[Assam] From Tehelka: Bonded for Life Laborers

[Chan Mahanta]

I posted this in Assamnet before. But thought it might be a good one 
to conside along with my responses to Ram regarding Indians' soft 
corner for children.

cm







THE MINING MAFIA HAS LABOUR BONDED FOR LIFE

Stone age on Delhi's border

The recent rescue of 114 bonded labourers, including children, from 
Haryana reveals that the authorities and mine owners are still 
conniving to hire and exploit bonded labour, abolished in 1976. Etmad 
Ahmad Khan investigates

  Pitiless In The Pits: Most of the mines in Haryana function 
illegally and exploit workers
Photo Dharmender Ruhil

Women in Pichupa Kalan mines were forced back to work barely eight 
days after delivering babies
* Twenty-one-year old Bijendar Singh was blown to pieces as he was 
dangerously close to the explosion site.

* Satpal Singh, 23, succumbed to his injuries after a heavy stone 
fell on his chest.

* Mahipal Singh, 38, was crushed to death under a trolley carrying stones.

* Dalbir Singh, 35, joined the list after the rope holding him at a 
height of 150 feet gave way.

The list goes on, endless in its brutality and its sheer deathliness. 
Poor labourers continue to add statistics to a list that should not 
even exist as mining is mostly banned in Haryana. But even today, 
poor migrants in search of money end up as bonded labour in the 
inhuman and unsafe environs of Haryana's mines. No compensation has 
been paid to the dead. No one has even complained, simply because 
they don't even know that they can. Only three weeks ago, Bachpan 
Bachao Andolan, an ngo, stepped in to rescue 114 bonded slaves, of 
which 56 were children, mostly girls.

  Ever since the now dethroned Om Prakash Chautala government 
monopolised the mining business in the state by auctioning quarries 
to private companies, violation of rules, regulations and safety 
norms has become the order of the day. Apart from cases of death, 
there are hundreds who have lost their limbs and eyes due to unsafe 
explosions and avoidable accidents in the mines. 
Thirty-eight-year-old Dalbir Singh lost his eyes in an accident while 
working in a mine in Khanak, a village in Tosham area of Bhiwani 
district of Haryana. "After I lost my eyes, I was kicked out of my 
job. I have six children. I am very worried about our future. Now, I 
do odd jobs here and there to survive," says Dalbir. Another labourer 
Bahadur Singh is unemployed at 22 after he lost one eye when a stone 
burst through his eyeball.

  Exploitation of labour is a norm in the mines of Haryana and 
hundreds of children can be spotted working day and night in these 
mines. But a nexus among Haryana politicians, mine owners and 
contractors has meant that no one is punished for this. No one is, 
because the administration too is a part of the unholy nexus. The 
district administration for instance, refused to give release 
certificates for the 114 who were rescued. The certificate would have 
been proof of the fact that the archaic practice of bonded labour is 
still thriving. It would also have forced the state government to 
give Rs 20,000 each as rehabilitation expenses. Of this amount, half 
is given by the Central government but since 1993, Haryana has not 
issued a single release certificate. In the last five years alone, 
Bachpan Bachao Andolan has rescued 1,000 bonded workers but, says its 
general secretary RS Chaurasia, "The state government seems to think 
that bonded means someone who is literally chained at their feet." 
Release certificates would go a long way in offering respite. The 
certificate entitles workers to allotment of a house on priority 
through the Indira Awas Yojna, admission in schools for children and 
a monthly pension of Rs 100.

  Labour and safety laws are, in fact, being violated in connivance 
with the government. All mine owners are supposed to keep basic 
records like wage registers, attendance registers, leave registers, 
accident and medical records. No mine in Haryana's Bhiwani district, 
however, has maintained any record. Nor have the mandatory identity 
cards been issued to the wage earners. On the contrary, the owners 
keep a strict eye on their slaves, ensuring that they don't run away. 
They are allowed to go on leave only when they leave some family 
members behind.

  Most of the labourers in these mines are migrants from Bihar, UP, 
Uttaranchal and Rajasthan. Agents of the contractors in these states 
lure them to the mines by promising them a better future. Once they 
reach here, the contractors give them advance payments on which they 
charge interest. Perennial penury would have it that most of them get 
into the debt trap of the contractors and end up as bonded slaves 
working for extremely low wages. In Khanak alone, more than 350 
labourers reportedly died during mining activities in the past nine 
years in separate accidents. "In 2001, following several incidents of 
deaths in the mines, the labourers launched a movement demanding safe 
working conditions and an end to exploitation, but the police crushed 
their voices," says Vijay Pal, a labour leader.

