Sexual Harassment, Child Labour Rampant

New Indian Express News Service
First Published : 08 Feb 2010 10:56:05 AM IST

We were never allowed to go out. If a man has to go out to buy some things, then his wife and children are kept locked in rooms, to ensure that he doesn't scoot -- A rescued rice mill worker

While most migrant labourers are exploited, it is always the women and children who are the worst sufferers.

Valli (20), a young pregnant mother from the Irula community, who was working in SMS rice mill in Redhills is a poignant example. In rice mills, like in brick kilns, couples have to work together to eke a living. For Valli, pregnancy did not give her any respite. Throughout her pregnancy, she was forced to do labour hard.

Even on the day of delivery she had work to do. But the worst came three days after her delivery. Her husband Sekhar had met with an accident and injured his leg, leaving some work unfinished. So Valli was ordered to complete the task. She had to get into huge vats that are about six-feet deep filled with water and the rice and clean them. Valli didn’t survive the ordeal: a couple of days later, she died due to infection and lack of medical assistance. The mill didn’t pay any compensation; instead the employer sent her husband away.

According to Siddamma, founder of Sarpam Irular Tholilalar Sangam, “Expolitation of every kind is maximum among the Irulas, who constitute 90 per cent of the workforce in the rice mills. Irulas have no proof of existence, no ration cards, no voter I-card. Since they don’t exist on paper as workers, they remain invisible, which makes things convenient for the owners of the mills to deny compensation in case of an accident. That is why rice mill owners prefer employing Irulas over others.”

Nagamma, a rescued rice mill worker, said, “sexual abuse is very high. We are treated worse than animals. If our husbands raise their voices against the supervisor, the supervisor ensures he takes the man’s wife for the night. We were never allowed to go out. If a man has to go out to buy some things, then his wife and children are kept locked in rooms, to ensure that he doesn’t scoot.”

The plight of the children in rice mills is worse as they are forced to start working as soon as they turn five. Sexual abuse and child labour are rampant in brick kilns, rice mills, quarries, construction and textile sectors.

According to a study commissioned by the Labour Ministry and the UNICEF, “There is high incidence of children in the age group of 5-14 being employed in brick kilns and rice mills.” Prof Raman Mahadevan of the Institute of Development Alternatives who did the study, said, “In brick kilns and rice mills a child is part of the production team along with its parents.” As the family starts migrating for seasonal employment, school-going children end up as dropouts.

For those who work in brick kilns, the employer provides tiny sheds for each family. To produce 1,000 bricks a day, both the husband and wife slog from 3 am till 10.30 pm. Given the tight schedule, the babies are left unattended, resulting in many instances of babies getting crushed under lorries reaching the site for loading.

“Such accidents occur because none of the brick kilns have balwadis (crèche), despite 50 per cent of the labour force being women,” said Murthy of Pasumai Trust, an NGO that works with brick kiln workers. As per the provisions under Section 48 of the Factories Act, 1948 a factory that employs 30 women must provide crèche facilities. But in the case of brick kilns, more than 60 per cent of them are not even registered.

— SN