What are the objectives?
Children all over India are still being forced into labour in carpet factories, stone quarries, brick kilns, lock-making, agriculture and even prostitution. Without an education these children are destined to repeat the lives of their parents and often their grandparents - deprived of their energy, time and precious human calling by bondage. As a way of fulfilling our responsibility of care for others, the Traditional Yoga Association (TYA) has initiated the MUKTI project which raises funds for the education of children born into bonded labour in India.
"Unless children are provided with functional educational skills and training it will be impossible to eliminate child labour from India."
Swami Agnivesh,
Chairperson UN Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery
What is bonded labour?
Bonded labour was officially banned by the government of India over thirty years ago, yet it continues to be a fact in the lives of over sixty million people in India. Children are forced into bonded labour through the indebtedness of their parents. The vicious cycle of debt begins when a family receives a loan from an industrialist or landowner who waits to prey upon vulnerable members of the community. Only the labour of the head of the family, usually the father, is counted towards paying off the debt, even though the entire family's labour is exacted by the loan holder. The interest on the loan grows at a faster rate than the family is able to pay, and the debt passes from father to children.
Children all over India are still being forced into labour in carpet factories, stone quarries, brick kilns, lock-making, agriculture and even prostitution. Without an education these children are destined to repeat the lives of their parents and often their grandparents - deprived of their energy, time and precious human calling by bondage. As a way of fulfilling our responsibility of care for others, the Traditional Yoga Association (TYA) has initiated the MUKTI project which raises funds for the education of children born into bonded labour in India.
"Unless children are provided with functional educational skills and training it will be impossible to eliminate child labour from India."
Swami Agnivesh,
Chairperson UN Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery
Why does it occur?
The circumstances that force a family into taking a loan that will effectively enslave them are many: famine and failing crops, illness for which medical care is needed, or because the forest in which they have lived for generations has been levelled and, holding no official title, they are evicted from the land that has been their source of food and shelter. Extreme poverty also forces children into bonded labour - often the only wage earners in an entire family will be the children under the age of fourteen. The work they are engaged in is always unregulated, with the employers stipulating the hours to be worked, the conditions of labour and the wages. Without an education these children have no hope of freedom from a life filled with the misery and pain of their condition.
How has MUKTI helped?
In its first four years the UK based MUKTI project has raised over £30,000 in support of Bandhua Mukti Morcha, an organisation established by Swami Agnivesh, Chairperson for the UN Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery. This organisation is committed to wiping out this dark practice by offering the children of bonded labourers an education wherever possible. On-site schools have been established in over twenty areas around Delhi, and in the last few years a skills training centre has been set up for teenage boys - training them in carpentry and tailoring. This last year has seen the establishment of a similar school for girls who are being trained in beautician work, data entry and sewing.
Mukti - working for the education of children born into bonded labour - is a project of the Traditional Yoga Association (Charity Number 1091469)."
Surya Namaskar-athons
'Sponsored Sun Salutations Fund-raising Event'
Surya Namaskar-athons
'Sponsored Sun Salutations Fund-raising Event'
Please ring for details of next event
Uddhara Samman 0118 9581817
MUKTI, 50 Brunswick Street, Reading RG1 6NZ UK
www.mukti.org.uk
Traditional Yoga Association (CHARITY NUMBER 1091469)
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