Rajput’s statement came after Congress legislator Arjun Modhwadia sought ‘urgent public attention’ over an industrial accident that happened at Onerio Lifecare Private Limited, a pharmaceutical factory, in Padra of Vadodara district on January 31 in which three labourers died and two sustained serious injuries.

Flagging the issue of industrial safety and those of labourers, Modhwadia sought to know if the government plans a safety audit of factories. He also demanded whether action would be taken against the company in connection with the fatal Vadodara accident.

In reply, Rajput said that to check such incidents from happening, the Director (Industrial Safety) of the Gujarat government does inspection of factories and if found necessary, then the factory proprietor is also given a show cause notice. If the proprietor does not follow the instructions, then cases are also registered in courts.

“Under the Factories Act, so far, criminal cases have been registered against 3,901 people for not following safety rules,” Rajput said.

The Gujarat minister added that 244 labourers had died in various accidents in 2021. “In 2021, there were 45,920 registered factories (in Gujarat)… In 2022, the number of factories increased to 47,762 and the number of deaths due to accidents was 238. Now (in 2023), the factories have increased to 49,246 and 232 deaths have been reported. But the government is concerned to ensure that these 232, too, do not die (in accidents) and how we can bring this down to zero,” he stated.

Rajput also defended his government by stating that the ratio of industrial accidents in Gujarat has come down in comparison to previous years.

Meanwhile, the same time, Modhwadia highlighted that at 570, Gujarat has the highest number of hazardous factories in India, including 98 in Bharuch and 89 in Vadodara. “It is my request that such steps be taken so that no more accidents happen in these hazardous factories,” he stressed.

In his response, Rajput said the government is taking these steps as per the changing technology and nature of accidents. With regard to the accident at the Vadodara pharma factory, Rajput said that the next of kin of three labourers have been given Rs 30 lakh by the factory as compensation and they will get other compensation from the state government as per rules. He also stated that the factory has been ordered to shut and a detailed inquiry is on.

Related:

29% increase in daily wage workers suicides in 2 years: Labour Ministry

Eradicate manual scavenging completely says SC increasing compensation to families of workers who die at work to Rs 30 lakh

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Their feet: They tirelessly bear the burden of this world roiled even though they are.
 

Earlier this month I was in Dhaka to attend a one on one photography workshop with an extremely talented Bangladeshi photographer G M B Aakash. As I was set to leave for Dhaka a student of mine remarked, “Comrade, tussi abroad challe ho” (Comrade, you are going abroad)? Nothing could have been more tragic for me than to feel like being ‘abroad’ in Bangladesh. I told my student friend – “I would just like to feel like being at home in Dhaka; like an overdue homecoming.”

My affliction here does not owe to any reason endogenous to me; it is simply for the reason that we are the same people either across our western border or the eastern border, united by a shared history extending over thousands of years. The borders are only 75 years old and it is my firm belief that if people across the sub-continent could have their way, the borders, as a barrier to the free intermingling of people, would disappear sooner than later.

I need to admit here that Bangladesh did not disappoint me even the slightest. Upon arrival as the immigration official at the airport saw my passport a smile crossed his face. “Welcome to Bangladesh Sir. You are from JNU! It’s a great university; at least the greatest in South Asia and you are in a great profession.” This was no coincidence, for on my return another officer at the immigration said much the same thing.

But this was not the first time that I earned plaudits from a Bangladeshi in Bangladesh for simply being part of JNU. There is a small village ‘Dawki’ on Indo-Bangladesh border in south-east Meghalaya where the Umngot river forms a lake on the Indian side before flowing across the border into Bangladesh. It is a picnic spot where the common people seemed to have sway over the paramilitary Border Guards right on the border, both in India and Bangladesh.  I had been to the place in December 2017.

A rather modest nylon rope, stretched across the river to mark the border, seemed to bear the audacity of dividing thousands of years of our shared history into India and Bangladesh. But the people were equally intent, quite spontaneously rather than by particular design, to mitigate the ‘audacity of the rope.’ Even as the hawkers on either side did brisk business by selling snacks to customers from either side, selfies were being clicked by picnickers from the two countries on either side of the ‘rope’, inside each other’s country.

It is there that I met a group of Bangladeshi students and some lawyers practicing in the Bangladesh Supreme Court. Mere mention of being a professor at JNU earned me generous plaudits instantly along with an invite for a selfie in Bangladesh. The ‘rope’ was only a hapless witness to the will of the people.

I would let the plaudits rest here.

Before my arrival in Bangladesh, Aakash had asked me to come prepared with a wish list of what I would like to photograph. ‘People’ is all that I had in my mind. I told him that my interest was in the genre of photography where people would speak through my photographs, and so it was. We went almost exclusively to working class areas and among the workers during the workshop. They welcomed me with generous smiles and rarely declined a pose for the camera. Moreover, that I was from India elicited a measure of excitement and a lot of respect on their part – something, I believe, we in India need to learn from.

What follows are some of the impressions I have carried back with me. I just wish that these manage to nudge our opinions a little.

(The author is Assistant Professor, Centre for Social Medicine and Community Health, Jawaharlal Nehru University-JNU)

[All photographs by Dr Vikas Bajpai during a recent photography workshop with  Bangladeshi photographer G M B Aakash.] 

And the hands that can hold up the sky, even though bonded into slavery of circumstances they are.

 

Marching on.

 

What might not shake on earth if only these limbs were to begin marching for their own salvation? Unfortunately, their oppressors, at least for now, seem to realize this truth far better than the bearers of this potential.

Laborious pillars.

 

Burden off loaded to begin another round and the process goes on for at least eight hours a day.

 

Life rolls on and there seems no escape.
 

An abiding picture of dignity: She is Anara Begom at Karwan Bazaar wholesale vegetable market, Dhaka.

Anara Begom’s husband was killed in Rawalpindi at the time of Bangladesh liberation war. She raised her children single handedly, and now that they are all married, she is left alone to fend for herself as her offspring can themselves manage only a hand to mouth existence.

