Bondage Has Many Hues

The boys were forced to make the puri in the same small room that they slept in.

It was a simple move. Two rich businessmen from Jharkhand with a flourishing food stall trade in Bangalore convinced the parents of 11 young boys that they had a better future in Bangalore. A paltry amount as an advance ensured there was no need for further coaxing; and the promise that more money would follow once the boys start working, sealed the deal.

The boys between the ages of 11- 19, boarded a train with all the excitement of naïve childhood and were transported all the way to Bangalore in an unreserved compartment– a distance of more than 2000 kms or more than 45 hours away from their home.

The parents were assured that the boys in addition to being provided with food and stay would earn a minimum monthly wage of Rs 1,500 in return for pushing carts, selling pani puris and washing plates. However, in practice, the boys were made to live in small, dingy rooms working from dawn to dusk, given two meals a day and were restricted from contacting their parents or return back home. When one of the boys once tried to escape, he was made to return back and was severely beaten for his escape.  Lost and despondent the boys had no choice but to resign to fate.

Early this year, two boys managed to escape and alert the CWC to their condition. The boys shared their fears and narrated how they were made to work from early morning till late at night. They started at dawn by making puris and then had to go out and sell them in and around the Coles Park area in Bangalore, a busy and popular area of the city. Their owners would drive around the park on scooters at frequent intervals to monitor the boys.

Taking advantage of a break in the inquiry, the boys took a much needed rest.

In April, IJM along with officials from the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU), Bangalore Urban District Administration and the Labour Department conducted an operation to free these boys from the clutches of the owners. The boys were found in three different houses and were taken to the local police station for a detailed inquiry. The arrests of the owners could not be made as they were found to be away attending a wedding; one of their sons who operated the business in their absence was arrested by the police. Since then, one of the owners of the business has also been arrested.

Empowered to Free Their Community

In rural Uttar Pradesh, less than 50 km west of India’s holy city, Varanasi, Satish and Tulsi* have spent the last four years learning how to live in freedom. They are raising three children in the hamlet where they grew up, but Satish lives with the hope that his kids’ childhood memories will be different. “I didn’t have anything. Now my kids can go to school,” said Satish, a 32 year old farmer who has overcome twenty years of captivity as a bonded labourer.

A Childhood in Bondage

Toward the back of the hamlet, if you look beyond the trees, you cannot miss the tall smoke stack that dominates the horizon. This chimney belongs to a brick kiln that was the dreadful prison where Satish and Tulsi spent the waking hours of their childhood. Tulsi is 28 years old today – soft-spoken but unwavering. She guesses that she was about 5 or 6 years old when her father was approached by a man who told him, “Come work for me. You won’t have to work too hard.” Tulsi’s father had been lured from one upper caste brick kiln owner to another, and by simply giving his word, he was locked into a verbal obligation to the owner. Just like that he gave up his rights and his family. Tulsi and her relatives – uncles, aunts and cousins – were sent to work at that brick kiln behind the hamlet. From then on, Tulsi’s life would be ruled by fear and the heavy hand of a master that treated the family as his own property. Every time they tried to leave, he threatened them with a debt he claimed they owed.

Duped by the owner’s deception, the family became bonded labourers. They were paid far below minimum wage – just Rs. 30-40 a day – and could not even dispute the owner’s wage register because they were illiterate. Within the first two years of work, life took a turn for the worst when Tulsi’s father fell ill. Already poor and now unable to work, he faced the prospect of marrying off his daughter. “Nobody was there to earn, so he said, ‘From where I will get money for the marriage?’,” Tulsi recalled. When Tulsi was eight years old, her father married her off to a cousin, 10-year-old Satish, whose family also worked at the same brick kiln. Married as children and forced to work, Tulsi and Satish were denied any semblance of a childhood. Satish laughed incredulously when he was asked about school. There was no school for them. “We never got permission from the slave owner,” said Satish.

