Till last month, I had not heard of Banarasi and Darshan Singh, a couple from Punjab who were previously caught in the clutches of bonded labour. Chances are that you still haven’t. Their story, as they retold it for the media at a press conference where I was present and later at a television studio where also I was present, is an astounding tale. Their story is a story of about 22 years of slavery in a Punjab rice mill till they were rescued by Volunteers for Social Justice (VSJ) in June. During these years, as they recounted, they were kept in total confinement with no freedom to even go and drink water without the say-so of a security guard whose job was to keep watch on their movements. Their children were born in slavery and when the time came for their children to be married, the slave owner decided whom they should get married to and the marriage expenses were added to their debt.
Banarsi and Darshan, who were fortunate enough to be rescued and then tell their stories, are not alone. Estimates by experts are that close to 11 million people are enslaved in India as bonded labourers because of a small sum of money that they once took as an advance before circumstances ensured that they could never come out.
Organisations like International Justice Mission (IJM) and others who are part of the Bandhua 1947 Campaign are able to reach out and rescue a tiny number of these. The rest are doomed to continue in slavery unless the provisions of the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976, are strictly enforced by the state, whose duty it is to ensure that every Indian citizen enjoys their basic human rights – for that is what bonded labour is – a violation of one’s right to live with freedom and dignity.
Bandhua 1947 