K'handi pregnant woman killed at Telangana kiln Saturday, 05 December 2015 | SUDHIR MISHRA | BALANGIR | in Bhubaneswar 1

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K'handi pregnant woman killed at Telangana kiln

Saturday, 05 December 2015 | SUDHIR MISHRA | BALANGIR | in Bhubaneswar

Yet another heartrending incident of torture meted out to a woman labourer leading to her death from western Odisha at a brick kiln in Telangana has come to the fore. The shocking part was that the perpetrators did not care that the poor woman was pregnant and sick on the day and on her denying to work they beat her to death.
The deceased woman was identified as Surya Bag (25) of Palipada village near Narla in Kalahandi district. She was brutally assaulted by brick kiln owner at Peddapalli, Ananth Peta of Karim Nagar district in Telangana.
According to reports, Jitendra Bag, a landless and daily wager from Kalahandi district, migrated after Nuankhai with his wife late Surya along with his two daughters and a son of (1 year).
Jitendra took advance of Rs 34,000 (for both husband and wife) from a middleman Mujib Khan of Lathor in Balangir district and along with around 110 people of his village migrated to worksite of brick kiln owner B Shyam of Telangana after the Nuankhai.
According to reports, from the beginning, the owner tried to exploit labourers to work day and night with very less food and without proper facility of stay and drinking water. When the labourers resisted, he started abusing and beating them severely. While the labourers complained to the middleman, he did not pay much heed.
According to reports, Surya was pregnant for four months and not feeling good and ready to go to work. However, the munsi and staff members of the kiln owner allegedly forced her to work and on her refusal they beat her severely.
“The supervisor along with two others assaulted my wife for not coming to work. I begged them not to beat up her. But they did not listen and brutally beat up her leading to her death,” said Jiten.
They also beat other labourers who came to Surya’s rescue. Three days after the brutal assault on her, Surya died on December 3 last.
According to reports, the labourers rushed to local labour office, 2.5 km from the worksite, and lodged a complaint. Police seized the body and conducted postmortem. No case was registered intially.
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K'handi pregnant woman killed at Telangana kiln


A team of officials of Aide et Action (an international NGO working on migrant labour and bonded labour issue) from Hyderabad rushed to the spot on December 4 and facilitated to file a case against the owner and his staff.
Revenue Divisional Officer Venkat Ram Reddy along with Deputy Commissioner of Labour came to handle the case. A case was filed against all accused. The brick kiln was sealed by the authorities and Rs 70,000 was given to Jitendra’s family as ex-gratia.