[Assam] From Tehelka: Bonded for Life Laborers

[Chan Mahanta]

At 1:22 PM -0500 10/20/06, Ram Sarangapani wrote:
>C'da,
>
>This is a really sad story, and the culprits who are party to this 
>must be brought to book. This is not what any society wants.



*** You are a good man! And you can take pride in reflecting the 
entire, righteous middle class of India today. They do excel in 
expressing their righteousness, with no words minced, along with 
railing against  corruption that pervades their society and calling 
those politicians what they deserve to be called.


That is the good part.

But do you know what the bad part is Ram?

If you didn't know, they are CLUELESS about what to do about it?  If 
only wishes  came true, even though they are soooo very righteous, 
without themselves having to do anything about it! It is just like 
all the righteous and the sanctimonious of Assam and their reflectors 
in our midst :-) wishing ULFA away .


>Of course, there are corrupt politicians and corrupt people in the 
>Harayana administration,

Careful Ram! You are dangerously comparing them with the Assamese, 
who, obviously are THE most corrupt of them all.

>But, I can say with degree that any one with a good head on his 
>shoulders will not be making >excuses for this practice.

*** You are so right! Now let us, all the righteous of Assamnet along 
with the blessed of Haryana, wish, as hard as we possibly can, off 
with the heads of these bad, bad folks of Haryana. For that is all 
they can do, ain't it?


>In the case of terrorists, it was a group effort to use children.

*** You finally nailed this coffin shut Ram :-)! That's it: ULFA uses 
group effort at child exploitation, while the Great Indian Middle 
Classes' exploitation is individual. And since they are not their 
brothers' keepers, how can we equate them to them group exploiters?

You said it Ram :-).

c-da



>
>But it still does not help your case.
>Where in this or other such stories does it say (or one can discern 
>from) that "Indians" or "Indian middle class" are happy about 
>children being exploited?
>
>  >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
>Of course, there are corrupt politicians and corrupt people in the 
>Harayana administration, and that is why this story has come out to 
>raise an awareness among the people. Do any of like this? There is 
>no broadbased 'unholy' nexus amongst the middle class.
>
>But, I can say with degree that any one with a good head on his 
>shoulders will not be making excuses for this practice.
>
>In the case of terrorists, it was a group effort to use children. In 
>this case, the society is not for such attrocities in Harayana or 
>elsewhere. But have we seen the ulfa or its sympathizers even 
>remotely concerned about this latest strategy by the ulfa? For them, 
>it seems, its all fair game, because they seek some higher calling 
>for 'freedom', where children are obviously expendable.
>
>--Ram
>
>
>
>
>
>
>On 10/20/06, Chan Mahanta 
><<mailto:cmahanta at charter.net>cmahanta at charter.net> wrote:
>
>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
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>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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