Wake up before 3am. Cook roti on the communal earthen stove and then carry it off to eat on the way to the brick kiln. That was how the work day began. Twelve-hour long shifts in the hot sun without a break for meals were the norm. Sometimes the workers were permitted to return to the hamlet in the afternoon, only to return to the owner in the evening for domestic or agricultural work in the fields until 10pm. Even children as young as 3 years old were forced to work. If they could lift a brick, they were made to work. Tulsi hauled the sand that was mixed in the clay used to make the bricks. She said the work was meant for buffaloes. She routinely watched workers carry 5 to 6 bricks at a time on their heads – back and forth from the work space where bricks were stacked meters high, to the tractor that shipped off the stock. A four-person team was expected to load one tractor with 8000 bricks every single day. They had to make the daily quota for delivery at whatever the physical cost to their hands and bodies. Tulsi recalls how everyday activities became difficult. The same raw hands that handled hot bricks fresh from the furnace were used to painfully scoop spicy vegetable curry into hungry mouths. The families were not bound by chains but they didn’t have to be. Bonded labourers are bound to their owners, often forced to work up to 18 hours daily and restricted from the freedom to find alternative work.

“We used to say we want to leave, but I was not in the control of my parents. We were controlled by the employer,” said Tulsi.

Tulsi said it was fear that kept her going. It wasn’t uncommon to witness a horrifying scene that would keep her from getting sleep at night. Rest is not an option when your life is run by an unforgiving and greedy slave master. One night Satish was working late, loading bricks into the tractor. As he lifted brick after brick, he heard the shrill cries of his brother-in-law getting beat up by the brick kiln owner’s henchmen after his attempt to run away. In a senseless act of brutality, the owner had the man lie down and then jumped on his chest. He died one month later. The very thought of escaping cast palpable fear into every worker. Tulsi vividly remembers the death threats, “Your cousins have died from my hand. All of you will die by my hands. I control you.” There was no law at the brick kiln. Whatever the owner said was the command. “He told us that nobody will support [your caste]. If you will be killed, I will kill you. If you work, you will have to work for me only,” recalled Satish. Not a single person escaped the inhuman treatment. On the few occasions the workers were given permission to get medical attention, they would be given a loan from the owner. Loans increased the debt, and in the absence of any other form of income, the slaveholder assumed ownership over the bonded laborers.

Vigilant Communities Lead to Freedom

Hope came in 2009 through the dedication of a man who came to visit the hamlet every day. By that time, Satish and Tulsi had known the life of slavery for nearly two decades, and had given birth to their two eldest children while in captivity. The visiting man taught them about their rights and about the law. He would tell them, “The law isn’t only for the rich and powerful. It’s also for you – low caste and poor. The law is equal for everyone.” The man was a field worker with MSEMVS, an NGO based in Varanasi.  MSEMVS is a sub-partner to Free the Slaves, an International Justice Mission partner organization.  Since 2012, the IJM National Interventions initiative has been identifying and partnering with like-minded NGOs to accelerate the work of ending slavery throughout India.

“The people in the village were living such a life that all they did was work. Outside life had no meaning for them. Their owner was everything,” says Bhanuja Sharan Lal, director of MSEMVS.“They were trapped in the belief that there was nobody who could help them and nowhere they could go.”

MSEMVS was working in villages outside of Varanasi to set up community vigilance committees intended to empower residents in vulnerable communities and teach them about the dangers of bonded labour and trafficking. The organization educates villagers about how they could invoke the Bonded Labour (System) Abolition Act, 1976 and demand fair wages for their work. By educating members of vulnerable communities and monitoring their work, the community vigilance committees created by MSEMVS work to bring sustainable freedom to vulnerable communities.

