DATPERS (Dalit & Tribal Peoples Electronic Resource Site )
September 1992 Newsletter - Editor: Sam Lanfranco, DATPERS
York University, Toronto, CANADA
lanfran@vm1.yorku.ca (internet)
lanfranco@web.apc.org (peacenet)
CONTENTS:
0. Editorial Note
1. How to Subscribe
2. Dalit Convention in India: December 28-31, 1992
3. Bonded Child Labour in the Indian Carpet Industry
The Contents of this posting may be reposted to appropriate sites.
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0. Editorial Note
DATPERS will publish short monthly electronic newsletters on
topics relating to Dalit and Tribal Peoples issues. If you
wish to comment to the whole subscription list simply reply to
the posting. If you want to submit something for possible
inclusion in the next newsletter, you can post it to lanfran
at vm1.yorku.ca directly.
DATPERS welcomes comment and feedback. It is dedicated to the
dissemination of information on, by and about the situation of
Dalit and Tribal peoples in India. Its ultimate objective is
to promote research, dialogue and projects will address the
situation and needs of the Dalit and Tribal peoples in South
Asia.
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1. How to Subscribe to DATPERS
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2. Dalit Convention in India: December 28-31st.
The World Council of Churches is hosting a National Convention in
India, to which nearly 150 representatives from Dalit communities
all over India will come. The Convention is December 28-31st in
Nagpur, India. The task of the Convention is to discuss long term
strategies for the Dalit community in India. The discussions will
provide the priorities for the World Council of Churches Dalit
Solidarity Programme.
The Planning Committee met recently in Hyderabad and cited the
history, Dalit identity, culture, the socio-economic patterns of
the Dalit, reconstructing society, religion through Dalit eyes and
the Dalit as Indigenous. The Nagpur Conference will also deal with
the international aspects of the Dalit struggle for recognition and
emancipation.
The Nagpur meetings will be the first of a number of crucial
discussion on how to improve the lot of the "poorest of the poor"
within the Indian economy and, along with the Tribal peoples, the
least enfranchised of India's peoples. The World Council of
Churches contact is the WCC Programme Unit on Justice and Service,
150 Route de Ferney, P.O. Box 2100, 1211 Geneve 2, Switzerland.
FAX: (022)791-03-61. Attn: Bob Scott, Executive Secretary, Unit
III.
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3. Bonded Child Labour in the Indian Carpet Industry
TITLE: Young Slaves Weave Carpet Fortunes, by John Stackhouse,
Globe & Mail Development Issues Reporter, Chunar, India,
(Source: The Globe and Mail, Sept. 9, 1992, p1,p12, Toronto)
[Available on INFOGLOBE and other on-line data services]
The Toronto Globe and Mail Development Issues Reporter, John
Stackhouse has reported on the use of bonded child labour in the
India carpet industry, producing carpets for -mainly- Germany,
Britain, the United States and Canada. The article estimates that
there are 300,000 children working in carpet sweatshops near the
holy city of Varanasi. Although the law prohibits the use of
children under the age of 14, the carpet makers routinely buy under
age children for about $20.
The All-India Carpet Manufacturers Association says that about one-
half of the under age carpet weavers are immediate relatives of the
loom owners and hence exempt from the labour laws. The Bonded
Labour Liberation Front, an Indian activist group, estimates that
the number of children working at carpet looms has doubled since
1986 when the tougher new child-labour law was passed. It is
alleged that local doctors or village councillors provide false
birth certificates and that local labour inspectors can be paid off
for as little as $6 per year.
The South Asia Coalition on Child Servitude argues that people must
realize that they are not only buying a beautiful carpet, they are
buying the blood and bones of India's children. In August the
Coalition appealed to the United Nations Human Rights Commission in
Geneve for international pressure on Indian and has threatened to
call for a worldwide boycott of Indian carpets, starting this
month, if no progress is made.
The Bonded Labour Liberation Front has established a fund, with
government assistance, to help families cope once their children
are freed from forced labour. The program has liberated 400
children this year but it is feared that much of the money has
ended up in officials' pockets.
The carpet industry produces about $250 million a year in exports
and the government is not eager to endanger that flow of foreign
exchange. However, the South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude and
the Bonded Labour Libration Front believe that the circumstances of
child servitude and bonded child labour could make a worldwide
boycott effort against Carpet exports an effective tool to persuade
the Indian government to initiate stronger action in the issues.
- END OF SEPTEMBER 1992 DATPERS ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER -
COMMENTS AND REPLIES ENCOURAGED - Sam Lanfranco, Editor