<
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2023/0508/How-one-Indian-couple-has-helped-thousands-of-sugarcane-cutters>
"In the early 1990s, Masu Avadh was chopping sugarcane in India’s Maharashtra
state, trying to work off the debt his grandfather and father had both died
trying to repay. Feeling ill, Mr. Avadh left the farm without informing the
owner to buy medicine. When he returned, he was beaten.
That’s when a young couple intervened.
“When we learnt Avadh ... was working to repay the loan his grandfather had
taken, we informed the police,” says Ashok Tangade, flipping through the old
case files of sugarcane cutters he and his wife, Manisha Tokle, helped rescue
from bonded labor. At their home in the small and congested town of Beed, the
now middle-aged duo recalls how Mr. Avadh was freed not only from the farm
owner’s clutches, but also from the familial debt.
Mr. Avadh is one of thousands of bonded laborers assisted by Mr. Tangade and
Ms. Tokle, but many more remain in bondage – a practice illegal in India since
the late 1970s.
About 50 million people work in India’s sugar fields, cutting cane for major
international companies. There’s a paucity of precise data on bonded labor in
sugar cane production specifically, but a 2019 study by the United Nations
Development Programme and the Coca-Cola Company notes that most of India’s
bonded laborers work in agriculture, and anecdotal evidence shows India’s sugar
industry marred by exploitation and debt bondage. For the past three decades,
Mr. Tangade and Ms. Tokle have been working closely with sugarcane cutters
across Maharashtra, helping extract laborers from abusive farms, and also
educating them about their rights and how to fight for their own freedom."
Via
The Fixer May 10, 2023:
<
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/netherlands-bike-parking-train-stations/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
