25 March 2006
Sanjeev Ranganathan
Bonded Laborers:
For SK Nagar, the released
bonded laborer village, the Government has approved 72 houses @
Rs.32,000/house. However, the plan proposed for houses was quite temporary and
we wanted the people to be able to make permanent homes of their own. The
format of the houses we have in mind is similar to the Tsunami houses made from
compressed mud bricks.
Jignesh and Siddamma met
collector and shared the details of the plans for the house. He wants to work
with them. He approved the funds to be used for this construction. The funds
are, however, short of the Rs.48,000 required for the homes. When we made him
aware of the resource center he was very happy and committed to provide the
compressed mud block machines to the resource center so the bonded laborers can
learn and make their own homes. They also discussed the idea of letting people
own their houses. He volunteered time to discuss this further.
There was a call from US
embassy, from the social action department. Apparently, each year the US
embassy selects one person as a hero from the country, from India they have
selected her. They have referred lot of asha website details. They want to get
permission from us to reproduce it. UN report has also been referred. The idea
of the award is also to provide access to the work of the person of each
country to the other.
Tamil Dinakarn published an
article about the ongoing struggle of the bounded laborers and SiddammaÕs
efforts. Following the article some of the owners have called and threatened
her. But, there was also one who called and expressed his appreciation of her
efforts.
One Irula community was
displaced from the Besant Nagar beach following the Tsunami. They have now been
relocated to Tiruvallur and Action AID has provided temporary housing.