Anti-Trafficking Coalition Frees Two Families from a Violent Brick Kiln

BANGALORE, INDIA – When members of an anti-trafficking coalition in Karnataka state heard about violent abuse at a local brick kiln, they quickly sprang into action.

Together with police and government officials, they helped rescue two families who had been trafficked across the country and forced to work in shockingly violent conditions for two years.

Today, those families are resettling safely at home at last—as one man shared with relief, “I am able to just freely breathe, now that we are out of that jail.”

Terrifying Violence at a Brick Kiln

This case began when a desperate father managed to escape the brick kiln where he, his mother, wife and three children had been held for the last two years.

In early 2020, his family and another had been lured to the brick kiln from Odisha[1] with payment advances of 30,000 rupees each (about $400) and the promises of fair wages in southern India. Once they arrived, however, the women were barred from leaving the kiln at all and the men were closely watched.

Every day, these families were forced to make 1,000 bricks under frequent verbal abuse and physical violence. They were paid only 300 or 400 rupees per family each week (about $4), which was barely enough for basic food. They had no protection from the dangerous work at the kiln, and even the children were often left injured and without access to medical care. The owner even forced one woman back to work just 10 days after she gave birth to a baby boy.

Unable to bear this torture from the owner, the families tried to escape to a neighboring state in early 2022. But the owner caught them soon after, dragged them back, and beat them violently. One of the men was even tied to a tree and beaten with metal pipes.

Meanwhile, the kiln owner also started claiming that their payment advance was actually a debt to repay—which he had also ballooned to 127,000 rupees (about $1,600) with false interest. The families felt hopeless that they could ever escape his brutal control.