We found Anara Begom tucked in a corner of Karwan Bazar sitting with an assortment of around a dozen pieces of vegetables on a mat waiting for a customer. All of her capital was worth no more than 10 to 15 takas, or so was her expectation. But who would buy this, one might wonder? As it was to be found, at Karwan Bazar there are layers within layers. There are big wholesale traders, who supply the big and small retailers. In the transaction some vegetables fall off the sacks, or those that have started rotting in parts are discarded. Such vegetables are collected by people like Anara, washed, their decayed portions removed, and then sold to other poor people like her, of which there isn’t a dearth. Anara Begom thus manages to ward off the indignity of having to beg.

As she steals a nap her mate keeps a strict vigil.

Stealing a smile from the shadows of life; a headload worker, Karwan Bazar wholesale vegetable market, Dhaka.

Ferrying a headload of goods as he does at Karwan Bazaar, life is a day to day grim struggle for this worker.

Royal bath: This worker enjoys a refreshing bath after the day’s hard work at Gabtoli cattle market in Dhaka.

The man and his machine: As I stood angling for this shot, I was incidentally reminded of Ritwik Ghatak’s 1958 film ‘Ajaantrik.’

All in a day’s toil.
 

All in a day’s toil.

Bangladesh is a land of mighty rivers. River Buri Ganga is the lifeline of Dhaka and the port at Gatboli is the busiest commercial port of the city handling major trade. Naturally then it is teeming with workers loading and unloading the ships. Nothing would exemplify better the adage – ‘living by the sweat of the brow only to get browbeaten’ as these workers do.

Lunch break at Gabtoli.

Worries galore.

Maimoona manages her tiny ‘dhaba’ (food stall) to provide cheapest possible food for the laborers at Gabtoli.

The angry young man – Who will channelize his anger?

Rahimul and

Khaleeda ferry coal from the ships ……..

Each basket of coal they ferry carries around 40 kg of coal which is to be offloaded at the depot that is around 100 meters from the ship. Each round trip earns them 3 takas and the count of the trips is kept by plastic tokens handed to them after each trip. Just calculate how many trips they would be making to earn a daily wage between 500 to 800 takas. It’s a sheer feat. Isn’t it humbling that they still managed a smile to make a great photograph. Notice the kohl in Khaleeda’s eyes.

The proletarian Rambo.

You would have heard of descriptions like ‘Colgate smile’, ‘Binaca smile’ and ‘Cibaca smile’ for flashy smiles. His smile was twice as glorious as all three of them put together.

A genial Hercules.

Bilal Hossein was tall and muscular with broad shoulders on which rests the weight of many responsibilities. He said that he toils hard so that his children can get all the education they need. I intervened just in time to prevent him from wiping out the beads of sweat on his countenance. The results are what they are. After the photograph was taken, Aakash asked the tea shop owner on site to open two one liter bottles of seven up for Bilal and his compatriots to quench their thirst.

As dusk cast its deep shadow over Gabtoli it was time to bid adieu.

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At a time when the trend of trying to maximize profits has led to so many serious distortions in the health sector, the need for at least some efforts which have been consistently providing rationality based, low cost medical care with a special emphasis on trying to reach out to workers and peasants and to all weaker sections of society has increased further.

The Shaheed Hospital in Dalli Rajhara (Chattisgarh) region provides one such highly inspiring example. It is, moreover, a very rare example of a hospital which was actually created, built, expanded by workers, using their own hard labor and meager savings (with some help from other well-wishers). It has been a tremendous effort to maintain the continuity of this hospital’s work during the last four decades.

The Shaheed Hospital also provides a very inspiring example of many deeply committed doctors, nurses, medical and other workers who have been serving the hospital with the deepest commitment over the years.

In particular one must mention Dr. Saibal Jana who has been with the hospital since its birth and still continues to lead this inspiring effort, braving many difficulties and adversities.

Going back about four decades, the late seventies and early eighties were a period of great awakening and hope in the mining township of Dalli Rajhara. The iron ore miners, particularly contract workers, had been successfully resisting highly exploitative practices including very low wages.

Under the inspiring leadership of the legendary trade union leader Shankar Guha Niyogi and his close colleagues, the workers had followed this success with many constructive programs with the understanding of combining struggles with many-sided constructive work (sangharsh va nirman).

This included a very effective campaign against liquor addiction, education and vocational training, cultural programmes and above all a strong health program of workers and peasants.

By then the trade union had spread to some other mining areas as well and what is more, had established a strong organizational base in the rural areas under the banner of Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha (CMM). This and the main trade union called the Chattisgarh Mines Shramik Sangh (CMSS) became the main hub of asserting the rights of workers and peasants in this region.

I was fortunate to be a part of these times of hope as a visiting reporter and journalist. However my first visit to the area was in more difficult circumstances, as a member of a human rights team, when a big protest movement was going on and Niyogi Ji had been arrested. Later I also got permission to meet Niyogi Ji in jail.

So phases of repression and the resulting protests were always coming in and the constructive work had to be continued in the middle of this. Niyogi Ji once told with a sigh — we have so many ideas about experimental constructive work with great potential but the day to day problems which are always being created for our union leaves us very less time for this.

Despite this, constructive work like workers giving up liquor on a large scale and in a very determined way was a big success. Around the same time as visitors we started seeing patients coming in significant numbers to a dispensary operating then from a garage. Doctors like Vinayak Sen, Ashish Kundu and Saibal Jana had started reaching here to start a healthcare program, and a health committee of workers had been formed.

At the time of disasters like Latur earthquake and Bhopal gas leak, the hospital sent its volunteers for helping

The arrangement in garage was only a temporary one, we learnt, the workers plan to soon build their own hospital! This was great news which enthused many visitors, but they had their doubts too. A hospital, its building and equipment cost a lot of money too; how can the workers arrange all this.

But soon the workers by their strong determination were soon turning this into a reality. As many as 1000 workers would gather at the time of construction and with their disciplined and dedicated voluntary work would complete in a single day work that may otherwise drag on for an extended period.

During subsequent visits visitors saw the inauguration of the new hospital building in 1983, additions to it, various equipment and new facilities being added, an ambulance being purchased, the number of beds being increased.

Each of these improvements and additions was a quiet celebration of the aspirations of the workers and peasants, most of them from tribal communities and other weaker sections who had suffered much due to earlier denial of proper medical care and some had even lost family members due to this.

The hospital got its name Shaheed (martyr) from the memory of those comrades who had been killed in the course of an early struggle; they would surely rest in peace that an institution created in their name has saved so many precious human lives.
Even at an early stage the hospital and the union took steps to take health campaigns to wider rural areas and improve water and sanitation in the area. At the time of disasters like the Latur earthquake and the Bhopal Gas Leak disaster, the hospital sent its volunteers for helping.

