Harilal, Gautham can’t believe they are free

Sitting on a chair in the fresh air was a new experience for seven-year-old Harilal. Exhausted and baffled, Harilal blinked blankly at a function hall in Falaknuma after being rescued by the police.

For more than five months, he had been forced to work for 15 hours a day at a bangle manufacturing unit in Talabkatta, with about 200 others.

Home was a windowless room with 15 kids. He began to think it was his duty to work hard and get beaten by the ‘malik’.

“Bhai brought me from my home. He promised I will be earning like a big man, and I can buy anything,” Harilal said.

Harilal, the son of a farmer, never went to school. “I was asked to work. But I did not like to work all the time. I like to sleep and play. Here we could not sleep well, and could not play,” he said.

He wants to go home. His big wish right now is for tasty food, and sleep.

Gautham Kumar, 8, thought the cops who kicked down the wooden doors of the unit at 4 am was a part of his nightmare.

He took hours to figure out that he was free. He really felt happy when the ‘malik’ of eight months was taken away.

Goutham was brought from the remote Azadnagar of Gaya district in Bihar. The bangle unit owner told him he was sending `1,500 every month to his parents. “I felt sad about being inside the building most of the time. Malik did not allow me to sit down when I was tired,” Gautam said.

“We have to get up early, and start working before 9 am. It goes on till 10 pm. I feel relieved when I can sleep,,” he said.