Malawi'’s agricultural sector is critical to its economy, employing around 77% of the population and accounting for 23% of gross domestic product (GDP). The majority of workers in agriculture are smallholder farmers, many of whom cultivate less than one hectare of land. Despite its importance, the sector faces significant challenges, …
At Reddypalayam village near Chengalpattu in Kancheepuram district. Brick workers live in thatched huts close to the kiln. IN the brick kilns of Tamil Nadu, life for lakhs of men, women and children is one of extreme exploitation. Every brick they make has a story to tell
Handbook of Environmental Law: by P B Sahasranaman, Oxford University Press, Price Rs 895. The book analyses the response of the Supreme Court and high courts to public interest litigation. It also examines concepts such as the polluter pays principle, the precautionary principle, the and the public trust doctrine Land …
They were freed from bonded labour in 1989-90 Shyam Ranganathan CHENNAI: Nearly 650 families who were freed from bonded labour from Andhra Pradesh quarries in 1989-1990, are living in abject poverty in Villupuram district because of non-access to government schemes, according to officials in the Adi Dravidar Welfare Directorate. Though …
This paper looks at how Nike's soccer ball suppliers (previous and current) in Sialkot (Pakistan) fare in relation to the company's code of ethics. While minimum required working conditions are implemented, the criteria for social and environmental compliance are not met with. The multinational's decision to withdraw orders from the …
On August 28, senior police officers and forest department personnel of two contiguous districts in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka held a joint meeting to combat the growing Naxal presence in forest areas. Erode in Tamil Nadu, one of the two districts in question, had not far back been the hunting …
Kundan Lal and his master struck a deal. Lal, the master agreed, could go home to see his ailing wife in Dehradun's Bhatad village. In exchange, he demanded the services of Lal's son and daughter-in-law. Lal explains that someone has to compensate for his absence at his malik's (master's) field. …
In the absence of land reform, Koltas invariably find themselves working on others' fields. "I would work as a daily wage labouerer if I wasn't bonded,' Lal admits. "Many labourers have taken loans because they have accepted that they will never be able to pay back any amount anyway,' says …
Thousands of slave labourers in Brazil have something to rejoice about. The Brazilian Congress recently passed a constitutional amendment that is crucial to the eradication of the inhuman practice in the country. The amendment states that any rural or urban property found using slave labour would be confiscated and used …
For the 28 labourers of Muzaffarnagar (UP) -- including 10 women and 11 children -- who were forced to work in a brick kiln and were illegally confined by its owner at Khekhra village in Meerut (UP), freedom came only on the Supreme Court's intervention. Consequently, a case under the …
THE stone crushing units one witnesses while entering Haryana gives a crystal clear picture of the development taking place in the lives of the people there. Bonded labour, exploitation of women, environmental degradation, health hazards, the growth of slums and recurrent floods are some of the inevitable gifts inherited by …
"I WAS A labourer, but now, because of the project, I am free. I cannot explain what this means to me," says Dadabhau Jadhav, a frail, small-built Thakkar Adivasi of Mothewadi village in the foothills of Maharashtra's Sahyadri range. For generations, the Thakkar Adivasis have worked as contract and even …
THAT LITERACY is liberation may be rhetoric in many parts of the country, but not in Tamil Nadu's Pudukkottai district. Total literacy was reported in this granite quarry region in August 1992, and it brought with it, for the scores of women workers, freedom from bondage and penury. Today, a …
ON AUGUST 9 the nation was observing the golden anniversary of the "Quit India" movement; that day, in Neralakuppe (A), a settlement of 40 Jainu-Kuruba households near the Nagarhole sanctuary in Karnataka, a different drama took place -- all the villagers fled to the jungle in fear. They were frightened …