Young doctors and health personnel keen to work with similar ideals came here to gain experience and inspiration. The hospital became a center recognized widely for providing very good training to nurses. It contributed to and also made made effective use of various government health programs.

As the hospital completes nearly 4 decades of its tremendously useful and inspiring efforts, There are many, many friends and beneficiaries who wish for the further success of this effort, with more doctors and others coming forward to help.

*Honorary convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include ‘Planet in Peril’, ‘A Day in 2071’ and ‘Man over Machine’

Courtesy: https://www.counterview.net

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Kerala is fast becoming the favoured destination for inter-state migrant labourers in India. Unofficial figures peg the total number of migrants at 40 lakhs, around 12 percentage of state’s total population. Are they provided with adequate legal protection and fair chance in employment? Fondly dubbed as ‘guest labourers’ by the state government, what are the real job conditions of these migrants?

Recently various accidents at job sites that claimed the lives of migrant workers have caused political stir in Kerala. In the March, collapse of an under-construction building caused the death of four migrant workers from West Bengal. Preliminary investigations showed the lax implementation of safety rules and lacunas in the documentation.

This was not an isolated incident. Such mishaps in construction sites have been reported from across the country. The insatiable greed of real estates to exploit the financial difficulties of migrants compelling them to either suffer disguised unemployment or work without proper safety means, triggerring such incidents.

The influx of migrants is surging in Kerala. State is fast becoming preferred destination of migrants from various parts of the country to eke out decent living. The pull factors are comparatively higher wage rate and social and political conditions.

Local contractors prefer migrant laborers due to low wage and lack of strict compliance with employment rules. Laborers are accommodated in inhuman conditions and are dissuaded from demanding better living conditions. In various sectors like construction, quarrying and agriculture, laborers are being exploited flouting all norms.

Figures of interstate laborers in the state

When Kerala started prospering thanks to foreign remittance and huge profits from cash crop centered agriculture, migrants from Tamil Nadu were the first to reach the state. They were succeeded by people from West Bengal, UP, Bihar, Orissa and North East. According to government estimates, people from Jharkhand and the North East now constitute major part of migrants. According to a study conducted by Gulati Institute of Finance and Taxation, every year 2.5 percentage increase is recorded in migrants’ arrival to Kerala. It is estimated that around 40 lakhs of migrant laborers are working in Kerala; around 12 percentage of total state’s population.

Six crore people are living in India as inter-state migrants, according to finance ministry reports. People from less industrialised states like UP, Bihar and states in the North East are leading the figures. Severe unemployment serves as a push factor to migrate from these states.

Unsafe job sites

Construction is the second largest employer in Indian after agriculture. It contributes around nine percentage to GDP. But this sector is fraught with dangers. Studies point out high mortality rates and morbidity rates in construction because of risks associated with it.

80 percentage of construction activities are done in totally unsafe conditions. Most of the deaths are because of falling from heights while working or collapse of under construction buildings. Abysmal rate of accident reporting compounds the issue.

According to experts, no studies are done in Kerala on hoe to mitigate dangers at construction sites. Without adequate protection of law, state is squandering the opportunity to protect the vulnerable migrants. This dereliction of duty absolves the government from compensating the bereaved family. Proper safety measures should be provided at sites according to the vulnerability prospects. Inspections at regular intervals will compel the employers to provide adequate safety gears for the employees.

Illegal ‘trafficking’ of laborers

Many employers are bringing workers with scant regard for rules. Migrant people being unlettered and economically weak, are not aware of their rights. Adivasis from marginalised regions are exploited and any demand for better amenities are ignored.

‘Unofficial’ agents are recruiting migrant workers from various parts of India. Once they reach the site, they are coerced to engage in dangerous jobs and are allowed to switch employers. According to activists, this is a kind of bonded labour legally prohibited under Article 24.

Lax implementation of laws

Inter-state Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act 1979 was the first law enacted by central government to protect interstate migrants. The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code 2020 were brought in to simplify labour rules. Although presidential assent is given to the bill, central government is still to stipulate the time frame for the rules to kick in.

1979 law gives additional protection to migrant laborers. Wage parity is an important suggestion. Rules also suggest paid leave and medical care. But these are flouted with impunity. Laborers have to bear travel expenses and are unlikely to get back the job once they take leave.

State government has brought in compulsory registration of all migrants with details of employers. Documents are to be verified at various levels and security check-ups are mandatory for house jobs. But these norms are not followed, allowing criminal elements to find refuge in the state.

Allegations of soaring crime rates

The uncontrolled influx of migrants has allegedly posed serious law and order issue in the state. Gang wars, substance abuse, theft, and gendered violence are on the rise. Sometimes they are being victimized by local community. Absence of scientific studies and lax approach of police to tackle issue sometimes leads to eruption of discontent among the local people.

Last Christmas, gang war among the migrant laborers caused widespread vandalism of public property at Ernakulam District. The employers are often accommodating the laborers at filthy locations in the margins of cities. This gives them suitable den for anti-societal activities.

Gruesome death of law student after rape in 2016 by a migrant laborer from Assam exposed the chinks in the armour of the law-and-order machinery. He was later sentenced to death penalty by a Sessions court.

In 2016, as many as 636 cases were registered against migrant laborers. In the subsequent years it rose to 744, then 805 and later 978. During pandemic, when majority of laborers deserted the state, the cases were down to 484.

The crimes are increasing and the police are reluctant to act tough. Employers are interested in profits and dismiss all legal responsibilities. Migrant workers are blamed for peddling drugs across the state. Along with this, lack of documentation prevents police from tracking down the miscreants and acting tough.

State must ensure wellbeing

Kerala Government welcomes migrant laborers to the state. It has implemented many projects to enhance their wellbeing through legal protection and safety instructions at hazardous work places. During the pandemic, Kerala was praised for protecting the migrant laborers by including them in free ration schemes.

It should take strict action to ensure complete documentation of migrants. They should be included in free ration schemes. Adequate living conditions should be ensured at accommodation states. Regular inspection by labor and health officials will improve their working conditions. Above all, state and police should approach humane and sympathetic approach towards these laborers.

