RANCHI : 30 women labourers return with AIDS

March 21, 2004

30 labourers return with Aids

PAWANPREET SINGH: TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ SATURDAY, MARCH 20, 2004 02:50:25 AM ]

RANCHI : About 30 female labourers who migrated from Ranchi and Bokaro in search

of job and money to various metropolitan cities returned only to find that they

had contracted Aids.

Reason, they were sexually harassed during their stay. Indumati Dwivedi of

Population Foundation of India informed this at a seminar on " Trafficking and

Immigration in Jharkhand " organised by Nav Bharat Jagriti Kendra.

The foundation also found during a survey at Torpa and Arki blocks in Ranchi

district that seven labourers who came back were pregnant. Out of the seven, two

died during the medical termination of their pregnancy.

Facts revealed at the seminar also pointed out that female workers were not only

sexually but even economically exploited. Sister Jemma Toppo of Ursuline Convent

said that 76,000 female labourers in Delhi , 55,000 in Kolkata, 35,000 in Mumbai

and 13,000 in Chennai belonged to Jharkhand, Orissa and Chattisgarh. Though it

was money that lured them, most of them were paid less than the amount promised.

Similarly, Prabhakar Tirkey of Patras said a survey in 15 villages of Gumla

Raidi block has revealed that 400 children are working outside the state and two

of them are in US. Sudhir Pal of Manthan Yuva Kendra also discussed the

condition of labourers in tea gardens who migrated from the state around hundred

years ago.

Pal said, " while the situation of labourers who were employed in big firms such

as Tata was good, condition of others was pitiable. Though, their economic

condition was good, they owned nothing and everything was in the name of the

company. He added, here also, women were exploited and they received less

remuneration for their work in comparison to their male counterparts " . The

reasons identified by the organisation behind this migratory trend were

influence of agents, unemployment, abject poverty, debt of moneylenders and

illiteracy.

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