Amid the second wave covid pandemic, life in the tea garden areas of Kalain Tea Estate (T. E) became miserable. Many families could not meet their daily basic needs and this has made the community much more vulnerable in various aspects and pushed them out of their village.

In June 2021, twenty-one (21) villagers from Kalain Tea Estates, Cachar District of Assam were lured for a handsome salary promise by the agents and were taken to Himachal Pradesh.

At the beginning of August 2021, two migrants out of 21 who escaped shared the plight of the rest of the migrants in Himachal Pradesh. Seva Kendra Silchar (SKS), a partner organisation of Caritas India, came to know about the incident and lodged FIR immediately and intervened in the case with the support of the local police. They also took the support of media personals, Khasi Students Union Adivasi youths and Childline. Caritas India team of Northeast and Uttar Pradesh Region facilitated the entire process in this case.

FIRs were lodged in two Police Stations; namely; Kalain Police Station and Gumra Police Station and there was prompt response and assistance from the law enforcement agency. Due to which one of the local agents was arrested and this made the intervention easier.

Caritas India along with SKS managed to rescue seven migrants and reached them to their home with all formalities on 25^th August 2021. Out of seven migrants, there were two children (one boy and one girl) and 5 adults (one woman and 4 men).

One of the migrants aged 23yrs said that “I” on behalf of the seven returnees, would like to thank Seva Kendra Silchar and Caritas India for all their efforts in bringing us back home, from mid-way till home, you have restored our dignity”

Dasharath Munda, the uncle of two children expressed his heartfelt gratitude to Seva Kendra Silchar and Caritas India saying, “I thought, I will never meet my nephew and niece again in life. My heart filled with joy and my eyes filled with tears of happiness seeing them. Thanks to NGO for their generous work in bringing back these two children”.

One of the children who is nine years old said, “I and my sister were made to cut animal fodder in one of the houses along with the other migrant’.

Mr.Raphael Barla, from SKS who took the lead in the rescue operation, said, “The whole process of intervention was challenging but there was great satisfaction at the end. Thanking Caritas India team for the timely guidance and support which was reassuring the combined efforts of this cluster program in the region”.

Five rescued adults will be linked with MGNREGA and if possible, they will be provided skill trainings with the support of Seva Kendra Silchar, so that they can earn livelihood locally and avoid migrating outside the village. The two minor children will be enrolled back in school.