* Mubashir is a journalism student at Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Delhi currently on internship with SabrangIndia

Related:

Proposed K-Rail project to wreck Kerala’s fragile ecology
Emergence of ‘Super States’ in India

* Mubashir is a journalism student at Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Delhi currently on internship with SabrangIndia

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The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued more advisories to various ministries and States on the adverse impact faced by labourers and migrant informal sector workers titled Advisory to identify, release and rehabilitate bonded labourers during Covid-19. This has been prepared in consultation with civil society organisations and other stakeholders covering the aspects of prevention, identification, rescue, as well as rehabilitation of the bonded labourers.

Last year, under the Supreme Court’s directions, the National Human Rights Commission had issued “Comprehensive Guidelines for All States/ UTs for Identification, Release and Rehabilitation of Bonded Labourers during Covid-19 Situation.” But with the new challenges of the second wave, the NHRC has an additional set of guidelines in place to cover the aspects of prevention, identification, rescue, as well as rehabilitation of the bonded labourers, ensuring that prompt actions are taken by the government authorities to protect the most vulnerable section.

Prevention  

The human-rights body has suggested that Panchayats may be asked to maintain a record of information about persons residing in the village and those who migrated to towns/cities for work. The record will also maintain details of the labourers, middlemen, location of the workplace, etc. The District administration is supposed to coordinate with the railway authorities in the district to monitor if labourers are being trafficked and investigate it immediately, especially if it involves children.

The advisory also reads, “State Government should consider creating dedicated funds for providing free ration and healthcare to the vulnerable and daily wagers who lost jobs due to Covid-19 pandemic. The state should direct the district administrations to identify households in extreme vulnerable conditions and provide essential social security cover. This will prevent trafficking for bonded labour.”

NHRC has given more responsibility to the District administration that can consider coordinating with local NGOs working on labour issues to provide information on illegal migration.

Identification

Panchayats have been advised to immediately monitor and inform the District Magistrate (DM) if they have identified or received any complaints from family members on child/bonded labour conditions in the workplace of the labourer. Further, the District Magistrate should constitute/ activate the Vigilance Committee as per the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976 to carry out a survey of offences committed.

The DM should also constitute teams with relevant department officials to inspect industries/ brick kiln/other workplaces twice a month and identify if labourers are working under bonded labour conditions, as per NHRC.

Rescue

The DM and Sub-Divisional Magistrates (SDM) have been advised to complete the investigation within 24 hours upon receiving a complaint of the bonded labour system. Due to the current pandemic, the DM/SDM need to ensure that the rescue team is trained on Covid-19 precautions and a thermal screening of the team should be made mandatory before conducting a rescue /spot inquiry.

During the process of rescue, the rescue team should ensure that the face masks and sanitisers are provided to the labourers and physical distance is adequately maintained among the labourers. After the rescue process is completed, NHRC has advised that the DM or SDM should ensure and arrange for basic health screening and Covid tests of rescued bonded labourers.

“If any rescued labourer is suspected of Covid-19, arrangements should be made to immediately escort the labourer to the nearest health facility to access free testing and treatment. Released Bonded Labourers should be vaccinated and if possible, vaccination should cover all age groups”, reads the advisory dated May 31.

Efforts should be made by the officials to recover the unpaid wages of the labourers on the spot as delay in payment of wages can make them vulnerable to re-bondage. The labourers also need to be provided with Release Certificates on priority and within 24 hours of the rescue. Transport facilities have to be arranged if the workers are willing to go back to their homes, suggested NHRC.

Rehabilitation

As prescribed in the Central Sector Scheme 2016, immediate cash assistance upto Rs. 20,000 should be provided by the District Administration to the rescued person out of the District Bonded Labour Rehabilitation Fund at the disposal of the District Magistrate. The District Administration has also been advised to ensure that additional cash and non-cash benefits other than the provisions in the CSS-2016 scheme be made available for the rescued labourers as part of social security cover to avoid the possibilities of re-bondage.

The Administration has been asked to undertake all measures to provide a safe and healthy environment for children of rescued bonded labourers/child labourers in coordination with relevant Government departments. Health screening, psycho social counselling and education shall be an integral component of this rehabilitation package.

In cases where the rescued bonded labourers are not willing to go back to their native place, proper protocols should be followed in places of their work and they must be ensured access to basic benefits, according to NHRC.

Legal Aid

For offences under laws other than Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976, where statements under Section 161 CrPC are required to be recorded, the DM/SDM have been instructed to ensure that the same is done at the earliest, prior to repatriation and with appropriate Covid guidelines.

Given the risks involved in travel during the ongoing pandemic, the DM/SDM along with the police authorities have been asked to make efforts to ensure that the testimony of the released bonded labour is recorded by the concerned court through video conferencing.

In a scenario wherein a person released from bondage has been repatriated, but if later physically summoned by the Magistrate for evidence in trial, he/she should be provided with adequate safety and the proper health care norms should be followed during and post-trial.

Additional recommendations for the Centre and States/UTs

1. The Principal Secretary, Labour Department, could appoint a State Nodal Officer not below the rank of Under Secretary to coordinate with the Ministry of Labour and Employment for status on submitted proposals and reimbursement of cash assistance under various components of the Central Sector Scheme for Rehabilitation of Bonded Labourers, 2016.
2. The district administration should ensure that the district bonded labour rehabilitation fund with a permanent corpus mentioned in the Scheme is available for immediate cash and travel assistance to released bonded labourers, post rescue.
3. The State Labour Department shall create a helpline number connected with the labour officials in the district, to provide immediate help to labourers in distress at workplaces.
4. The State Government should arrange virtual trainings for the State/ District officials working on bonded labour issues. The training should be conducted at least twice in a calendar year on the following: Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976, Central Sector Scheme for Rehabilitation of Bonded Labourers, 2016 and Standard Operating Procedures to identify, rescue, release and rehabilitate bonded labourers.  
5. The State Government should maintain a database of bonded labour rescues and rehabilitation. It should also mention the number of surveys/inspections conducted by the authorities to identify bonded labour.
6. The Union Labour Ministry and State Labour Departments should update their websites regularly and ensure that data is properly managed with updated information.
7. Efforts should be made by the District Administration to work closely with the Education Department to encourage enrolment of children into schools, to minimize the number of children falling out of education system and into child labour.