  While there are a number of laws protecting the rights of labourers 
and providing them safe working conditions, none is followed. Rarely 
can any labourer be seen using essentials such as safety belts, 
hard-toe shoes and masks. There is such disdain for safety norms by 
the contractors that unskilled labour can be seen using explosives 
bare-handed and detonations are usually done by labourers without the 
presence of a safety officer. A former employee of the safety 
department of Baba Mungipa Mines and Minerals, confirmed 
irregularities saying, "Though we were recruited to put safety 
measures in place, we were instructed by the employer to collect 
'royalty' (an unofficial passage tax) at the mine barricade."
  Safe Hands? Workers mixing gunpowder bare-handed
  Photo Dharmender Ruhil

Sheer hunger drives bonded labourers back to the gates of the same 
mines from where they were rescued

In August, 2005 a group of 113 bonded labourers held a dharna outside 
Haryana Bhavan in New Delhi. The labourers who claimed to be working 
in Pichupa Kalan village mines in Bhiwani - released from there with 
the help of an ngo - were demanding release certificates. Following 
that, when this correspondent visited the mines, the labourers there 
claimed that they were fine and that their contractors paid them 
regularly. However, it soon became clear that they spoke out of fear 
of the contractors. When an eight-year-old girl said that she 
couldn't go home, as the contractor didn't allow anyone to go on 
leave, she was immediately taken to task by a man who slapped her for 
speaking to the reporter. Twenty-six-year-old Suman Devi, another 
labourer in a Pichupa Kalan mine, hadn't gone home for the past seven 
years. "If anyone wants to go home, he must leave a family member 
behind as a security for his return," she confirmed. The worst kind 
of injustice comes from the fact that often, sheer hunger leads those 
rescued back to the gates from where they were once liberated.

  This despite the knowledge that they are returning to hell. In a 
recent press meet in Delhi, a pregnant labourer Gulab Bai told the 
audience that she and her husband were forced to work in stone 
quarries at Ramsai Pahadi mines in Pichupa Kalan from early morning 
till late into the night. She also revealed that women delivering 
babies were granted just eight days of rest, after which they were 
forced back to work. All this because they are in desperate need of 
the Rs 50-60 they are paid per day.

  The lease owners also tamper with the exact number of labourers 
working in their mines so as to save money on their allowances and 
avoid putting safety measures in place. A former mining manger of 
Baba Mungipa Mines and Minerals Co., on condition of anonymity, said 
that the company in its production report for form 4 (B), which is 
submitted every month in the Mining Department showed it had 135-150 
labourers, on an average, working in its mines since January 2003 to 
March 17, 2005. However, the production that the company shows to the 
Department of Mines and Geology, Chandigarh is possible only with 
manpower close to 5,000 or 6,000. The Central Labour Department has 
lodged 13 separate cases under labour and safety laws for mining 
against Baba Mungipa. The cases are still pending in the sessions 
court in Bhiwani.

  Contractors and mine owners, meanwhile, seem to have no fear of the 
law. Bijender Singh, co-owner of the Babadhola Mines, which has 99 
stone quarries under it, says, "When there will be business, there 
will be violation of laws. It's nothing new. In mining, maintaining 
law is very difficult." Singh is known to be a close associate of 
Ajay Chautala, son of former Haryana CM Om Prakash Chautala.

  There have been many voices raised against the exploitation of 
labour and corrupt practices of mine owners. But, most of the times 
they either go unheard or are crushed. A contractor Dharampal alleges 
that he was targeted by the mine owners because he stood up against 
the corrupt practices of Babadhola Mines. A case of stone theft and 
employing bonded labour was lodged against him.

  As far as the issue of bonded labour is concerned there seems to be 
an utter lack of understanding and awareness in the official circles. 
Charkhi Dadri Sub-Divisional Magistrate Vijendra Singh when asked 
what he understood by bonded labour, said, "It is a matter of 
interpretation. Let the Supreme Court decide the issue." When asked 
about release certificates for bonded labourers, which he is 
authorised by law to provide, he dismissed it saying, "I am not 
concerned with it. It's the job of the labour department."

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