101 Bonded Laborers Freed from Quarrying

02 July, 2003
Rajasthan, India

	Kailash Satyarthi talking to the freed bonded laborers and their children

The World Day Against Child Labor celebrated annually on 12 June 2003 was established last year by International Labour Organisation (ILO) to focus world attention on the urgent need to eradicate child labor worldwide. But for an Indian-based child focused non-governmental organisation, Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save the Childhood), the day seemed to signify more than just focusing attention on the issue; it rather rekindled its efforts of eradicating child labor across the vast South Asian nation, even if it meant literally employing physical intervention.

Barely three days after the global event last month, BBA went tooth and nail to rescue more than one hundred bonded laborers - including children - from a stone quarry field at Charkhi Dadri in Haryana State. Some of the rescued laborers had been bonded for more than three decades. Of those rescued, 25 children were rehabilitated in Bal Ashram, the rehabilitation center for boys and 10 girls in the girls collective, Balika Ashram.

Speaking to the press last week at the Rajasthan’s Pink City Press Club, Anta (7), Narayani (30) and Tipu (62) were among those who represented three generations of bonded labor and had touched a piece of paper for the first time in their life. They had neither sat in a room with an electric lamp and fan nor tasted a Gulbjamun (Indian sweet) until then.

BBA Chairperson, Kailash Satyarthi, said two of the bonded laborers escaped from the dreaded quarry enclosure to his office situated in the Capital, New Delhi, (about 20 kilometers away) after someone in a nearby village had tipped them of BBA. “The group had come to know about my organization through someone in a nearby village, as BBA freed several bonded laborers in the past from this area. Two of them succeeded in running away,” he said.

12-year-old Sawne and his seven-year-old brother Veeru bitterly complained before the stunned press about the ghastly treatment they were subjected to; whereas a nine-year-old girl, Manju, showed scars on her hands and legs, saying she was frequently beaten by the thekedhar (building contractor) whenever she was slow to break the huge stones. “We were beaten up by our master because our parents made an effort to escape. Our hands were tied up with a rope and we were locked in a remote room for 12 days,” narrated the two brothers.

A 60-year-old woman recalled that she and her husband were lured away from their native village in Jodhpur (Rajasthan) to the stone quarries in Haryana about 25 years ago. “All my children were born and brought up in slavery, their children too were born and started working here. We were sold to several masters in these years. We were never given any medication whenever we fell sick or injured. Our hands had never touched any money, except some wheat flour and salt with chillies for our survival,” she lamented. But Satyarthi, while demanding the immediate rehabilitation of the freed laborers, criticised the government authorities for playing down the child labor situation in the country, accusing the local administration for deliberately disrespecting the existing laws against bonded slavery.

“It took us more than a month driven from pillar to post within the district administration which was absolutely callous and had some dubious nexus with the employers. When we first made the complaint, the Sub-divisional Magistrate denied the presence of any bonded labor in his area. Only by intervention from higher authorities did he agree to accompany our rescue team on 15 June 2003,” alleged Satyarthi. He said the administration had not yet issued the release certificates to the bonded laborers, and had not initiated any criminal proceedings against the employers. The chairperson said at least ten million children and five million adults were still languishing in servitude, but the law of the land had not been enforced due to lack of political and administrative will.

“BBA office has been trying to fix up an appointment with the State Chief Minister since morning but all in vain. It is notable that these workers belong to the Chief Minister’s District,” Satyarthi observed.

Incidentally the Indian Government has faced fervent criticism especially from the local NGOs for among other things failing to ratify the ILO Convention 182 on the 'Worst Forms of Child Labour', attributing it to lack of political will. They have pegged the estimated figures for child laborers to at least 60 million.

However, an Indian on-line news service, News Today, on Sunday quoted Union Labor Minister, Sahib Singh Verma, defending government’s position on the child labor situation in the country at a State-level Conference on the Elimination of Child Labor, organized by Pasumai Thayagam and Peace Trust NGOs in Chennai State.

Assailing NGOs for disputing government's claims on child labor at international fora, Verma counter-argued that India had to set its house in order in eliminating child labor before allowing the ILO Convention 182 to take roots. “The main objective of my ministry is to tackle poverty to prevent forced labor as it is poverty which compels parents to send their children to work,” he is quoted as saying, adding the government’s target was to eliminate all forms of child labor and slavery by 2007.

Meanwhile the freed bonded laborers from Haryana State are not an isolated case, as according to BBA General Secretary, Rama Shankar Chaurasia, the movement also rescued 72 bonded laborers in January this year from a brick kiln in Moradabad District, in the Uttar Pradesh State, bring the total number to the whopping 60,000 in more than twenty years.

“We have so far rescued more than 60,000 bonded laborers since our inception two decades ago, from various sectors such as the stone quarry, agriculture, carpet industry and several others from the hazardous industries,” Chaurasia said.