M A I N   N E W S

Boy united with family after three years
Freed from bonded labour
Rashmi Talwar

Amritsar, August 22
Ten-year-old Malkiat Singh, alias Happy, who was too shocked and terrified to reveal the name of his parents even as he stayed at Pingalwara for three months which is barely 2 km from his home, has finally found the courage to reveal his identity and he was reunited with his parents today.

Happy was the youngest of the three ‘bonded labourers’ rescued by the police three months ago from the Lopoke/Bhagva village residence of Gurnam Singh Satta where they had been working for nearly three years. He was brought to the All-India Pingalwara Charitable Society by the Majitha police on the orders of the SSP, Ms Shashi Prabha. The Pingalwara is barely 2 km from the modest house of Happy’s parents.

Happy was allegedly abducted by Satta, a landlord, from the local railway station nearly three years ago.

Talking to The Tribune, Happy’s father Mangal Singh, a poor rickshaw-puller, and mother Sukhwider Kaur said they had not lodged a complaint when he went missing as “we are very poor and we have three other children to look after and feed”. However, the mother was elated to be united with her lost son as tears flowed from her eyes as she hugged him repeatedly. The father said they had lost hope of ever seeing him again.

Happy was initially thought to be an orphan, revealed Dr Inderjit Kaur, president of the Pingalwara society. When brought to the society by the police, he was so terrified that he was reluctant to talk about himself, she said.

Ms Jasbir Kaur, in charge of the Piara Singh ward of the society where Happy stayed for three months, succeeded in winning his trust and he divulged about his home. Happy was taken to his home and he recognised his parents, brothers and sister.

Relating his gruelling life as a bonded labourer for three years, Happy said Gurnam Singh Satta chained them (including those freed along with him) to a pillar throughout the night. They were even disallowed to answer nature’s call at night or meet any outsider. “I was never paid and I worked the whole day, performing hard labour like removing dung (‘Satta’ owned 20 buffaloes), cutting fodder with the machine, cleaning and washing,” he said.