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For decades, Pedda Lingamma’s world was defined by the invisible chains of debt. Today, she leads the very ground she once worked as a bonded labourer. On December 14, as the results of the local body polls were declared, the Chenchu settlement of Amaragiri erupted in celebration. Relatives and neighbors, who shared her journey from the Nallamala forests to freedom, garlanded her and lifted her up in their arms to celebrate the victory.
Now around 50 years old, Lingamma’s life began in the shadows of debt bondage in Amaragiri, a village in Telangana’s Nagarkurnool district. Her home lies in the Kollapur region, where the Krishna River cuts through the dense reaches of the Nallamala forest.
Members of the Chenchu tribe in Amaragiri have endured generations of bonded labour under a small group of local Golla families. The exploitation was tied to their primary occupation: fishing in the Krishna River. By providing small high-interest loans for nets and supplies, the creditors forced the Chenchus to sell their catch exclusively to them at suppressed prices, a debt trap that lasted decades.
Lingamma said it was the only life she knew since childhood, until 2016, when an NGO worked with district officials to rescue them and issue Release Certificates. She was among 106 individuals who were rescued, and it has taken several more years for the Chenchu fisherfolk in the village to slowly regain control over their livelihood and access government schemes.
Interestingly, Lingamma, who contested with the support of the Congress, had only one opponent in the ST-reserved sarpanch seat - her own younger brother, who contested independently.
“At first we thought the seat was reserved for women, so all the villagers including my brother said I must contest, although I was reluctant at first. But when we learned it’s not reserved for women, he decided to contest and asked me to back down but I refused, and ended up defeating him. I got 133 votes, and my brother 91,” she said with a laugh.
While both her sons are also fishermen, and she herself continues to go fishing twice a day, she said that her grandchildren are in school and the community’s quality of life has improved in recent years, since being able to access schemes through the labour department and fisheries department.
“Earlier, we used to go fishing in coracles. The men who controlled the fishing trade in the village would give us fishing nets, and refused to pay for the fish we caught, calling it repayment for the nets. We now have fishing boats, and the government has provided a four-wheeler to directly sell fish in Hyderabad,” she said. The village also has a Chenchu Tribes Fishing Company, a fish-processing unit set up by the fisheries department
Lingamma said that her plans as sarpanch depend on access to funds, but her priority is to improve the road to the nearest hospital in Kollapur, help people access government subsidised housing under the Indiramma Indlu scheme, and ensure uninterrupted power supply.
The Chenchu gudem or settlement where Lingamma lives lies uphill, further from the rest of Amaragiri village. There are about 60 Chenchu families living there, most of them survivors of debt bondage. Over 200 families of the Golla and Telaga communities also live in Amaragiri, downhill and away from the Chenchu gudem.
In 2016, district officials along with the Foundation for Sustainable Development (FSD) conducted an inquiry and recognised that the villagers were victims of bonded labour. Those rescued were given Release Certificates, their first government document that helped them access government aid for rehabilitation and livelihood.
The survivors have since organised themselves under the Released Bonded Laborers Association (RBLA) to advocate for government benefits, and Lingamma has been an active member of the association.
Kandasamy Krishnan, the Executive Director of the Foundation for Sustainable Development (FSD) and Convenor of the National Adivasi Solidarity Council (NASC), said even after the rescue, the perpetrators continued to deny fair market access for the Chenchus through intimidation and coercion. According to Krishnan, who was part of the team that led the rescue and rehabilitation efforts, they were unable to sell their catch to whomever they chose.
“Other buyers in the local markets were afraid of the perpetrators and refused to buy fish from the Chenchus. We worked with the fisheries department to stop them from issuing threats,” Krishnan said.
The perpetrators also tried to create hurdles through their political influence when the Chenchus sought bus connectivity to their settlement, Krishnan said.
But with organisation and political participation, things have been improving, according to both Krishnan and Lingamma. In Nagarkurnool, Wanaparthy, and Mahabubnagar, at least five bonded labour survivors have been elected to gram panchayats - two sarpanchs and three ward members. Lingamma is the only woman sarpanch among them.
In the previous election in 2019, another survivor of bonded labour, Mallaiah, was elected the Upa Sarpanch of Amaragiri. Lingamma says this has made the community more proficient at dealing with government officials and the perpetrators, and helped ease the tension with the other dominant communities in the village.