Nuapada child killed near AP brick kiln

Nuapada child killed near AP brick kiln

WEDNESDAY, 04 APRIL 2012 22:35

SUDHIR MISHRA | BALANGIR

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In a suspected case of human sacrifice, a three-year-old boy was killed in Vakativari Kandriga of Venkatareddy Palem Panchayat in Ojjili Mandal of Nellore district.

According to reports, Pitambar Adhabaria (35) and Rukmini (30) of Thungo village of Komna block of Nuapada district along with 3-year-old Pappu had migrated to brick kilns of Andhra Pradesh three months ago.

They were working in the brick kilns of one Raja Naidu along with 100 other migrant labourers from Komna, Nuapda and Turekela areas of Balangir district.

The brick kiln owner was allegedly torturing the labourers, besides abusing them with all the filthy language. Even he was not sympathetic towards the sick labourers.

Reports said Rukmini did not find her son in the wee hours of March 29. Soon, she searched the child along with other workers but at last stumbled upon the child’s body in a bush near a road, about 2 km from the kiln.

The child was found dead with its mouth glued shut, tongue cut off, both eyes plucked out and throat slit. The gruesome killing has given rise to suspicions that the child had been sacrificed.

However, the labourers did not lodge an FIR as the kiln owner, Raja Naidu, had allegedly threatened them not to go to police.

The Revenue officials, who came for the panchanama of the body, reported the police about the incident. But the body was cremated without any postmortem.

The incident exposed the grim reality that the brick kiln workers of Odisha in Andhra Pradesh are not safe. Last year also around 500 bonded labourers of Odisha were released under Bonded Labour Act from a Chennai brick kiln, after they faced inhuman torture and exploitation at the hands of their pay masters.

“The Odisha Government is not taking adequate steps to prevent distress migration from Balangir and Nuapada. Within Odisha too, there are several unauthorised brick kilns keeping thousands of bonded labourers, 50 per cent of whom are children. It is time the authorities took stringent action on these brick kilns,” said SK Basheer, a member of Bonded Labour and Child Labour Vigilance Monitoring Committee of Andhra Pradesh.