Odisha tribal girl’s plea helps rescue 6,000 labourers in TN

■ Alerts relatives about owner’s brutality

A teenager from Odisha’s Bolangir district has turned out to be a messiah for many guest workers who were trapped in Tamil Nadu during Covid19 pandemic. 19-year-old Manasi Bariha helped free over 6,000 workers trapped in different brick kilns of Tamil Nadu. She managed to do so after she mustered courage and alerted her relatives about her owner’s brutal attack on workers wanting to return to their hometowns during the lockdown.

Manasi along with 355 other workers hailing from Odisha’s Bolangir, Nuapada and Kalahandi districts was working at GDM brick kiln in Pudhukuppam in Tiruvallur.

Manasi’s family had taken an advance of `28,000 in order to pay off their debts incurred for

Manasi with her young sister. medical expenses of her late mother.

The labourers were working at the kiln for six months without any facilities and on wages as low as `250 a week. After the announcement of lockdown, the labourers began to worry about their return. They approached the kiln owner, who had promised to release them if they complete the targeted number of bricks within a week. All the labourers put in their best to complete the targeted number of bricks.

However, when they approached the owner after completion of the work, he refused to let them go.

On May 18, when the workers protested, the owner and his men thrashed all of them mercilessly. They did not even spare women and children.

“Some were left grievously injured in the incident and needed urgent medical attention.,” recalls Manasi, who mustered courage and quickly slipped into a safe space from where she made frantic calls for help.

“I called up almost all the numbers on my mobile and shared the photos, audios and videos of the injured to all WhatsApp contacts appealing for urgent help,” she said.

Soon after, the pictures surfaced on social media, a complaint was lodged but the owner managed to escape.