In January 2020, CNN Freedom Project visited Sidlaghatta, a silk node 65 kilometers northeast of Bangalore, Karnataka, and met Hadia and Naseeba. This mother and daughter were forced by their “master” to work 11 hours a day, for which they earned only 200 rupees (about $ 2.75) to repay a loan of 100,000 rupees (about $ 1,370), which it had doubled since then.
Naseeba worked for three years in a silk factory, her mother nine years, boiling cocoons of silkworms and removing the threads from which the silk is made. The steam was dirty and their hands were bleeding, she said.
“(The master) came and told my mother, if you don’t repay the money, then we will have a rich man and you will have to go to bed with that man,” Naseeba said.
“I’m afraid of the owner, because he gave us a house to live in,” she added. “Where should we go? We can’t go anywhere. We don’t know what he’ll do to us after (watching) this video.”
Hadia and Naseeba hid their faces in the room and agreed to be identified by CNN only after receiving the release certificates.
In India, compulsory workers can apply to the authorities requesting a certificate of release. If an investigation finds that their case is genuine, they are issued with a certificate proving that their debts have been canceled and entitling them to government assistance. The process can be lengthy – sometimes lasting years – and may require forced workers to present the authorities in the face of social pressure and intimidation.
“It is very difficult to convince the workers on duty (to go to the authorities) because they feel that they are awakened by their masters or owners who helped them in their needs,” said Kiran Kamal Prasad, founder of Jeevika. an organization working to eradicate compulsory labor.
Authority figures often come from the same communities as the owners of forced labor or are the same dominant caste as the owners, Prasad explained.
“Very often, the authorities do not implement the Law on the system of compulsory labor,” he added. “It takes a tremendous amount of effort on our part to get officials to do what they should be doing.”
Life after forced labor
Jeevika has allies in people like Shiva Kumar, a senior local government official in Sidlaghatta.
“I grew up as the son of a slave worker,” he told CNN. “(Service workers) in the village believe this is their (fate). If they file complaints, we will file a criminal case against the owner.”
For Prasad, freedom is only the first step for the victims. “We want to build a workers’ agency to help them do justice,” he said.
The programs appear in villages, where communities of former slaves come together to put their savings into a collective fund. They can attract the fund if they need it, without having to turn to their former owners – or any other owners – for a loan.
Jeevika has helped secure the freedom of nearly 7,000 bond workers in India over the past six years, and last year added Hadia and Naseeba to the total. The mother and daughter submitted documents and, in May 2020, received the release certificates.
They were accompanied by government officials from the silk factory where they had worked hard for years, and finally felt free enough to show CNN and the world their faces once again.