These kinds of community groups can also be a functioning example for the government-appointed vigilance committees that every district and sub division must set up by law. According to the law, every district of India must form vigilance committees to advise District Magistrates on how to curb the rate of bonded labour. “The main function of the vigilance committee is…to survey the prevalence of bonded labour to ensure that [bonded labourers] are released, and for those released, through rehabilitation, don’t get trapped in bonded labour again,” explains Shri Sharan. Without active vigilance committees to monitor bonded labour, entire communities remain vulnerable to this form of modern day slavery.

After months of building trust, Satish joined the community vigilance committee and became empowered enough to do something drastic. One early morning in January 2010, he and two other labourers secretly set out to go to the MSEMVS office in Varanasi. The risks were enormous: they were so scared they crawled through tall wheat fields to hide themselves during the getaway.  With help from MSEMVS, the three workers went directly to the District Magistrate’s office to file their complaint against the abusive brick kiln owner, demanding freedom and protection. The authorities responded quickly and all of the families in Satish’s hamlet were liberated the next day. The adults received release certificates, granting them legal emancipation and physical protection from the brick kiln owner, as well as rehabilitation funds that help released bonded labourers make the transition to independence.

“Both government and non-governmental organizations have to work together to ensure they feel safe and receive what they are entitled to so that they can live free lives and become rehabilitated members of society,” explains Shri Sharan. MSEMVS advocated for the released bonded labourers to help them access government schemes and reintroduce them into society.  “None of us had any identity or voter card earlier,” said Satish. The residents of Satish’s hamlet now have ration cards and work under the MGNREGA. “Our condition has been changed for better.”

Freedom For All

As a community leader, Satish has taken on a prominent role in his village’s community vigilance committee. He and Tulsi want to help other bonded labourers learn how to use their voices to secure their rights and rightful freedom. “We want every person to be free like us. We wish that bonded labour should be removed from this world,” said Tulsi.

Satish remembers the days when residents of the village would be punished with beatings if they were caught earning extra rupees after their shift in the brick kiln. Today they are free to work as they like. Satish leads agricultural projects in his village. The twenty families are constructing a community pig farm that will help provide a steady source of income. Satish is one of the men in charge of the piggery. When we met him, he was feeding the pigs and toting around his youngest son. The same calloused hands that lifted bricks into tractors now tenderly hold his son. Women and children in the hamlet have also received a second chance at life. The women are empowered through self-help groups that meet regularly, and children are free to get an education. Wearing their school uniforms, Satish and Tulsi’s two oldest children respectfully bow down to touch their parents’ feet before heading off on an early morning. Providing their children the education they were denied is an accomplishment that these parents would have only dreamed of before their rescue from slavery four years ago. “Our life has been changed,” said Tulsi. “The best thing is that we can see the faces of our children every morning and evening, which was not possible earlier.”

*A pseudonym

 

NHRC Consultation on Bonded Labour Rules

In a bid to strengthen enforcement of the four decade old Bonded Labour System Abolition Act, 1976 — the only legislation seeking to combat this form of modern slavery — the National Human Rights Commission has officially kicked off an attempt to overhaul the Rules of the Act.

On March 25th 2014 the NHRC called together the core group on bonded labour and some special invitees –including some Bandhua 1947 members — to input into the re-drafting of the BLSA Rules. Justice D Murugesan, Member NHRC chaired the day-long dialogue on framing of fresh rules for the BLSA and clarifying the definitions where they have not been explained.

The NHRC decided that the Rules to the BLSA are to be clear enough to give direction under the Act and not too broad. The NHRC hopes to submit their recommendations to the MoLE over the next month and the process will be taken forward by the MoLE from there on.

So why such a strong attempt at pushing for a change of the BLSA Rules? Well, although there are some guidelines and standard operating procedures in a few states to identify and rehabilitate bonded labourers, there is a lack of comprehensive and standardized guidelines by the government. With no standardization of procedures on how to tackle the issue, this becomes a last priority to an already over-burdened District Magistrate who wants to enforce the law.

