New Delhi, 15 January (H.S.): The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of India took suo motu cognizance on Thursday of a harrowing media report detailing a 15-year-old boy from Bihar's Kishanganj district who endured eight months of bonded labour after being separated from his father at Haryana's Bahadurgarh Railway Station, issuing notices to top officials across three states for detailed reports within two weeks.

The incident unfolded when the boy alighted from a train to fetch water amid surging crowds, missing re-boarding and stranding him alone. Lingering at the station for two days, he fell prey to a man promising employment, who trafficked him to Greater Noida's Gautam Budh Nagar district in Uttar Pradesh. There, the minor toiled from dawn till dusk—grazing cattle, cutting fodder—under relentless physical torture.

An escape bid failed; captors recaptured and brutalised him further. Tragedy peaked when his left elbow severed in a fodder-cutting machine; the employer abandoned him roadside without medical succour.

An unidentified passerby transported the gravely injured youth to a Nuh district hospital in Haryana, from whence fear of recapture spurred barefoot flight over three kilometres until government schoolteachers spotted his plight, alerting Government Railway Police at Bahadurgarh. He finally reunited with family in August 2025—nine months post-separation—his mangled limb a permanent testament to exploitation.

NHRC flagged glaring lapses: no Bonded Labour Release Certificate—mandatory under the Central Sector Scheme for Rehabilitation of Bonded Labourer-2021—precluding compensation or aid; queried disability certification for Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 benefits.

Notices demand responses from Haryana's Chief Secretary and DGP, Gautam Budh Nagar's Police Commissioner and DM, and Kishanganj DM, probing complicity, relief disbursement, and prosecutorial action.

Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar