Nagapattinam: In a heart-wrenching situation, the parents of a 12-year-old boy were forced to sell their child to work as a bonded labourer after receiving Rs 10,000 from a 48-year-old man in Tamil Nadu's Panangudi.

According to The Times of India, the boy's parents, who work as daily labourers in Tamil Nadu's Thanjavur district, were forced to send their child to work as cattle herd in the farmland after receiving Rs 10,000 from the farmland owner, B Chandru. After the recent disaster caused by the cyclonic storm Gaja, these parents had no other option than to take this decision. 

The Childline officials rescued the boy on December 22 and later realised that the boy was working there for the past 15 days. The boy was taken to Nagapattinam's sub-collector AK Kamal Kishore’s office where the boy revealed that his parents had sold him after they had experienced severe loss during the cyclone.

Later, the police registered a case against Chandru, and the boy was sent to government children home in Nagapattinam. On December 24, the sub-collector provided the release documents and ensured the boy stayed in a children protection home.