Changing the rules does not lead to understanding. It does, however, provide a framework for strong implementation of the law and the necessary tool to empower the government and social action groups to address the crime of bonded labour. With the BLSA Rules re-defined there would be better procedural understanding which will hopefully then lead to stronger enforcement. Stronger enforcement is the need of the hour for bonded labour to be tackled in India.

MoLE Constitutes Working Group On Bonded Labour

 

Cycling To Battle Bonded Labour

Cycle rallies were organised in every district in Odisha with 20-30 cyclists participating in each rally. A charter of demands in a form of leaflet has been developed and is being distributed in every village. The team is also getting villagers to sign a petition in support of the charter of demands.

The cycle rally was started in Bolangir district by the migrant labourers and will end by 31st March in other districts. Mass meetings at district headquarters will be organised following the rallies. Approximately 200 people from the media, district administration, CSOs, NGOs, student bodies, academia, and bonded migrant labourers will be gathered in each district level meeting. The bonded migrant labourers will share their stories of bondage and discuss issues around the prevention of bonded labour.

On 15th March, a round table is being organised in Bhubaneswar with representatives of different political parties, released bonded labour leaders and community members. This round table aims to facilitate an interaction of political leaders with people’s leaders during the process of finalising manifestos. This will ensure that political parties take up the people’s demands on the issue of bondage and migration in Odisha and commit themselves to this issue, irrespective of the election results.

Taking cognizance of this, a state-level mass meeting of released bonded migrant labourers will also be organised on 3 April 2014 at Bhubaneswar. Bonded and migrant labourers from across the state and other community members will attend this one-day meeting in which the signed memorandums from all districts will be collected and submitted to different authorities of the state government. The meeting will be addressed by leading thinkers and activists working at the national-level around the issue of bondage and migration. This will be the culminating event of the campaign.

In a parallel development, an Action Aid partner SOCO organised a one-day training programme for vigilance committee members on the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act (BLSA) on 3rd March 2014. Justice Karpaga Vinayagam and Justice Shivaraj Patel inaugurated the programme. Henry Thigphane from People Watch and P.M. Kumar were resource persons for the programme. Almost 35 vigilance committee members from 13 districts (south zone) were present at the programme. The programme highlighted the BLSA, the role of vigilance committee members and how the committee can function effectively to eradicate the system of bondage in Tamil Nadu. Vigilance committee members also shared their challenges and concerns.

Posted on behalf of Action Aid India.

One Man’s Journey in the Long Battle Against Bonded Labour (Part 1)

From the day in 1987 when he was pushed around by a mob of rowdy youth and barred from a small Karnataka village due to his work empowering Dalit bonded labourers, Kiran Kamal Prasad, founder of Jeevika (a member of Bandhua 1947), has been one of the most ardent advocates for the millions of Indians caught in caste-based slavery. In a recent meeting at the Jeevika office in Bangalore, I asked him to trace the beginnings of his long battle against bonded labour.

“This was the outcome of a personal search for me,” says Kiran, when I ask how he started working on this issue in the first place. “I wanted to get involved with marginalized people. I come from a farming family near Udupi, and I used to talk with the workers.”

Later, he joined the Jesuits, and learnt from their thinking on the transformation of social structures and preferential options for the poor – which, in the Indian context, is largely made up of traditionally disadvantaged groups such as Dalits and tribals, “I realised that to bring about change in people’s lives, it was important to empower them to lead, to tackle their own problems,” he says.”

Having worked with tribal groups in Uttara Kannada in the early 1980s, and fought to get them recognised as Scheduled Tribes by the government, he then moved to the Anekal taluk in 1985. Dalits make up about 80 per cent of the population and Kiran worked largely among the youth, offering training and support.

The Karnataka government at that time was holding its first ever elections for local government bodies, the prototype of what ultimately became panchayati raj institutions. When the polls were announced, Kiran organised groups of youth to go around the area, spreading awareness about the process. “We were only educating Dalits to put up their candidates, but the landlords wanted to push me out of the village,” remembers Kiran. Their biggest objection? He was encouraging the Dalits to wear pants and shirts, something that was customarily allowed only to the upper castes.

