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| Image from Pixabay |
Written by Godfrey Pereira, the author of Bloodline Bandra, for the International Day of Abolition of Slavery.
The
numbers have been crunched, studies by experts published, smart talking heads
with impeccable credentials on television spout their in depth knowledge
on slavery every other week and international bodies with good intentions make
bad decisions on how to go about tackling slavery. Social media prophets,
sitting in the dark, shine a light on what they think are remedies, and
international names lend their stardust "For The Cause". The
data on modern day slavery is there, for all to see, all over the world. To
repeat it here would be another impotent boring lecture given to the deaf.
Great organizations like A 21 Campaign, Anti-Slavery International, and the
Dalit Freedom Network U.K. are all fighting a losing battle.
Today,
slavery is a 21st century happening. From the sweat shops in New York City to
the thousands of children in India, forced by circumstance and society to work
long hours, to the Arabs in the Middle East, mistreating their maids and
thousands of laborers, slavery goes about its business, openly in broad day
light, day after day after day. One does not always have to look at major
exploitation and human trafficking incidents. The rich housewives from
Bombay, New Delhi and other major cities in India, who employ young teen aged
girls from rural villages as live in "Servants," and make them work
from 7am to 10pm are culprits who should be punished. What do you say to these
housewives? Are they not aiding and abetting a form of slavery? How many of
them have heard of the term "Domestic Servitude." And if they have,
do they care? Does the immediate society around them care? Does anybody care?
Slavery has many faces. It is alive today, because religion, social mores and
politicians have failed to tackle the problem over the years, not only in India
but all over the world.
But we
must turn to India, because statistics state that India is at the center of
this global open sore. The index, published by the Australia-based Walk
Free Foundation, in 2013, ranked 162 countries. According to the index,
there are 29.6 million people in modern slavery globally. India leads the
world, followed by China, Pakistan, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Russia, Thailand,
Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar and Bangladesh.
Take the
poor untouchables, in the thousands of villages in India. Many of them are
still tied to their fates. They were born untouchable, and untouchable they
shall remain. Let them that say that this is still not happening in India
today, come forward and throw the first stone. This is ugly slavery with the
mystical ring of holy religion around the necks of the untouchables. The fat
fakirs, the keepers of the faith who lord it over Brahaminical theology and
mantras that are little more than cow crap are as much to blame as the pot
bellied shifty eyed rat babu politicians whose greasy palm prints help
shift vote banks by maintaining the status quo for the rich and powerful.
Today in
India, thousands of poor farmers are still yoked by the Zamindar system.
How many years does it take for a government to shatter the spine of the
corrupt landowner? The farmer, yoked like a bullock, earning just enough to
keep skin on bone, will die broken. And what he has to give to his children, is
the cycle of slavery that him and his forefathers were chained to. That is the
pitiful inheritance that he passes on. A diminishing impoverished return that
leads to the burning funeral pyre. Who talks for these people in India today?
Who is voicing their silent screams? Sure there are organizations. And there
are social workers. And there are NGOs. But do they have the TEETH, to make a
real positive change? The fact remains: after all these years, the man chained
to the lender's wheel, continues to go round and round and round in a circle of
deceit that EVERYBODY is aware of. This has been going on and the facts on the
ground state that there is little anybody can do about it, because in a place
like India, the culture of corruption is embedded deep within the fat folds of
a society that subconsciously harbors this crime, because it benefits the rich,
the powerful, the housewife and the small businessman. The rich owner of a
brick factory, employs children and adults at slave rates, he pays off the
greasy politicians, who in turn wink at the police and officials. A little chai
pani flows under the table. And the wheel turns. It's just another brick in
a wall that will never crumble, because the sentinels of society command that
the wall has to stand. And if, the brick factory owner is prosecuted by a
heroic organization, the case takes 20 years to settle. Meanwhile the chakra
turns and another thousand bricks are created as human lives are ground into
mud. This is how the wheel of slavery is nourished and sustained. To argue that
the child and man working for a pittance are not slaves to the rich brick
factory owner is senseless. They are free to leave, one may argue. Not true. Go
to the small villages. See the pressure that is brought upon poor workers. To
try and leave is an insult to the rich factory owner, that may cost a poor man
his life. Starting over with nothing, in another place and another state is not
something many poor Indians do very well. Sure, the streets of Mumbai are
always there. From slavery they can run to being homeless foot path dwellers
begging for a living, defecating in gutters; living the life of slow death.
That is not a solution. This is not Bollywood; this is REALITY.
The
Bonded Labor (Prohibition) Act 1976 and the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (concerning slavery and
servitude) is a joke. Nobody cares. Nobody is prosecuted, nobody is jailed. When
was the last time in India, that somebody, anybody, was prosecuted and found
guilty of slavery? When? But it is happening right between the eyes of an open
society right? Yes, no, maybe.....? You don't have to go far to view
slavery from your window in the year 2014.
