PATNA: India won freedom from the British in 1947. What does India constitute, the land the trees? In a shocking but common story a man was a bonded slave for 35 years.

 Sixty year old Kalicharan, a Harijan has been tossed around by seven owners like movable property in the last 35 years. But now he wants to live his life without the curse of bondage.

 Kalicharan’s past is an insult to the Government’s much acclaimed programme of Rehabilitation of Bonded Labourers under the 20 Point Programme.

He was born in village Narauli of Patna District in a family which was bonded to the landlord, Babu Aylakh Singh. Kalicharan’s father, Premdas, was bonded to Singh because of a loan of Rs 250. Premdas was able to pay off the loan in seven years and get out of the bonded life.

 But Kalicharan’s story is different.

 He does not remember when he started his life as a bonded laborer.

 “It all started when I was in the 20’s. Situation had forced me to take a loan of Rs 150 from another landlord of the village, Janaki Singh,” Kalicharan said.

Kalicharan worked hard in the fields of his master for four years to return the loan which had mounted to Rs 450 with interest. He borrowed the money from Ramji Singh. His master changed with the new loan. For Ramji Singh, Kalicharan worked for two years instead of returning the loan.

 But at this stage, Kalicharan needed Rs 1,000. He took the money from Saryu Pandit. He did Not have to wait long to pay back the money as it was provided by Tirpit Singh. His master changed once again. Apparently he founded life with the new master some- what satisfying. He remained with Tirpit Singh for 15 years.

 But these years were not enough to pay back the loan which remained static in his name. Kalicharan decided to change his master once again. He borrowed Rs 1,400 from Gauri Singh and also sold some property to pay off his last loan which had mounted to Rs 2,000.

Kalicharan worked for seven years for Gauri Singh who owned 15 bighas of land. The loan along ‘with interest had now gone up to, Rs 2,200. He got this money from another landlord Shyam Bahadur Singh. He somehow did not like the new master and went back to Tirpit Singh, who paid off his loan to Shyam Babu.

 Today Kalicharan is still attacked to Tirpat Singh. While narrating his story to Mr. Jabir Hussain of the Janata Dal, Kalicharan said nothing against his masters. He told Mr. Hussain, who has made Kalicharan’s miserable life public that it was because of these masters that he (Kalicharan) was alive.

Mr. Hussain said there were several other persons like Kalicharan who were resigned to their life of bondage in the area around Baktiyarpur, about 50 km from Patna.

 But now Kalicharan is not in favor of changing his master again. Punjab is among the few places which does not have the terrible scourge of bonded labor. The number of such unfortunate slaves’ possibly runs into millions.

Article extracted from this publication >>  October 13, 1989