There was a social boycott of the Dalits, preventing them from shopping at village shops or graze their cattle on common land, in a bid to eject Kiran. Harassment increased through the summer of 1987, with a Dalit haystack getting burned, finally forcing the Social Welfare Minister to hold a “peace meeting” in the village. Kiran was asked to leave the village for at least two months. “I was mobbed by a group of youth, preventing me from entering the Dalit section of the village, physically pushed by rowdies,” he says. “Finally, I was given one sharp kick. For me, that was a baptism into the reality of Dalits.”

However, it was a perceptive Superintendent of Police investigating the situation, who opened his eyes to the real problem. “She asked me how many bonded labourers were in the village. I had never worked on this issue, but I put my youth group on to it, and they found 40 bonded labourers in the space of one week. When I gave her the list, she said: ‘Now I know why they are against you.’ She recognised that their vested economic interests were threatened, and that was the real reason why the upper caste landlords were against me.”

Kiran found that the Karnataka government’s official position was that bonded labour had already been eradicated in the state, with some 65,000 labourers released in the years after the Bonded Labour System Abolition Act, 1976 was passed. “I realised that the best way to counter that government mindset was to present them with hard data,” he says. “So I went around the whole taluk and did a survey with the help of my youth group. We drew up a questionnaire and covered 300 villages. We identified 700 bonded labourers in that taluk alone… We started organising them into unions and gave them education and empowerment, ultimately leading to their freedom from bondage.”

Around the same time, his friend and noted Kannada poet G.S. Siddalingaiah was elected to the Karnataka Assembly. In 1990, Kiran asked him to raise the issue of bonded labour in the Assembly, sparking off a chain of events that ultimately led to a partial change in the government’s attitude.

His early experience, therefore, led to the formation of a two-fold model that Kiran – and Jeevika – has followed right from inception till the present day in their work against bonded labour: “On the one hand, we are advocating and lobbying with the government at the highest level using carefully collected hard data and statistics. On the other hand, we are educating and empowering bonded labourers and vulnerable communities at the grassroot level,” he says.

Coming next: The conclusion of the interview with Kiran, discussing his current work in Karnataka, including the fight against bonded labour within the wider context of the caste system, and the movement to amend the Rules of the Bonded Labour System Abolition Act, 1976.

______________________________________________________

Priscilla Jebaraj is the spokesperson of the Bandhua 1947 Campaign. She is a gold medalist from Asian College of Journalism and has served for many years as a journalist with the Hindu.

First Steps in Freedom

On the day of rescue, there is a change in the demeanor of the labourers.  Tension begins to ease from faces and postures.  As they step out from the kiln and break away the from fetters of debt and bondage, the flicker of hope on their faces is evident for all to see.  When these rescued labourers arrive for “freedom training,” their introduction into the aftercare program,* a step towards their rehabilitation, the difference in their demeanor is even more distinct.  There is a new boldness, a new confidence, a palpable enthusiasm and a willingness to engage with others, all of which were missing a month ago.

Getting medical conditions treated makes a big difference in improving the quality of life for children like Anandaha.

Last week, IJM Bangalore hosted a “freedom training” for thirty-two clients, former bonded labourers, who had been rescued from two different facilities.  This three-day training started with a medical check-up of each client, and they  received  treatment for illnesses that in many cases have existed throughout their time in bondage.  One little boy, Anandaha, had been suffering from an eye infection for two years, but after receiving treatment, it almost healed before the close of the “freedom training.”  Anandaha was so much more energetic as he healed, and his mother was overjoyed to see his pain and discomfort subsiding.  Seemingly little things like this make a big difference for the clients.

