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Trapped by debt, tribal families leave children with labour contractors, 17 rescued in Beed
While in captivity, the children were being forced to perform unpaid domestic chores, fetching water, grazing animals, doing farm work and washing clothes and utensils
PUNE:
In a chilling case of bonded labour and child exploitation, Beed police recently rescued 17 children, nine girls and eight boys, belonging to Katkari tribal families who had been held hostage by labour contractors. The children were being used as collateral after their parents failed to repay small cash advances given for seasonal work at charcoal-making units.
These families, from Raigad and Pune districts, had migrated to work in harsh conditions in wooden charcoal kilns across Maharashtra. When they failed to meet the work targets or attempted to return home, contractors detained their children at homes in Gahukhel Tanda, Ashti tehsil, Beed district, to force compliance.
The racket came to light when two children escaped captivity on the night of June 12 and reached Ahilyanagar. A local man found them wandering and handed them over to the police. A raid was then conducted jointly by the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) and Beed police, rescuing 17 children from the homes of nine labour contractors.
While in captivity, the children were being forced to perform unpaid domestic chores, fetching water, grazing animals, doing farm work and washing clothes and utensils.
Among the families exploited was that of Santosh Chandar Waghmare (45), from Kundali Amboli in Raigad district. For over a decade, Santosh and his wife Tara worked for a contractor named Ramesh Rathod at his charcoal unit in Karnataka. In exchange for an advance of just ₹1,500, they were expected to produce 350 bags of coal at ₹130 per bag. According to Santosh, to stop them from leaving, Rathod detained their 8-year-old daughter at his home in Beed for the past two years. The couple was neither allowed to meet her nor permitted to return home. They were paid a meagre ₹700 a week for their labour.
Another exploited family is that of Lahanu Mahadya Waghmare (45), a resident of Kusgaon in Pune’s Wadgaon tehsil. Lahanu, along with his two daughters and a son, accepted ₹6,000 as an advance from Kishor Rathod six months ago and was sent to work in Karnataka. According to Lahanu, Kishor later forcefully took his elder daughter to Beed under the pretext of giving her shelter, but made her do domestic work.
“These cases highlight a brutal pattern where Katkari families are being trapped in debt cycles and their children held as modern-day hostages,” said Ashok Tangade, chairman of the Beed Child Welfare Committee.
“They exploit the fact that these families are poor, landless, and uneducated.”
He added that some of the rescued children had not seen their parents for four to five years and failed to recognise them when reunited.
“The families migrate every season, making it difficult to keep children with them. The contractors take advantage of this,” Tangade said.
Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, upon learning of the case, directed Vivek Pandit, chairperson of the State-Level Tribal Development Review Committee (MoS status), to visit Beed and assess the situation. Speaking to Hindustan Times, Pandit said, “The Katkaris are a vulnerable tribal group. They don’t have documents, which makes them easy prey. Labour contractors take them to coal-making units, pay them paltry sums, and trap them with advances.”
He also raised serious concerns over the handling of the case: “Why were the witnesses—parents of the children—still at the homes of the accused? This raises the risk of intimidation and coercion.”
Beed SP Navneet Kanwat said, “Based on the CWC complaint, FIRs have been filed against nine contractors under the Human Trafficking Act, along with sections under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.”
As of now, five families—eight individuals—have been rescued. Officials said 7–8 more families remain under contractor control and will be released in phases. Two FIRs have been registered at Ahilyanagar MIDC police station and Ambhora police station. All nine accused were arrested on July 12. The contractors named in the FIRs include: Uttam Sheth, Dipak Sheth, Sanju Sheth, Santosh Sheth, Ramesh Sheth, Vishnu Sheth, Dattu Sheth, Kishor Sheth, and Ashok Sheth. Additionally, Viju Sheth and Uttam Sheth were specifically named in the FIR filed at Ahilyanagar police station.