The NHRC advisory dated March 31, 2021 may be read here: 

Related:

NHRC’s advisories on Covid-19
Covid-19: Which states fared worst and why?
Right to Health: The forgotten Constitutional mandate

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Raju Prajapati, 39, saved up to Rs 3,000 a month before demonetisation in 2016 and lived with his wife, two children and parents. “Happy days,” he calls that time. Today, he saves nothing, shares a single, smelly room with another worker and has sent his wife and children to his hometown. He sees them once a month.

Yet, they waited, nearly six hours after getting to Harola in eastern Delhi. The lucky ones got picked by 7 am, others later. The unlucky ones hung on, until hope ran out and they headed home. 

“It’s a daily routine here,” said 32-year-old Ram Kripal, a daily wage labourer left behind at Harola. The numbers of those left behind began to rise after demonetisation–the withdrawal of 86%, by value, of India’s currency–in November 2016, said Javed Ibrahim. From 2,000 to 3,000 daily wage workers who found employment here every day that year, fewer than 1,000 find work today, he said.

The Harola labour hub in Sector 5, Noida, is one of the major gathering points for those who seek daily wage work in Delhi’s informal economy. It is also an embodiment of India’s dichotomies. 

The hundreds who gathered here daily to beg for a day’s work amidst dust, smoke and smog, did so on a street surrounded by high-rise, chrome-and-glass buildings and towers. As the men and women in torn, stained clothes and sweat-drenched bodies waited, others drove by in the latest cars, in matching suits, shiny shoes and briefcases.

At Harola and other labour hubs in the national capital region (NCR) of Delhi–India’s largest urban agglomeration with 46 million people–they take whatever work is offered: at brick kilns, as rag pickers, at construction sites, in homes, lifting and moving goods. Those jobs are diminishing, as we report, as the number of workers at labour hubs swell.

Workers at the Harola labour hub in eastern Delhi sometimes wait up to six hours under the summer sun waiting for an employer to pick them up. The unlucky ones pack up and go home. On average, about 1,000 workers do not find daily jobs.

Demonetisation came to India’s capital and its informal economy at a time when businesses were being shut across Delhi for working in residential areas without licences and in industrial east Delhi for polluting the air of what is one of the world’s most-polluted cities. These triple blows were made worse by the July 2017 implementation of the goods and services tax (GST), widely criticised for its hasty, often chaotic implementation.

This is the last of an 11-part series (you can read the first part here, second here, third here, fourth here, fifth here, sixth here, seventh here, eighth here, ninth here and tenth here), reported from nationwide labour hubs–places where unskilled and semi-skilled workers gather to seek daily-wage or contract jobs–to track employment in India’s informal sector. This sector, which absorbs the country’s mass of illiterate, semi-educated and qualified-but-jobless people, employs 92% of India’s workforce, according to a 2016 International Labour Organization study that used government data.

By delving into the lives and hopes of informal workers, this series provides a reported perspective to ongoing national controversies over job losses. The number of jobs declined by a third over four years to 2018, according to a survey by the All India Manufacturers’ Organisation, which polled 34,700 of its 300,000 member-units.

In 2018 alone, 11 million jobs were lost, mostly in the unorganised rural sector, according to data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), a consultancy. The unemployment rate in 2017-18 was 6.1%, a 45-year high, according to the Periodic Labour Force Survey, released by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) in May 2019. The same report said 71.1% of salaried workers in the unorganised sector–excluding the agricultural sector–had no job contract.

The end of “happy days”

Raju Prajapati, 39, was wearing an unbuttoned half-sleeved shirt and clumsily folded pants, as he reminisced his “happy” days, living with his father, mother and wife in Gokalpuri, northeast Delhi. 

Disinterested in education, Raju dropped out after class 9 and dabbled in odd jobs till, in 2008, he started frequenting the labour hubs of Harola and Burari–about 28 km to the north–to find daily construction work. He found almost 25 days of work a month, earned around Rs 12,000 every month, enough to afford food and shelter.

On November 8, 2016, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided to cancel the validity of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, everything changed for the Prajapatis. 

Raju said he found work at a construction site only seven months after demonetisation.

“Demonetisation was a black day for us,” said Ganesh Prajapati, 67, a construction worker like his son Raju. “Only we (the family) know the struggle we faced to survive those days.” 

Ganesh’s income has dropped from Rs 12,000-Rs 15,000 to around Rs 8,000. Raju said he struggled to earn Rs 6,000-Rs 7,000 per month and work for about 16 days a month. 

As the job crisis worsened, Raju left his family home in Gokalpuri in July 2017 and moved to the interiors of Harola village, so he could be close to the labour hub. 

He lives in a smelly, shared room with a fellow worker and must travel 1.5 km to get drinking water every day. They struggle to pay the monthly rent of Rs 1,100 on time, like other tenants, so the landlord dismisses all complaints about ramshackle living conditions.

Raju’s wife has moved back to her parents’ house within the NCR and he now visits her only once a month. 

Before demonetisation, Raju could save up to Rs 3,000 a month. Now, he saves nothing.

We found different versions of the Prajapatis’ story repeated at other labour hubs in the NCR.

Different labour hubs, same woes

Delhi’s 17th-century Chandni Chowk is one of the city’s busiest markets, its teeming streets visited by half a million people every day and its narrow lanes packed with small-scale industrial units and wholesale markets. 

After demonetisation, Chandni Chowk businesses lost about 70% of their turnover, the Business Standard reported in May 2019.

Most of these small-scale industries and markets employed workers on informal contracts, and when the economy declined, these workers joined those on the streets at labour hubs, swelling the already large numbers there.

“There is a sense of insecurity and concern among labourers,” said Zakir Malik, 29, a daily wage labourer at Chawri Bazar, one of Delhi’s largest labour hubs and part of the Chandni Chowk area. “Daily wage work is reducing day-by-day here and across other labour hubs like Burari and Mahipalpur.” 

The Mahipalpur labour hub in south Delhi–one of the city’s most prosperous areas–is marked by narrow roads, chaotic traffic, broken footpaths and dejected workers. 

After demonetisation, the crowds thinned at the Mahipalpur labour hub, as workers either moved back to their native regions or migrated to areas like Noida. 