For the other two days of “freedom training,” the clients spent time going through a variety of sessions with the IJM aftercare staff.  They learned about basic things like health and hygiene, healthy relationships, and values, but they also learned about their legal rights as rescued labourers and government schemes that are available to them.  This information is crucial to them thriving in freedom.

In order to underline the message and ensure the clients have understood it well, skits and activities were used liberally.  In one of the sessions, IJM aftercare staff pretended to be the owners of the facilities where the clients had been bonded.  The “owners” tried to bully the clients into coming back to work, but equipped with knowledge about their rights and resources to protect themselves, the clients boldly stood up to the “owners” rather than going back to the facilities.

Clients eagerly interact during sessions about their legal rights and community resources.

Over the three days, the clients were also encouraged to dream and set goals for the future.  When asked what their dreams are, one labourer said he wants to construct a house and get some livestock.  Another said he wants to be a government employee so that he can help people.  Neenu Thomas, Assistant Director of Aftercare, talked about obstacles that might get in the way of their dreams but encouraged them to keep working towards their dreams by saying, “You all have a dream, and we need to keep moving towards it.”

As “freedom training” drew to a close, the clients watched a slideshow of pictures that had been taken during their rescue.  While they jokingly teased each other about how they looked in some of the pictures, everyone could sense how different they seem now.  The clients were reminded of how far they have come since they started their journey towards restoration.  As staff and clients parted ways on the final day, client after client approached members of the staff to firmly shake their hands and say thank you.  The smiles on their faces revealed more than just their enjoyment of the past few days.  They showed the hope of realizing that their dreams are possible.

The first step for clients after rescue is to participate in freedom training.

*The IJM Bangalore Aftercare Program is a two year program to rehabilitate and restore rescued bonded labourers.  The staff meets with clients monthly to teach them valuable skills necessary for living and thriving in freedom.

Two Weeks With Bandhua 1947

On a cold early Friday morning, I woke up at 6:30 am to get ready, which isn’t the easiest thing for an 18 year old during winter break. I was thrilled to start an internship of 2 weeks with the International Justice Mission, Delhi. In the car I was a little scared and didn’t know what to expect from the people there, though I assumed as they worked with Human Rights issues – most of them would be softhearted people. As I walked into the IJM office, I was greeted by people and their warm smiles – all of them hugging each other and talking about their winter break and teasing each other. Since then I knew I was in safe hands.

On my first day I read a book called “Bonded Labor: Tackling the System of Slavery in South Asia” by Siddharth Kara. Although I only got through the first 30 pages of the book it was enough to get an insight on what Bandhua 1947 aimed to do. Even after doing a Global Perspective course for 2 years in High School, I do not recall discussing the issue of ‘Bonded Labour’ in class, ever.

As I read this book, I came across facts that were astonishing, like as many as 12 million in India are victims to bonded labour. This made me wonder why ‘Bonded Labour’ still has very less recognition in the country. As I glanced through the book I came across a section which talked about how some don’t even believe that it should be classified as a form of slavery. In India, millions of people face brutality every single day, yet there are ongoing debates on whether or not bonded labor is a form of modern slavery. Bandhua 1947 aims to eradicate ‘Bonded Labour’ in India and rehabilitate these labourers. Continuous meetings with ministers, making phone calls, sending and receiving updates, etc. is what they take pride in.

Bandhua 1947 hopes that this vicious cycle of borrowing money, not being able to pay it back, increasing debts, and bondage will end. Slowly yet successfully, everyone will be bondage-free. I might not have learned how to advocate or communicate with ministers but I do know what I have to do on my side- enlighten my fellow mates on the issue of bonded labour and about the Bandhua 1947 campaign. I‘ll make them aware on the issue’s prevalence in India and globally by discussing this issue in Global Perspective class as well.

Namrata Mohapatra

Namrata is a grade-12 student at Woodstock School in Mussoorie, Uttarakhand. She is hoping to become a lawyer and is terrified of monkeys!