The
website of 'Anti Slavery Day states: 'The exploitation of
human beings for profit takes many forms, including sexual exploitation, forced
labor, child trafficking, and domestic servitude. The efforts of successive
governments to tackle its causes and effects have met with limited success.'
A
question here: Which official organization in the Indian government deals with
the above mentioned crimes against humanity? And what have they done; and what
are they doing about it? Who is the minister whose job it is to see that this
does not escalate? At whose desk does the buck stop here? Can anyone name
somebody, anybody...?
The
National Human Rights Commission of India is an autonomous public body
constituted on 12 October 1993. Konakuppakatil Gopinathan Balakrishnan (K. G.
Balakrishnan) is the Chairperson of the National Human
Rights Commission of India. He is a former Chief Justice of India.
And
here is the vicious but not surprising body blow. Wikipedia states: 'A
petition-seeking vigilance probe into the allegations of "amassment of
wealth disproportionate to their sources of income" by Balakrishnan's
family members, was filed before the Income Tax Vigilance and Anti-Corruption
Bureau. The income tax department has confirmed that at least three of his
relatives had held a large amount of black money.
In
February 2012, the Supreme Court of India in a case filed by the NGO Common Cause, inquired of the government as to the progress in the probe
against Justice Balakrishnan.'
It
is 2014 now; Yes, what happened to the probe??? Please someone do tell!
And
here is another kick in the groin: 'Balakrishnan's son-in-law and Indian Youth Congress leader P. V. Srinijan, who did not have
any land four years ago, is now the owner of property worth crores of rupees.
According to a report by news channel Asianet News, Srinijan had declared while
contesting as a Congress candidate in the 2006 Assembly elections that he had
no landed property. He had contested unsuccessfully from the SC reserved constituency of Njarackal in Ernakulam. In light of the
charges, Srinijan resigned from the Youth Congress. '
Is
anybody surprised? The wheel turns back to corruption, the root of all
exploitation in India. How can you stem the flow of slavery in India when the
Chairperson of the very organization supposed to look into exploitation is
being looked at as corrupt? This is something the new government in India
should look into. This is not a New Delhi political business as usual board
game. This is life. This is death. This is children, women and men being raped
and violated by a system that hypocritically swears to protect them.
The new Prime
Minister Mr. Modi is rightfully advocating for a clean India. India will be
truly cleansed when its children and untouchables and bonded workers are free
from the clutches of slavery that is abetted and nourished by the pimps of
corruption. For that to happen, it will take more than brandishing a broom in
public. Tough laws with strong teeth, that will be charge, prosecute and
sentence in a short period of time will start to change the tide. For many
Indians, Modi's ascension is the dawn of a new era. Hopefully, the new prime
minister, will put on his old Chai wallah hat and look at the wheel of
slavery in its scantly disguised avatar in India.
Slavery
clothes itself differently these days.
Take the
case of Devyani Khobragade who was arrested on in New York City last year on
charges of visa fraud and misrepresentation. She is alleged to have treated her
"servant," Richard like a slave. At the time of her arrest,
Khobragade was functioning as deputy consul general at the Indian Consulate in
New York. The nitty- gritty dirt, and hysterical eruptions that followed in
India are well documented by now. The fact that Sangeeta Richard was the
victim here seems to have by passed Indians. The hysterical blabbering for
action against America was fore front. That Richard was exploited was
forgotten. In India, Devyani Khobragade advocated for women’s rights. But in
New York, she was a slave driver, says the family of Khobragade’s housekeeper. Consular
official Khobragade worked domestic servant Sangeeta Richard from 6 a.m. to
11 p.m. every day, “tantamount to keeping a person in slavery-like conditions
or keeping a person in bondage,” Richard’s husband, Philip, said in court
papers filed in Delhi. Eventually, Khobragade returned to India, on a
diplomatic slip and slide rule, but she will be prosecuted if she ever returns
to The United States. For those who still argue that what Khobragade did to her
servant Richard was not slavery, well... walk in Richard's servants feet for a
week... from 6am to 11pm day after night after day. A former slave from New
Orleans once said, "If our perception of what amounts to slavery today is
colored black by our social needs and political fancies, then slavery will be shackled,
bound and kicking for years to come. We are the keepers of the old flame of
past and present injustices, and there is no government, organization or God
that can change that poverty within us. It is we who must light a new torch. We
must stand up individually and see that this open sore heals and vanishes from
the face of this earth." And remember what Mahatma Gandhi once said,
"We must become the change that we want to see in the world."
The former American slave and the Indian Mahatma were saying the same thing.
Nobody it seemed listened; because today, 2014, we are still discussing the
scourge of slavery. This infected oozing open wound, will take a long time to
heal, especially in India, because the ointment that is being applied to stop
the puss and aid the healing process is made from an ingredient called
'Corruption.'