The Mahipalpur labour hub is now primarily a parking area for rickshaw pullers. “There were three major labour hubs in Delhi: Mahipalpur, Chawri Bazaar and Burari,” said Subhash Chand Mishra, 46, a former labour contractor. “Currently, all of these serve as rickshaw pullers’ stands.”

Sonu Kumar, 30, was a daily wage worker but tired of waiting for jobs and being dependent on labour contractors. He is now a cycle-rickshaw driver at the Mahipalpur labour hub in southern Delhi. With jobs scarce, the area has become a parking area for cycle rickshaws.

The downturn has affected not just labourers but contractors. “Frankly, a labour-contracting job was really fine in Delhi-NCR,” said Mishra, “But since demonetisation, labourers and labour contractors, both have been ruined.” 

Today, at the Mahipalpur labour hub, it is rare to find labourers between 7 am and 10 am, Mishra said. “Now, everyone looks towards Noida.” Although there is work to be found at residential- and office-tower construction sites, there are, as we said earlier, not enough jobs.

Mishra’s story reveals how even relative prosperity diminished after demonetisation and did not return.

After getting a bachelor-of-arts degree in his home town of Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, Mishra started a grocery shop but closed it later, hoping for better prospects, which he found in Delhi in 2007 as a labour contractor.

Mishra hired large groups of daily wage workers from labour hubs and shipped them to jobs at south Delhi’s Okhla industrial area. Before demonetisation, Mishra earned between Rs 30,000-Rs 40,000 every month and saved enough to rent a flat in north Delhi’s Adarsh Nagar, where he lived with his wife and two children. 

Now, Mishra lives in a single room near Sangam Vihar in south Delhi, moving out of his flat after he could not find enough work for the workers he once gathered. He is now an Uber driver, earning about the same amount, about Rs 40,000 a month. But expenses grew, and Mishra’s family moved back to Lucknow to save money.

Like Mishra, others down the chain have tried to move on, such as Sonu Kumar, 30, a migrant from Bihar who found pulling a rickshaw a better, more “independent” job than waiting at a labour hub every day and living under a contractor’s thumb.

Mishra and Kumar’s diminished job prospects are a reflection of the difficulties that Delhi’s industrial areas faced after not just demonetisation but GST and court orders shutting down businesses in residential areas and those that caused pollution.

GST, sealing, pollution

Mayapuri phase-II in West Delhi is one of India’s largest iron-trading hubs for small traders, micro and small enterprises, from scrap dealers to vehicle workshops, where unskilled and skilled workers come to find work. 

While demonetisation led to the closure of several small-scale industries and left informal sector workers unemployed, GST played a significant role in adding to the financial stress.

“The filing system of GST is very complicated, it has functionalities such as drop-down menus, invoice upload, upload of purchase and many more,” said Jatin Sharma, 52, an iron trader. “All these activities kill time and money of small traders. We can not afford professionals to look after all these things.” 

Dinesh Makol, 46, executive committee member of the Mayapuri Industrial Welfare Association, explained that several small-scale industry owners in New Delhi had invested personal savings to run their businesses. Demonetisation and GST stopped iron distribution, “wrecked” the lives of owners and hundreds of jobs were lost, said Makol, who runs a cast-iron manufacturing unit.

The end of cash transactions killed business and taxes under GST rose from 2% to 18%. 

“A big scarcity of iron was created in Mayapuri for months and all units had stopped working for a while,” said Ganesh Tanwar, 29, a Mayapuri vendor. Many shut permanently, said Makol.

Rishabh Shah, 37, said the market was closed for almost three months and labourers moved back to their native places.

The situation was made worse by the Delhi government’s drive to shut down unauthorised businesses in residential areas, driven by a Supreme Court monitoring committee. By January 31, 2017, at least 10,533 commercial units, including shops, restaurants, bars and bakeries were shuttered. 

In 2016, before demonetisation, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) ordered the shutdown of unauthorised industrial units in east Delhi to curb pollution. Based on this, the Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation identified 51,837 units that needed to be relocated or closed. Hardest hit were informal-sector workers. While working at these industrial units put them at risk of exposure to toxic air pollutants, they had stable monthly incomes.

Mayapuri was one of the most affected by the sealing drive and several times over 2018, traders have taken to the streets in protest. At a press conference in April 2019, Brijesh Goyal, head of Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) trade wing, assured traders that chief minister Arvind Kejriwal planned to move the Supreme Court against their sealing order.

Meanwhile, on the streets of Mayapuri, workers spend their days playing cards, waiting for factory owners to hire them.

Dark days before demonetisation
Few labourers we spoke to expected the government to provide jobs, but they did express a desire for waiting sheds, drinking water facilities and a labour union that could fight for Delhi’s minimum wage: Rs 399 for unskilled labour and Rs 485 for skilled labour.

With almost 1.3 million unemployed people in 2016, Delhi’s jobless rate surged 6% over the year from 2015, according to the Economic Survey of Delhi 2017-18, the latest available local data.

Demonetisation, GST, sealing and anti-pollution measures worsened the prospects of getting a job, but experts said such opportunities were already scarce for those without a proper education.

“There is an impression within people that Delhi has several opportunities for labourers,” said J John of the Centre for Education and Communication, an advocacy. “However, that’s not the actual scenario. Before demonetisation, it was average and post demonetisation it has become worse.”

Brick-kiln worker and migrant from Bihar, Parvati Kumari, 29, said “nothing has changed” for labourers in the NCR over the last five years. A class-10 dropout, she lives with her husband, a cab driver, and is never certain of finding work for the day. Since demonetisation, her income has dropped from Rs 8,000 to Rs 7,000.

“We struggled to get one proper meal a day and we are still struggling,” she said.

Tracking unemployment, however, is difficult in India’s capital because the data appear to be unreliable.

Delhi’s dodgy data
From the situation at Delhi’s labour hubs and industrial areas, it is apparent that unemployment among daily wage workers is widespread.
For instance, after demonetisation, hundreds lost jobs and businesses were shut in Sangam Vihar’s garment factories, considered to be one of Asia’s largest unauthorised neighbourhoods, said John. Home to more than 1 million, Sangam Vihar’s people are mostly poor migrants. 

But as in the rest of Delhi, tracking jobs lost and gained is difficult because there are no clear data, he said.

In 2016, Delhi had an average unemployment rate of 10.31%, going up to 17.3% in May 2016–before demonetisation, according to CMIE’s unemployment data. 

