“My grandchildren make me a very happy man. I spend my evenings playing with them …I hope they all study well and get into jobs other than fishing,” Venkataiah looking at his youngest granddaughter playing nearby. His large family of 4 sons, 2 daughters and 9 grandchildren are all living in houses close by. They have had difficult times with the owner.

Not only were they paid unfairly for their fish, they were never given what they asked for even in terms of provisions or wages for their efforts. “If we asked for Rs 1000, the owner would give us only Rs 500,” explains Venkataiah. The owner would buy them groceries and would deduct the money from the amount due to them from the next batch of fish they sold. Eventually, they lost count of what they owed the owner. Amaragiri is such an interior village that they had no medical facilities and the nearest hospital was in Kollapur, about 8 kilometres away. Venkataiah and his family were among the 38 families rescued by the joint efforts of the police, the RDO of Kollapur and Foundation for Sustainable Development (FSD) team, in January 2016.

The rescue was more complicated since the labourers and the “owners” lived in the same village. Over a two day rescue operation, the families were brought to the government officials who conducted an inquiry and declared them free from bondage. “Our lives have changed after the rescue in so many ways,” says Venkataiah. The FSD team has been working with the government to make the supporting benefits available to the survivors who were rescued at Amaragiri.

They are making alternative means of livelihood available for the villagers. They’re also helping the villagers with means to take their catch of fish to the market.