Hope for bonded labourers

Chennai:

More than 300 released labourers from 49 families will soon be able to avail the important documents denied for several years thanks to the effort of state government.

The workers submitted their petitions to Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO) Tiruthani K Sridharan during a Special Grievance Day held in conjunction with International Justice Mission Chennai.

The released workers in the district since 2003 will now be applying for important documents such as ration cards, community certificates, voter identification, house site patta, old age pension and disability benefits.

These documents are essential for effective rehabilitation and reintegration of the labourers as free citizens into the community. However owing to lack of convergence of the schemes as well as reshuffle in administration these labourers have waited years to obtain these documents, according to IJM sources.

Sridharan vowed these petitions will now be fast-tracked so that the labourers can have access to the benefits to which they are entitled.

This process usually involves many delays since each petition must be submitted to different officials and different offices. But Sridharan is bringing convergence to the system by allowing all petitions to be submitted at the Tiruthani Taluk Office.