Unemployment was at its lowest between June 2017 and April 2018, at an average of 3.6%, falling to 1.6% in February 2018. In May 2018, the unemployment rate rose to 8.8% and has increased since. In the first four months of 2019, the unemployment rate has averaged 11.32%. 

These spikes are hard to analyse because employment rises and falls gradually, said experts.

“While the unemployment data itself is of concern and requires further analysis, it is important to highlight that there is a need for an independent and globally aligned system for capturing real-time unemployment data,” said Utkarsha Bhardwaj, a Delhi-based social-impact consultant. 

Without reliable data and a strategy, government social-welfare programmes for the jobless and unemployment programmes appear to be shots in the dark.

“While the skills mission launched by the Delhi state government and PMKVY (Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana) launched by the Union government are notable attempts to address some of the prevalent issues, they need to focus on the existing employment exchanges and develop them as a one-stop platform for not just gathering and maintaining real-time data on skills, employment, and available opportunities in the market, but also collaborate with academia and industries to present viable job options for those seeking employment,” said Bhardwaj. 

Employment opportunities can improve only if it is easy to run a business, which it currently does not appear to be in Delhi.

Making business difficult
In March 2019, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released data on the ease of doing business in Indian states. Based on the rankings over the last three years, Delhi slipped the most, falling from the 15th spot in 2015 to 23rd in 2017 (Andhra Pradesh tops the ranks, Telangana is second and Delhi’s neighbour, Haryana, is third).

“Very high cost of industrial land makes it impossible for aspiring young entrepreneurs to make the initial investment and stay viable in Delhi-NCR’s MSME (micro, medium and small enterprises) market,” said Suman Chawla, proprietor of a leather-goods manufacturing company called V&M Exports.

Land is likely to get costlier by 15-20%, a real-estate developers’ association predicts, but even if it does not, the shortage of skilled workers is a problem that continues amidst visible unemployment and numerous government programmes.

For instance, the National Skill Development Mission was launched in July 2015 to coordinate the efforts of the National Skill Development Agency, the National Skill Development Corporation and the Directorate General of Training, but at the labour hubs, workers told us they were unaware of job-training programmes and had never registered for any.

The Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana, launched in 2016–a programme under the National Skill Development Mission–promised free training in soft skills, entrepreneurship and financial and digital literacy to those who are school/college dropouts or unemployed, roughly about 10 million Indians by 2020, with a budget of Rs 12,000 crore. However, no more than a third of that target was achieved by January 2019, Al Jazeera reported in May 2019.

What welfare schemes?
During the February 2019 interim budget, Modi’s government introduced a pension programme for unorganised-sector workers called the Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maandhan (Prime Minister’s Labour Honorarium), which allowed those workers who earned less than Rs 15,000 a month a Rs-3,000 monthly pension after turning 60.

Among those eligible to register are street vendors, loaders, brick-kiln workers, landless labourers and domestic workers aged 18 to 40 years. Since the launch of the scheme, 5,966 workers registered in Delhi, as on May 26, 2019, according to the programme website. 

The 2017-18 NSSO survey said that among regular-wage workers in the unorganised sector–excluding the agricultural sector–54.2% were not eligible for paid leave, while 49.6% were not eligible for any social security benefits.

Suresh Koli, 52, is eligible for a government pension programme, but he says he is not aware of any such scheme. Almost none of the workers we spoke to were.

No worker we spoke to was aware of any government programme. “I have never heard of it,” said Suresh Koli, 52, a carpenter. “All I know is that I need to fight a battle every day to have a meal at night.”

The consensus: government programmes are for the authorities that run them. Delhi’s ruling AAP created eight labour organisations in January 2019, to seek votes from the unorganised sector. 

These labour organisations aimed to include workers in transportation, water, wholesale markets, construction, health, railways and electricity boards. Almost all the workers we spoke to in Sangam Vihar or Mahipalpur had heard to these labour bodies and expressed skepticism of government. 

Arun Jha, 43, a construction worker at Mahipalpur said in his 14 years on the job he had never heard of an organisation for labourers. Told of the AAP’s effort, he said: “It’s just for elections, nothing else.”

Back in Harola, when asked of expectations from the new Bharatiya Janata Party government, Raju, the worker we began this story with, referred to Modi’s 2014 promise of better days and said: “We are in search of acche din (good days).”

This is the last of 11 reports. Read the previous stories from Indore, Jaipur, Perumbavoor,  Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, Bengaluru, Bathinda, Haryana and Pune.

(Tiwari is a Delhi-based freelance writer and a member of 101Reporters.com, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters.)

Courtesy: India Spend

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In yet another case of mob violence in Bareilly of Uttar Pradesh four daily wage labourers were mercilessly thrashed by unidentified assailants allegedly after they were seen eating meat near a makeshift temple. The matter came to light earlier this week when a video of the assault began circulating on social media. A preliminary investigation has led police officials to suggest that the attack could have been due to two of the four labourers hail from minority communities. The victims of this attack had arrived at Baheri at the behest of a mason who had hired them to work as labourers.

However, the men attacked allegedly for eating beef near a place of worship claim that they were consuming a vegetarian meal when a group of unidentified young men arrived at the spot and began assaulting them. In a video of the incident, the assailants can be seen thrashing the labourers.

Station house officer (SHO) of Baheri station, Dhananjay Singh told news agency ANI that the four men had been hired to aid with the construction of a private home. They had gone to a nearby ‘devasthan’ to eat their food. A ‘devasthan’ is a miniature shrine with idols of god, usually near or under shady trees.

A first information report (FIR) in this regard has been registered against Adesh Valmiki and Manish along with four other unidentified men, said Bareilly senior superintendent of police (SSP) Muniraj G, adding that two teams have been formed to locate and arrest the rest of the accused who are currently at large. More details in this regard are awaited.

Courtesy: Counter Current

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Image credit: sushiesque/Flickr. (CC 2.0 by-nc)

Penelope Kyritsis (BTS): What is the importance of the Special Rapporteur’s fourth report on freedom of peaceful assembly and association?

