While many of these illiterate labourers keep on struggling for survival, some fortunate ones make it back to their homelands, albeit scared, scarred and sceptic. “We had come to Adalaj to work in a brick kiln about five months back from Chhattishgarh. Sardar Gulal told us we will get more money if we come here. But today, we are leaving Gujarat without a penny, as we cannot withstand the torture anymore,” says Partiram, a labourer at a brick kiln who was rescued along with 24 others by the authorities on Friday.

According to Partiram, the group of 25 labourers are leaving for their home state on Friday night itself.

He says they were made to work for 16 to 18 hours a day. “There was no facility of drinking water. We had to drink from a waterhole in the nearby jungle, which was also used by animals. Initially, we did not get any money, but after two months, the kiln owner, Nareshbhai gave us Rs 2,000 each,” Partiram says, adding that while the kiln owner used to make weekly payments for the work, there was no regularity in payment to begin with. “When we resisted this, he threatened to beat one of our man. There are more people from outside Gujarat trapped in his kiln,” he adds.

Gulal, the labour contractor who brought the group, says he too is fleeing. “Nareshbhai paid me Rs 15,000 to get these people. However, once I reached here with my people, things turned ugly. There was no basic facility and Nareshbhai or his men would always follow us everywhere to see that none of us could escape,” he says. “Finally, we got in touch with the Mazdoor Union in Kadi and they freed us from Nareshbhai,” he adds.

Shantilal Meena from Dakshin Rajashtan Majdoor Union, which is operating at Kadi, says the labourers were living in total inhuman conditions, when they got in touch with the union.

“We had to smuggle some of them out to the Gandhinagar Collector to lodge a complaint. Successively with the intervention of Gandhinagar SDO Manisha Chandra, these labourers were freed. But there are several such cases in this sector, which rarely get reported,” says Meena.