Kanpur, June 30 -- When Rajrani and Virendra Gautam finally embraced their son on Sunday night, the relief was overwhelming. For six months, they had wandered the streets of Gurugram carrying posters with his photograph and sleeping on footpaths in the hope that someone would recognise him.

They returned home with him on Monday night only after police in Muzaffarnagar rescued him from an alleged bonded labour racket that had kept 13 workers confined inside a dona-pattal manufacturing unit.

Back home, Shivam has recounted horrific accounts of what he endured. The 22-year-old alleged that he was forced to work almost round the clock, allowed barely an hour to an hour-and-a-half of sleep each day, beaten with machine belts, electric wires ...