Jairam Ramesh Denounces Bonded Labour in Odisha

Bandhua 1947 and The National Rural Livelihoods Mission demand a concrete state government plan to fight bonded labour.

New Delhi, January 9, 2013: Last month’s horrific case of migrant labour abuse in Odisha’s Bolangir district resulted in a surge of attention surrounding the all-too common crime that plagues nearly 12 million Indian citizens – many of whom live in the most rural and backward regions of the country. Migrant workers, Nilambar Dhangda Majhi and Bialu Majhi, survived brutal torture after illegal labour contractors chopped off the their hands and left them for dead in a jungle. Ever since the crime took place, Union Rural Development Minister, Jairam Ramesh, has pressured Odisha’s state government to address bonded labour, even publicly denouncing the senseless act of violence in a letter to Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. “Keeping politics aside we must acknowledge that Odisha is one of the worst affected states in terms of bonded labour. The National Rural Livelihoods Mission has started special livelihood projects for the rehabilitation of bonded labour. Looking forward to working with the state government to put an end to this horrendous practice.”

The joint initiative between the Bandhua 1947 campaign and the National Rural Livelihoods Mission is set to locate and rehabilitate bonded labourers by inclusion in self-help groups and their federations, provision of soft loans and vulnerability reduction funds, and special projects for alternative livelihoods including skill development interventions. Furthermore, Bandhua 1947 and the NRLM demand a concrete state action plan in Odisha to tackle bonded labour.

“Without a comprehensive state action plan as well as a strong political will to implement this, it is impossible to deal with bonded labour in Odisha effectively,” said Shantanu Dutta, convener of the Bandhua 1947 campaign.

A state action plan is a detailed and comprehensive strategy that government officials in every state could utilize to efficiently execute the law that was passed in 1976 to abolish bonded labour. It would serve to instruct district administrations on how to identify bonded labour and ensure that victims are rescued and rehabilitated. Nilambar and Bialu remained hospitalized in critical condition for days following the incident. Bandhua 1947 field workers have been instrumental in ensuring the men receive release certificates and rehabilitation services. Following increased pressure from civil society organisations, central government and the National Human Rights Commission, the Odisha state government has promised Rs. 4 lakhs to each of the victims and access to Chief Minister Relief funds to cover the costs of their treatment.

Bonded labour is a crime that has especially plagued vulnerable communities in Odisha’s Kalahandi, Nuapada and Bolangir districts. Last year, NGO Aide-et-Action conducted a micro-level study on vulnerability and migration in these villages and that found that thousands of small and marginal farmers were migrating due to failure to repay loans.

Children Step Up to End Bonded Labour

A student works on a mural to advocate for the end of bonded labour.

To see lasting change in a society, the youngest generation must be a part of the change.  These young people will determine whether the change will continue or merely be a brief shift in society.  In the fight against bonded labour, it is no different.  If the young people can recognize the evil of bonded labour and fight to see it end, India can have a future free of bonded labour.

To conclude a month focused on human rights, Legacy School in Bangalore invited International Justice Mission (IJM) to celebrate International Human Rights Day (10 December) with the students.  The IJM team taught the students about the reality of bonded labour and how it denies Indian citizens of basic human rights.

Students had the chance to view a photo exhibit about bonded labour.

Throughout the day, students played games, created skits and art pieces, and watched a video to help them better understand the life of a bonded labourer.  The older students conducted a case study in which they were given information about a possible bonded labour case and were asked how they would proceed if they were the government official.  At the end of the day, the students wrote postcards to government and police officials in Karanataka asking them to end bonded labour.

One student wrote, “I feel that everyone needs to be given freedom.  No one should have the power to rule over someone and keep people under their control.  Bonded labour literally takes your life away from you and it needs to be stopped immediately.  There are 11 million bonded labourers.  11 million crying souls.  All waiting to be helped.  A change needs to be made.  Bonded labour needs to be stopped.”

If the youngest generation can do their part to end bonded labour in India, surely the other generations can do the same.