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Published: October 1st 2007
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What an amazing learning experience I had on my nine day field excursion. A Visthar employee named Sagar, who works in northern Karnataka, organized the entire trip. Sham was our “chaperone” from Visthar. We concentrated on Devadasis, child bonded laborers, child laborers in mines, and the NGOs that work with these groups.
We arrived in Hospet September 20 at 8:00am, after a “night’s sleep” on the train, the other five students and I were greeted with flowered necklaces and single roses from Sagar and a couple of his helpers. In the afternoon we drove to a neighboring village to talk to devadasis living in a colony with about 55 devadasi families. Devadasis’ occupation used to consist of living in the temples and being worshipped as goddesses. This job slowed morphed into becoming servants in the temples and today is similar to prostitution because women live in their own homes, usually aren’t married, and basically, men use their bodies. We were led into the largest home which had a cement floor while a handful of women and a few dozen curious kids followed us in and sat on the floor. With Sagar as our chief translator, we asked questions and they
Bonded Laborers
These were the group of boys we talked to. It was just a fluke there were only boys, because girls participate in this as well. asked us questions. We found out that none of the families own their own land. Most of the women have no source of livelihood once they are a little older or less attractive and thus having no source of livelihood, work as agricultural laborers, which means working for an upper caste farmer for 25 rupees a day (just over 50 cents). With this money they support a family of at least five members. We asked one woman what her hopes or dreams are and she responded that since she wasn’t given an education or a good life, she would like to give her children education and also wants a small house of her own.
The next day was one of the most educationally impacting experiences of my life. We drove out to an iron ore mine and walked around watching and talking to the miners. A bulldozer would dig a large hole and the workers would pick out large pieces of ore, sit down, and using a hammer, would break up the ore into one by one inch pieces. A small bowlful of ore pieces would equate to eight rupees. Each member of the family could earn about 100 rupees in a day, and thus, child labor is incredibly common in mines. Children are born and raised in four by eight foot huts next to the mining fields that are often only covered in a tarp to protect against the monsoon rains. The only source of water for this particular mine was a river about ½ mile away. The families used the supply for drinking water, laundry, bathing, and the river was their toilet. Children sometimes have to sleep outside of the huts either because everyone doesn’t fit or because their parents want to have sex. As a result, the kids are bitten by poisonous snakes and insects. When their parents have to bring them to the hospital they are beaten afterwards for making the family lose a day of work. Domestic abuse and sexual abuse are both really common at the mines.
Later that day we went to a boarding school for child miners. It was my understanding that it was the parent’s decision for these children to attend the school. The kids talked about how they like the school because the food is so much better, their teachers have taught them a mother’s love, they don’t have to worry about abuse, they get to learn, they get to play, and basically, be children.
A few days later we met another group of child laborers: bonded laborers. About 10 boys came into an NGO we were visiting to tell us their stories. None of them go to school, although a few had gone for a couple years. They all have been handed over to employees by their parents in exchange for a loan. Bonded laborers are supposed to work to pay back that loan. All of these boys herd 50 to 100 sheep. They are physically abused by their employers, are malnourished, and often have to sleep with the sheep. The only get to see their families is once a week or a month at the market, although one boy hasn’t seen his family since he started. They are given one set of clothes for a year and are “paid” two lambs a year. Their family sometimes sells these sheep and use the money for alcohol. One 15 year-old started when his family needed a loan of 500 rupees because their house had collapsed due to the rains and his brother had been hurt. This boy has never been to school and when we asked what he would want if he could have anything, instead of saying he wants a childhood and an opportunity to go to school, he said he would want three cows. From his point of view, education is unnecessary. He could be independent and self-sufficient if he had only three cows. Then he asked our group what we can do for them. The room went silent. Even if we had brought them with us back to Bangalore that would not solve the larger issue.
Another highlight of the trip was when we traveled to a small adavasi (indigenous people) village. They were holding a celebration in the village square, right outside the temple. The men were drumming and the women were dancing in their bright and colorful traditional dress and used black umbrellas for some of the dances. They even let the one guy student in our group wear one of their oufits. We all had so much fun dancing with them, but it was stressful too because they were a very verbal and slightly aggressive group of people. We were NEVER doing the dances right, and they were constantly correcting us. There were two problems with this: they weren’t talking to us in English, and they were all doing the dances a little differently. But we had fun none the less.
Overall the excursion was the perfect opportunity to study the identity of the exploited. We visited a University and talked to professors in the women’s studies and tribal departments. We spent a couple hours at a special education school along with a couple other schools for the view children that have actually been taken out of bonded labor by the government. We met lower caste people being exploited, their exploiters, schools that center on rehabilitation, and NGOs that are working to empower and advocate for these individuals.
Tomorrow is Gandhiji day so we are learning a little bit about Gandhian thought, which I’m looking forward to because I am currently reading his autobiography. On Thursday we are going to a university in Bangalore for the afternoon to formally and informally meet and converse with the students there. On October 11 we leave for Goa, a resort town on the west cost, to study tourism and globalization. On October 27 a big group of us fly to Thailand for a week-long fall break, where I will hopefully meet up with a friend from summer school in Norway that lives in Bangkok. It’s a small world.
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