Shawna Bader-Blau: What’s really important about this report is that it frames fundamental workers’ rights within a broad array of UN human rights. It says very clearly that labour rights are human rights, by any standard. That’s important because, in today’s economy, more and more workers are being undercut in their wages and workers’ conditions. At the same time, we have more economic growth than ever before – from Algeria, to China, and the United States. We see economic growth everywhere, but the prosperity isn’t shared and workers are not getting their fair share.

This report highlights all the ways employers are distancing themselves from fundamental labour rights at a time when we need them more than ever.

One of the core ways that workers can get their fair share is through coming together and forming organisations and trade unions that can actually bargain for better wages. Without these organisations, civil society, trade unions, other NGOs that work on labour rights, and a broad array of human rights organisations fighting for workers’ rights, without the ability to associate, we can’t do that. This report highlights all the ways the global economy, employers, and corporations are actually distancing themselves from these fundamental labour rights at a time when we need them more than ever.

Penelope: What can be done to hold states accountable for upholding these fundamental labour rights and to push forward the recommendations of this report?

Shawna: On the level of states, civil society needs to step up, and join together to hold governments accountable under their own laws and to advocate for better laws. We need to hold our governments accountable for implementing them through democratic processes.

On the global level, there’s a whole other issue, because so much of the global economy is essentially ungoverned. We have the broadest expansion of investor rights, with no curtailment. At the same time, we are experiencing the closing of space for civil society and a deep attack of human rights. So we are contracting human rights and at the same time expanding investor rights and not governing them. And that is seen through how we negotiate and implement trade agreements, where investors and the private sector are given not just a supreme, elevated voice in creating these agreements but also in their protection.

No one can say that it is not their fault that a child is working in a mine or a woman is being attacked in a factory.

We can also see that in how we don’t govern global supply chains. If I’m a company anywhere – China, Brazil, the United States – I can access goods and services along my supply chain from all over the world. If in one of those countries I am employing children in a mine, or in one of those places women are being harassed and violated at work, I can say that this has nothing to do with me at my home base.

The way we need to be holding governments and employers better accountable is by expanding human rights; otherwise, it is completely unbalanced. So what we are arguing for are global standards like binding legislation to govern supply chains. We are also arguing for new standards on gender-based violence at work. Men and women experience violence at work, and women disproportionally to men experience many forms of violence.

I challenge any corporation to say that they do not carry any responsibility for violence against women in their supply chains. I think that together, we can come up with a way to make that stop. I think we can agree that it is part of our responsibility as global citizens to make sure that women are not exploited in that way, and that workers are paid what they deserve. No one can say that it is not their fault that a child is working in a mine or a woman is being attacked in a factory.
 

Shawna Bader-Blau is the executive director of the Solidarity Center, the largest global workers rights organisation in the United States. She shared her insights on the significance of the fourth report of the UN special rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, presented to the UN General Assembly on 21 October 2016. 

(This article was first published on OpenDemocracy.net.)
 

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Garment workers in Bangladesh, where the Walk Free Foundation estimates that 1,531,300 people are in modern slavery. (Photo: Asian Development Bank/flickr/cc)

Close to 46 million men, women, and children are enslaved across the world, according to a harrowing new report from the Australia-based Walk Free Foundation.

Many of them, the analysis notes, are in fact ensnared providing "the low-cost labor that produces consumer goods for markets in Western Europe, Japan, North America, and Australia."
The organization's 2016 Global Slavery Index—based on 42,000 interviews conducted in 53 languages, covering 44 percent of global population—found there to be 28 percent more "modern slaves" than previously estimated.

According to the report (pdf), "modern slavery refers to situations of exploitation that a person cannot refuse or leave because of threats, violence, coercion, abuse of power or deception, with treatment akin to a farm animal." The classification includes victims of human trafficking, forced labor, debt bondage, sex trafficking, forced marriage, and other such exploitation.

More than half (58 percent) of those who are enslaved are in five countries: India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Uzbekistan. In the latter country, for example, during the annual cotton harvest, one million citizens were subjected to state-sanctioned forced labor in 2015.

Accompanying the report is a case study of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, penned by Kevin Bales, a professor of Contemporary Slavery at the Wilberforce Institute for the Study of Slavery and Emancipation at the University of Hull in the UK.

"Slavery never happens in isolation," he writes, arguing that in the wake of armed conflict "a perfect storm of lawlessness, slavery, and environmental destruction can occur—driving the vulnerable into slave-based work that feeds into global supply chains and the things we buy and use in our daily lives."

Bales explains:

In the past twenty years, this perfect storm has hit the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A war that erupted in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide spread across the region, bringing collapse to the Congo’s ruling dictatorship, invasion by surrounding nations, and a sharp rise in slavery and sexual violence. The armed groups that grabbed parts of the eastern provinces were not there for political or religious reasons, but to steal and sell valuable minerals and other natural resources. Lacking mining technology, but heavily armed, these criminal groups enslaved thousands of local people.
These slaves were forced to cut protected virgin forests, level mountains, spoil streams and rivers with great open-strip mines, and massacre rare and endangered species like gorillas. The minerals these slaves dug, processed and then carried on their backs to smuggle them out of the country flowed into our lives. For these slave-based, environmentally-destructive minerals are essential to making cell phones, computers, and the thousands of other electronic devices that surround us every day.

"Closing down slave-based logging, brick-making, mining, or charcoal production will not hurt our lifestyles or the global economy," he concludes. "What it will do is get people out of slavery and slow global warming and climate change—a classic win-win situation."

Walk Free also explores how violent conflict in the Middle East has led to mass "distress migration" that has in turn "had a trifold effect on neighboring host countries: (a) increased competition for low-paying jobs and employment in the informal economy; (b) increased incidence of all forms of modern slavery, such as child labor, forced begging, and forced early marriage; and (c) reduced capacity of State actors to respond to trafficking cases because already scarce resources are outlaid on the emergency provision of services to refugees instead of supporting migrant workers."

With this in mind, writes Walk Free's executive director of global research Fiona David, "a strong focus on safe, well-managed migration, whether in times of peace or conflict, must become a cornerstone of integrated international and national responses to modern slavery."

In his forward to the report, Walk Free founder and chairman Andrew Forrest puts the onus on corporations to help end modern slavery. "Businesses that don’t actively look for forced labor within their supply chains," he said, "are standing on a burning platform. Business leaders who refuse to look into the realities of their own supply chains are misguided and irresponsible."

Courtesy: Commondreams.org
 

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