage with nothing: no land, no savings, no work. Without prompt help, the next advance from the next contractor becomes impossible to refuse. Human rights activists warn that the first few weeks after a rescue are critical in keeping freed workers from slipping back into bondage.

Under the Centre's rehabilitation scheme for bonded labourers, revised in 2021, every rescued person is entitled to Rs 1 lakh if an adult man, Rs 2 lakh if a woman or child, and Rs 3 lakh in cases of extreme deprivation, with up to Rs 30,000 paid by the district administration as immediate cash assistance. Beyond cash, the district administration is meant to help survivors rebuild their lives, from ration and MGNREGA cards to land pattas and health insurance.

The legal process is meant to move just as fast. The Labour Ministry's standard operating procedure says the summary trial in a bonded labour case should begin within 24 hours of a rescue and be completed within three months. By that measure, this case should have been decided by August last year.

Measured against those deadlines, the survivors of Sangamner have been failed at almost every step. All 72 have received their release certificates, the Labour Department in Palghar confirms. But an official at the Palghar Labour Office told The Probe this week that only 57 of the 62 survivors from Palghar have received even the Rs 30,000. The rest, including the 10 from Nashik, appear to be waiting still. None of the 72 has received the full rehabilitation amount, and it is not clear whether a chargesheet has been filed.

Officials in this case explain the wait by pointing to the courts. The full rehabilitation amount, they say, can be paid only after the accused are convicted, because the scheme ties it to conviction. It is exactly this delay that the National Human Rights Commission warned against in 2021, when it advised that rehabilitation be delinked from conviction, on the principle that once a person is freed from bondage, they should be compensated without waiting on a verdict. But even setting the courts aside, the excuse does not hold. Because the FIR invokes the SC/ST Act for forcing tribal workers into bonded labour, each victim is owed a further Rs 1 lakh as relief: 25 percent at the FIR stage, 50 percent once the chargesheet reaches court and the rest on conviction. The rules require the district administration to provide relief within seven days, and the police to file a chargesheet within 60 days. Yet the survivors have not received even the first instalment due at the FIR stage.

The same district has shown it can do better. In a 2023 case, 39 people rescued from bonded labour in Ahilyanagar, many of them Katkari and 14 of them children, received their full compensation of between ₹1 lakh and ₹3 lakh each by late 2024. The money was released only after the Maharashtra State Human Rights Commission took suo motu cognisance of media reports and directed the state government to pay. That case was handled by the same NGO, Amrutvahini, that helped rescue the Sangamner survivors, and officials called it a first for the state. Sixteen months after the Sangamner rescue, its 72 survivors are still waiting for a similar push.

Freed, but Not Yet Free

Govind has his sister back. He can celebrate Raksha Bandhan with her again. That is the victory in this story, and it belongs to him, to Vasant, who risked his own sister to get the word out, and to the officials and activists who acted on it.

But a rescue is meant to be the beginning of justice, not the end of it. The men accused of stealing a decade of these families' lives are out on bail, while the charge that could have kept them in jail was never filed. The survivors, meanwhile, are back in the same villages and the same poverty that pushed them into bondage in the first place, holding certificates that say they are free and waiting for money the law says was due long ago. Every month that passes without a trial or compensation makes the next contractor's advance a little harder to refuse. Until the system moves as quickly as the law demands, Govind's sister, and the 71 others freed with her, remain only half rescued.

*Names of survivors have been changed to protect their identities.