The
latest figure available with the Human Rights Commission shows over 14 million
children living under slavery. “If one does an honest counting, this number
would surely jump to twice that — perhaps closer to 30 million,” said National
Convener of People’s Vigilance Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR), Lenin
Raghuvanshi. “Men, women and children are forced to work as bonded labourers in
brick kilns and bangle industry. Unfortunately, women and children are never
accounted for,” he added.
Raghuvanshi believes bonded labour is a
contemporary form of slavery. “If it is still existing, it is a clear
reflection of the failure of welfare state. The Government, which is supposed
to provide them basic necessities, has failed them. As they are poor, they move
out to eke out a living in cities and end up as bonded labourers in brick kilns
and factories,” he added.
Majority of these bonded labourers are migrants
workers who shift from impoverished regions like Bundelkhand, Bihar and
Jharkhand in search of work, and since they are unskilled workers, they end up
in brick kilns or bangle factories of Firozabad. In brick kilns, the entire
family works as a team. “These migrant workers are allotted a piece of land by
the owner where the workers have to dig the earth and then wet it with water to
make the mud suitable for the moulding process. Generally for moulding, the
whole family is engaged, including young children,” said Convener, Voice of
People, Shruti Nagvanshi.
The labourers are paid Rs200 for making 1,000 bricks, which are
then sold in the market for Rs7,000! These labourers are recruited by agents,
who ask them to take their family along. “It is an attractive prospect where
one is allowed to take his family with him. The labourer is promised
accommodation, is often paid an advance — which is a veiled term for debt. Once
he accepts the advance, he falls into the trap,” she explained.
The workers are not allowed to leave the brick kiln premises, and
the living conditions are barely basic. Labourers live in shanties with bricks
piled one upon another as walls and straw covering the top, which do not afford
any protection from the sun and rains. These rooms are small, measuring 4 feet
x 5 feet. In such tiny rooms, labourers and their families have to manage their
kitchen and keep their household goods.
Studies carried out by different agencies also point to alleged
sexual exploitation of women in brick kilns. Radha (name changed) was lured
from her village in Jharkhand on the pretext of a job by another women and sold
as a bonded labourer in a brick kiln at Jaunpur. She told human rights
activists that she was raped daily by the brick kiln owner and was beaten up
when she protested.
Young children are the worst sufferers though. They do not go to
schools and instead help their parents arrange bricks for drying, and collect
the broken and improperly moulded bricks. Once they get older, they are drawn
into this trade having being trained from young age.
Kamla, mother of five, revealed how her two youngest children,
Medhu (5) and Rani (3), used to cry for food. With barely Rs200 she made for
making 1,000 bricks, she didn’t have enough to feed her family, and her
daughter died of malnutrition before she could turn four.
Workers employed in brick kilns mostly belong to the Schedule
Caste (SC), Schedule Tribe (ST) and minorities, which are usually non-literate
and non-numerate. They do not easily understand the arithmetic of
loan/debt/advance, and documentary evidence remains with the creditor and its
contents are never made known to them.
Full article as follows:
#endslavery #bondedlabour
#slavery #u4humanrights #humanrights
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