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Bonded Labor

The whole 9 yards and the ugly truth behind it

By: Santosh :+: Under: Bonded Labor, Business, Child Labor
On: ⋅ March 29, 2007 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment
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The dreadful story behind the beautiful saris
img: via BBC

The town of Kanchipuram/Kanchi/Kancheepuram is well known among South Indians for its temples and saris. Remember those 9 yard Kanjivaram saris, Amma wears for wedding and other special occasions? Most likely they are made in Kanchipuram by laborers like Ashok Kumar, all of 13 years old and who have been working in virtual slavery like conditions since they were 9 or 10.

Ashok is now bonded, forced to do this one job. He is not free to leave unless the debt is repaid. And he is paid just 15p (30 US cents) (UberDesi notes: Most likely its 15Rs and not 15Paise as reported) a day, so there is little hope he will ever do that.
Ashok’s boss, Muthu Pereumal, can sell the boy to another employer, trade him like a commodity.
“He will stay here until he is 20 or 22,” the boss tells me, standing by Ashok’s loom, “or until someone else comes to buy him from me. He will never do anything else but this.”

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