{"id":76509,"date":"2020-10-06T15:25:59","date_gmt":"2020-10-06T15:25:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/icrowdnewswire.com\/?p=2739443"},"modified":"2020-10-06T15:25:59","modified_gmt":"2020-10-06T15:25:59","slug":"empowering-indias-poor-so-they-dont-return-to-bonded-labour-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/2020\/10\/06\/empowering-indias-poor-so-they-dont-return-to-bonded-labour-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Empowering India\u2019s Poor so They Don\u2019t Return to Bonded Labour \u2013 Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Rina Mukherji<\/a> <\/span><\/div>\n
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\"Community-awareness-session-in-progress-with-trafficking-survivor-Devendra-Kumar-Mulayam-1024x408\"<\/p>\n

Entire communities are being gradually empowered to resist traffickers and are being taught the necessary legal knowledge to eradicate slave and bonded labour from their midsts in the near future. Credit: Rina Mukherji\/IPS<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

PUNE, India, Oct 5 2020 (IPS) <\/span>– One day, while the rest of his family were out at work, Kamlesh Pravasi from Jigarsandih village in Azamgarh district of Uttar Pradesh was “abducted when I returned home one day from school, by a contractor’s goons,” he told IPS. The then 12-year-old Pravasi, who was in the sixth grade, was forced to work in bonded labour in a brick kiln because his father could not repay a Rs 5,000 ($68) loan he had taken out from the contractor in order to pay for medical treatment for Pravasi’s sick brother.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pravasi, along with his two younger brothers, was made to work from the early hours in the morning (from around 2 or 4 am) until 7 pm in the evening, for little or no payment. The family, comprising his parents and six siblings, could do little to alleviate their plight.<\/p>\n

“Being illiterate, my parents were unsure of how much they owed to the contractor,” Pravasi admitted to IPS. The boys slaved in the kiln for five years — from 2012 to 2017 — until they were <\/span>eventually rescued by activists affiliated to the Human Liberty Network (HLN)<\/a>. HLN is a network of grassroots NGOs in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh working to end slavery and bonded labour.<\/p>\n

Pravasi is now employed in construction work, and will soon sit for his intermediate grade \/higher secondary examinations.<\/span><\/p>\n

The story of Pravasi and his brothers is not an unusual one.<\/span><\/p>\n

For Rajkumar Ram from Katahan village in West Champaran district of Bihar, a loan of Rs 30,000 ($410) taken 20 years ago meant that he and his entire family — including his wife, his three sons and young daughters — had to work in a brick kiln from 5 am in the morning to late evening for free. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Ram family, like Pravasi and his brothers, where also rescued — but in their case help came from within the family.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Veena Devi (left) with her in-laws and husband. She was able to save her husband’s family from years of bonded labour. Courtesy: Rina Mukherji<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Veena Devi, came to the rescue of the Ram family, after marrying into the family in 2015. <\/span><\/p>\n

“It was when I enrolled for vocational training and non-formal education under a non-governmental <\/span>organisation-NIRDESH, that I realised what inter-generational bonded labour meant,” Devi told IPS.<\/span><\/p>\n

She also learnt that the entire village of Katahan, comprising 37 families, had been condemned to such inter-generational bonded labour. <\/span><\/p>\n

With a matriculation certificate, Devi took up a teacher’s job at a non-formal education centre, became a member of a local self-help group, and with the help of activists, raised the funds to secure their release. <\/span><\/p>\n

Her husband, Bansi Ram, now works in a dress-making factory, while her father-in-law has opened a grocery shop. Her brothers-in-law work as plumbers, while her mother-in-law rears goats.<\/span><\/p>\n

Parents may be lured with a lump sum ofRs 5,000 ($68) to Rs. 10,000 ($136) paid in advance, asManav Sansadhan Evam Mahila Vikas Sansthan ( MSEMVS)<\/a> executive director Dr. Bhanuja Sharan Lal told IPS. MSEMVS is an NGO that focuses on the eradication of child labour.<\/span><\/p>\n

“We recently rescued nine children from Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh who were trafficked to a panipuri<\/em> (a type of snack) factory in Telangana after their parents were paid an advance of Rs 10,000 ($136) each. They were working free from 2 am to 4 pm in return for meals. Eight rescued children from Azamgarh (in Uttar Pradesh) were similarly employed in a textile factory in Gujarat as slave labour.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Government initiatives & impediments in overcoming the problem<\/span><\/h3>\n

Of those most vulnerable are the Mahadalits and Dalits who have been confined to illiteracy and grinding poverty because of a casteist social structure.<\/span><\/p>\n

Discrimination based on caste is illegal according to the country’s constitution and for more than 70 years the government has placed quotas on government jobs and education positions in order to ensure opportunities to all. <\/span><\/p>\n

Affirmative action by the government has also contributed to Mahadalit children being sent to school, but most are first generation learners. This can limit the access families have to government schemes. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Skill India initiative by the central government, which was launched in July 2015 and aims to train 400 million individuals in various skills by 2022, has evaded Mahadalit youngsters. <\/span><\/p>\n

“To qualify for Skill India, you need to have a matriculation certificate. Poverty and family pressures cause most Mahadalit children to drop out after the sixth grade,” explains human rights activist and Adithi director Parinita Kumari of the reasons behind the exclusion of these groups. <\/span><\/p>\n

Government efforts to rehabilitate migrant returnees through jobs under the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) too generally failed, since many were found to have no job cards and hence did not qualify. <\/span><\/p>\n