NHRC Notice To Odisha, Telangana On Children Being ‘Mortgaged’ To Repay Loan

Bhubaneswar: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has sought reports from Odisha and Telangana on reports about women being allegedly forced to ‘mortgage’ their children for failure to repay money taken to perform the last rites of their husbands.

The Commission has asked the chief secretaries of Odisha and Telangana to submit action taken reports (ATRs) within four weeks regarding children being mortgaged for repayment of loans.

The NHRC issued the direction following a petition by human rights activist and lawyer Radhakanta Tripathy who cites two instances of alleged mortgage of children, sources said.

In one case, Shukadev Parabhue of Belpada area in Balangir district had gone to work at a brick kiln near Hyderabad in Telangana along with his wife, daughter and son. However, Shukadev fell ill and died on March 8 in Telangana. While the brick klin owner asked the family to conduct the last rites near the site, the wife wanted to take the body back to the village.

As Shukadev had taken Rs 60,000 from the owner, the owner forcibly kept her 12-year-old daughter as a bonded labourer. The wife returned to her village with her six-year-old son. A few days later, the Balangir district administration managed to rescue the girl from the brick kiln, said the petitioner.

In a similar incident, a woman Sabitri Nayak from Champua area in Keonjhar district was forced to ‘mortgage’ two of her sons, aged 13 and 11, as she was unable to repay the loan taken to perform her husband’s last rites. The tribal woman had borrowed Rs 5,000 from a neighbour to perform the last rites of her husband on January 26, 2016. After being unable to repay the loan, the woman, who has three other children, handed over her two sons to the neighbour. The boys were made to look after the neighbour’s cattle before being alloted to leave after working for for more than a month.

The petitioner wanted to know the steps taken by the state government to address such issues and said measures should be taken to prevent recurrence of such incidents.