Mallesh Badrappa, studies Bachelor’s of Social Work at Madras Christian College, one of the most prestigious educational institutes in Chennai.He spends his day waking up early, attending online classes, learning English from classmates, eating healthy meals and getting a comfortable night’s sleep.
And while this may seem like a normal routine for a student, Mallesh’s life was quite different just seven years ago when he was rescued from bonded labour on a rose farm.From the age of six, Mallesh woke up early to graze cattle and spent most of his day dodging thorns to pluck roses from the farms of Krishnagiri, Tamil Nadu. Along with abuses, exploitation and ill-treatment, he was served occasional vegetable curry and ragi soup for three meals a day.While his mother passed away two weeks after giving birth to him, his father died five months after he was born. The reason — he does not know. However, since his birth, Mallesh was blamed for the demise of his mother and was never truly accepted by his siblings.
“I lived with my elder brother Marappan, who was in his teens, and my aunt. When I was in class II, I was taken to a farm by my brother and asked to work there,” Mallesh recalls. And that was the end of this childhood.The 21-year-old says he was unaware of the events that transpired between his sibling and the farm owner or why he was asked to begin work.“I grazed cows and milked them every morning. After that, I spent the remaining day harvesting tomatoes, rose plants and watering the seasonal vegetable farm,” he recollects and remembers when the owner, Srinivas, arrived one day and physically abused him because the cows damaged the farm while grazing.“I lived in a small space next to the owner’s residence. My brother occasionally paid a five-minute visit, then met the owner and left,” Mallesh says, suspecting that the brother came to collect money for his labour.
It was only in 2013 that officials from the district administration rescued Mallesh from the farm and relieved him from the clutches of forced labour.
The government officials were given a tip-off and raided the place. “We came to know about some children working in rose farms as bonded labourers through International Justice Mission (IJM), an organisation working for the cause, and raided different places,” says Praveen P Nair, District Collector of Nagapattinam.
He expressed his ambition to become an IAS officer to help vulnerable children and people like him. And to direct him on the path, the IJM suggested that he pursue a graduate degree in social work.This student is now spending all his free time working on his English language skills to prepare for the civil services examination. Mallesh’s brother still ostracises him for their mother’s death and refuses to accept him in the family.
