After languishing for 40 days in plantation estates, tribal labourers finally back in Vellore
As many as 304 labourers, including 18 non-tribal men, landed at Agramserri in Anaicut block, Vellore district, on 13 special buses, after travelling for about 15 hours.
Published: 09th May 2020 06:41 PM | Last Updated: 09th May 2020 06:41 PM | A+A A-
Government officials giving away rice kits, groceries and clothes to tribal labourers returning from Kanniyakumari
Ending their 40-day ordeal in plantation estates in Kanniyakumari district without work and wages, tribal labourers from Vellore and Ranipet districts returned home on Saturday.
As many as 304 labourers, including 18 non-tribal men, landed at Agramserri in Anaicut block, Vellore district, on 13 special buses, after travelling for about 15 hours.
An official team, consisting of Block Development Officers (BDOs) P Imayavaramban, A Vincent Ramesh Babu and Tahsildar PS Muralikumar, received them at the government school premises in Agaramserri.
“We provided them food immediately after they reached the school. Medical check-ups were also held for the labourers,” Vincent Ramesh Babu told The New Indian Express.
Kits consisting of rice, masala items and other groceries were also given to them, besides a dhoti and sari.
Of the 304 labourers, 131 are women. They had been employed at clove plantation estates in Karumparai near Keeriparai in Kanniyakumari district. Since the lockdown, the employer provided them free food but no wages.
“We were languishing in the estate for about 40 days. Our employer gave us free food but not any wages for the layoff period,” C Chidambaram, a labourer, said.
The distraught workers were trying hard to return to their homes for long but in vain.
“As we were not paid wages for the layoff days, we wanted immediately to return home. We tried our best by approaching officers of the district administration, but could succeed only on Friday when we started,” another labourer, C Kumaravel, noted.
The Vellore district administration arranged transportation for them to their respective villages from Agaramserri.
The tribal labourers, belonging to different hilly hamlets in Peenjamanthai and Jawadhu Hills, used to go to the clove estates in Keeriparai and its surrounding places for work just after the Pongal season. They would work for 2-3 months.
On Thursday, a group of 35 tribal labourers, including 4 children, returned to Anaicut from Tenkasi where they were stuck ever since the lockdown was enforced.
