Selvam spent the first 20 years of his life enslaved with his family in a rice mill — not allowed to see the outside world unless he took matters into his own hands. And that’s exactly what he did the very night before his family’s rescue by an IJM rescue team.
After years of confinement, Selvam’s family learned a relative was dying. Selvam begged the mill owner to let them leave the mill to visit their relative and say their goodbyes. The mill owner refused the request, growing angry.
Close to midnight that night, Selvam climbed over a water tank and the high compound wall, walked a kilometer in the dark and then took a train to where their relative lived. Arriving in the middle of the night, Selvam gave his family's well wishes to the relative, then made the journey back to the mill by morning hoping not to be discovered and punished by the mill owner.
Selvam arrived back the morning our rescue team came to free his family and arrest the mill owner. Instead of more abuse for defying the owner, Selvam was met with freedom.
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