Brick kiln workers head back home without much assurance

The Hindu

Brick kiln workers head back home without much assurance

27th May,2014

After protesting continuously for four days at the Jammu and Kashmir Bhawan and Chhattisgarh Bhawan here to demand rehabilitation under the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act 1976, a group of 63 landless Dalit workers left for their homes in Janjgir Champa in Chhattisgarh on Sunday. The workers, including 25 minors, had arrived in Delhi last week after fleeing from brick kilns in Rajouri in Jammu and Kashmir where they said they had been coerced to work for eight months.

“The officials at Chhattisgarh Bhawan were at first indifferent to their protests and did not even allow them inside the building. The officials were reluctant to register even zero FIRs against their employer BBK brick kiln owner and the District Magistrate of Rajouri in Jammu & Kashmir where they had fled from. They have now given a verbal reassurance but still not done it,” said Nirmal Gorana, an activist with Bandhua Mukti Morcha (BMM) who had gone from Delhi to accompany the workers from Rajouri to Delhi.

Before this, National Human Rights Commission Chairperson Justice Balkrishna had served a notice on the Rajouri DM on May 22 responding to complaints filed by Mr. Gorana and Chandan Kumar, an activist with NGO Action Aid.

The workers’ protest was supported by the National Dalit Movement for Justice (NCDHR), Delhi Domestic Workers Forum, Dhani Om Charitable society, and Sarvadharma Sansad.

The group of workers, which included two pregnant women, said they had to work every day from 3 a.m. to 8 p.m. They alleged they had been promised an ‘advance’ of Rs.30,000 per couple and Rs.500 per thousand bricks they made, but even after working eight months they were not paid as promised by the owners of BBK brick kiln in Jangad village in Rajouri. They have been agitating for ‘release certificate’ which entitles those rescued from forced labour to a support grant of Rs.20,000 and State assistance to acquire land or skill-based alternate means of livelihood under the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) (BLA) Act 1976. Even after four days of protests in New Delhi, the workers were not given the “release” certificates making them ineligible for rehabilitation.