(Thomson Reuters) — Tamil Nadu state must compensate the parents of a girl who was electrocuted to death in a textile mill where they worked as bonded laborers, India’s human rights panel has ordered. The order highlights the plight of millions of people working as virtual slaves to repay debts throughout India, campaigners said.
Employers often hold children to ensure parents return when they travel. Karunaiyammal and Balasubramani Bathran said they were forced to leave their six-year-old daughter at the factory while they went home for a day trip in 2014. “We left early in the morning and by the time we came back in the evening, she had died,” said Balasubramani. “They said she had accidentally touched a live wire.”
India banned bonded labor in 1976 but it remains widespread.
