Tamil Nadu

NHRC team meets weavers

NAMAKKAL: A two-member high level team from National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) met weavers who were forced to sell their kidneys due to poverty and those who were being detained in powerloom units as bonded labourers at Komarapalayam, Pallipalayam and a cluster of villages in Namakkal district here on Wednesday.

According to highly placed sources, the NHRC team led by its senior investigating official Issac conducted a detailed enquiry with the weavers who had allegedly sold their kidneys to wipe off the debts and advances incurred by them at the time of their employment.

The high-level team also received first hand information on the allegations that bonded labour system was prevailing in many of the powerloom centres functioning in these areas of Namakkal district.

Based on a complaint preferred by Madurai-based Society for Community Organisation (SOCO) Trust that weavers in Namakkal district were being forced to sell their kidneys against the debts and advances, which they received at the time of their employment in powerloom centres, the NHRC team conducted the investigation.

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