Slavery

Slavery Slavery is one of the most feared injustices that include rape and torture that can come upon an individual. Also slavery is a forced labour where humans are considered as property of others. Becoming a slave can start of the time of birth, capture or purchase and have no option of leaving, getting wages or refusing to work. Due to this slaves can result in mental, emotional and physical hardships. The evidence of slavery has predated records of almost all cultures and continents. Movement of the slavery began as a revolutionary thinking and developing political ideas which helped redress the inequalities of the societies. In some societies slavery existed as a legal institutions or either as socio-economic system, however today it is formally outlawed in almost all countries in the world by the Universal Declaration Of Human Rights. Human rights are the rights and freedoms to which all individuals are entitled to have. And with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, each individual has the right to complain or fight for their rights if they seem not to be treated fairly in any matter. The Declaration of the Human Rights was created by the United Nations. This declaration gains its power by the acceptance of the international community as opposed to the formal ratification. The wide range of the acceptance of the declaration suggests that it may be a part of the international customary law. Slavery in India dates back to at least 1500 years ago. This has an approximately fifteen million children working as bonded labourers in India. Making of the beedi cigarettes is one such industries that children are forced to do. The average number of beedies a bonded child labourer rolls in a day is 1500, for an average pay of just nine rupees, converting that to Australian money is approximately two dollars and fifty cents. Most children work many years for their agents. They try to pay of the families debts and try and support its family which may take years to do as being the only individual that has to support his/her family of an average of 5 people. Regardless of which of these debt structures the child labours under, the end result is the same: it is very difficult to escape bondage. The underlying reason for this difficulty is the grossly unequal power relationships between the child workers and their parents on the one hand and the creditors-employers on the others. The former are frequently low caste, illiterate, and extremely poor. The employers are usually higher caste, literate, comparatively wealthy, and powerful members of the community. Often, these creditors-employers are the only money lenders in town, and as such are extremely influential. They are also frequently connected, by caste and by the social and political hierarchy of the community, with local officials, including police officers, factory inspectors, and other local authorities who might normally be expected to safeguard the rights of children. Although the exact circumstances of work vary from industry to industry, the hours tend to be long, the pay nominal, and the conditions are bad. In some industries, children work twelve or more hours a day, seven days a week, receiving only two holidays a year. During their first few years of work they may receive no wages at all, or infrequent pocket change known as "incentives." They are required to work constantly and at a rapid pace; if they work slowly, talk to another child, or make a mistake in their work they will be severely scolded and possibly beaten by their employer, and pay may be deducted from their wages. This child labour unfortunately is still active in large parts of India. This slavery has yet to be changed and lessened as it is a recurring situation that never seems to stop in India. An example of a media report done in the “India Times” have an article of a child labour victim discussing its experiences it has had as a child labour making ‘beedies’. “Sumathi, a twelve-year-old girl, is the oldest sibling of five; three of the five are girls, and the three sisters all roll beedi. The youngest, eight years old, works at home as a tip closer. The second, nine years old, was bonded to an agent three years ago for an advance of 1,000 rupees; she works full time as a tip closer, earning only three rupees a week. Sumathi herself was bonded when she was seven in exchange for a 1,000 rupee advance. She rolls 1,500 beedies a day, for which she earns five rupees. She told Human Rights Watch: My father and mother force me to go to work with the agent. The agent often beats me. If I tell my father, he allows me to stay home the following day, but then they are pushing me to go again. My father and mother say I have to go. I don't want to go. I am afraid of my agent. But my parents force me to go, if I don't go they scold me and beat me. Every week the agent gives my wages to my parents. If it is less money than usual, they beat me. In my family there are seven members, so it is difficult to even get enough food to eat. That's why my father goes to the agent-to ask for more money. But the agent won't give it, because he says I don't work hard enough. But every day I am being sent back to the agent” This is just one of the many media reports that have been reported frequently in the newspapers in India. However, situations such as this are so appalling in India ,that situations such as Sumathi’s are taken as a non serious accusation because it is a reoccurring news and people are virtually over it and do not take it in account that it is a very serious matter. Although this matter is not taken in account as serious as it should be and the matter should be enforced with laws. There are laws and organisations that help children in forced labour. Such as the • The Beedi and Cigar Workers (Conditions of Employment) 1996 • The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act • The Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act & The Children (Pledging of Labour) Act • United Nations Agencies • International Community • Forced Labour Convention, 1930 • International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), 1966 • Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989 The Beedi and Cigar Workers (Conditions of Employment) 1996 Is enacted by the central government in response to a beedi workers' movement mounted in the early 1960s in Tamil Nadu. The Beedi Act prohibits the employment of children under fourteen in any beedi or cigar factory. It also sets maximum hours of work (nine hours a day and forty-eight hours a week), prescribes half-hour rest intervals after five hours of work, and limits the work week to six days. The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act allows manufacturers to escape application of the law quite easily. After passage of the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, the beedi industry intentionally fragmented itself even further in order to avoid coming within the terms of the act. The Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act &The Children (Pledging of Labour) Act Both acts are violated by the practice of debt servitude in the beedi industry. United Nations Agencies This agency is to examine the government of India's compliance with international laws and standards outlawing bonded labour. As a step toward ending bonded labour in India, Human Rights Watch recommends that the working group undertake a fact-finding mission to India and make recommendations designed to eliminate bonded labour. International Community India should suspend funding for any projects, such as sericulture, that are known to employ bonded child labour unless the project includes specific programs for the elimination of bonded child labour, education and rehabilitation of the affected children, and for improving the social welfare of the children and their families. Forced Labour Convention 1930 The International Labour Organisation (ILO) Forced Labour Convention requires signatories to suppress the use of forced or compulsory labour in all its forms in the shortest period possible. Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), 1966 Prohibits slavery and the slave trade in all their forms, servitude, and forced or compulsory labour. (Article 24) entitles all children to "the right to such measures of protection as are required by his status as a minor, on the part of his family, society and the State." Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989 That States Parties shall "recognize the right of everyone to the enjoyment of just and favourable conditions of work." Article 10 requires Parties to protect "children and young persons... from economic and social exploitation." Having so many international instruments and mechanisms available to the Indian society which should be able to help them get out of child slavery and also slavery in a whole, if the use of these international instruments and mechanisms are put to practice.