Lal Singh will never forget the sound of an alien language shouting at him. He tried to obey without flinching when it was translated for him: “Make your back stiff, so I can beat you properly.” Lal Singh, his wife Sukhli Bai, and sons Sunil Singh and Bablu were among those who departed from their village Khargone in Madhya Pradesh for Jalna, Maharashtra in search of work, and were trafficked instead to Karnataka. “On the day the trucks and cars arrived with the police, we were all wearing our oldest, torn clothes – we had washed all the others,” says Lal Singh.

“I had not even taken a bath for 9 days when they took a picture of me for the release certificate,” he says, able to laugh about it now. Lal Singh and his sons have now “bought back” the land which his father had mortgaged many years ago, and are cultivating new crops on it. They have also purchased a motorcycle and a pair of cows for their farm. “I dream of digging a well close to our field so that my sons will always have water required to grow things,” says Lal Singh with a broad smile, looking at his wife Sukhli Bai, who nods in agreement.

Jan Sahas’s rehabilitation team followed up for various government schemes for survivor Lal Singh Lal Singh and his family, and he has now received the first and second instalments of Rs. 40,000 from the government towards the construction of his house, under the Prime Minister’s Housing Scheme.