The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued notices to the District Magistrates and Superintendents of Police of Shrawasti and Mirzapur districts, after taking suo-motu cognizance of a media report that 48 labourers belonging to the Scheduled Caste were sold by one contractor to another on February 28 earlier this year.
An official communiqué of the NHRC released on Tuesday evening mentioned a media report, carried on the July 8, 2015, that the labourers included four women, six men, six girls and 32 children were engaged in construction work at Mirjapur. They had been working for the last five months at the construction site of a bridge on ‘Bannsagar’ in District Mirzapur and had not been paid any wages. The contractor subjected them to physical assault and intimidation. Some of the child labourers were to appear in UP Board Examination but they were not allowed.
Justice D. Murugesan, Member of the Commission has observed that the contents of the media report, if true, raise a serious issue of violation of human rights of the victims. He has given two weeks’ time to the officers to submit the action taken report in the matter. The newspaper report also mentioned that some of the labourers recently managed to escape and reached their native place Shrawasti district.
They narrated their ordeal to the district authorities. The employer chased them up to their village and threatened to implicate them in a false theft case. The family members of the victims have submitted a memorandum addressed to the District Magistrate, Shrawasti and Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Bhinga praying for action against the offenders.