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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