The Society for Community Organisation (SOCO) Trust, which is based in Madurai in the State of Tamil Nadu has released 20 children, aged between nine and eighteen years old, from bonded labour in three different locations in the State of Andhra Pradesh, India.

At least 18 of the 20 children had been handed over to traders by the parents themselves. The parents were promised thousands of rupees for letting the children work with the traders and some were paid an advance. The children were then taken far away from their homes to a place where they were completely at the mercy of the traders.

The children often got less than five hours sleep a night as they were woken at 5.00am in order to go and sell sweets and savouries and did not get to bed until past midnight. The children only received two meals a day and were severely punished if they made any mistakes.

One ten year old boy, A. Mohamed Sheik Fareed, was reported to have been branded on the stomach with a red hot iron by a trader as a punishment for accidentally dropping a load of fuel on the floor.

A team from the SOCO Trust managed to trace the children after receiving a complaint from one village. The children have been released and returned to their homes with interim compensation of Rs 1,000 (US$ 21.25). However, Mr P.W. C. Davidar, the Special Officer for Bonded Labour Abolition for the Government of Tamil Nadu, who is working with the SOCO Trust on this case, is pressing the relevant officials in five different districts to ensure that the children are properly rehabilitated and receive Rs 19,000 (US$403.75) in compensation.