Twitter
Advertisement

How free is India on 66th Republic day as slave trade flourishes

dna, in a three-part series, had narrated how a well-oiled network of slave traders were dealing in tribal kids from India's extremely backward regions. Most of them were left to rot in homes, from where they emerged bruised, battered and often traumatised for the rest of their lives.

Latest News
article-main
Representaional Image
FacebookTwitterWhatsappLinkedin

Barack Obama, a descendant of America's first documented slave, will be the first American President to be the guest of honour at the republic day parade of India. Ironical as the moment may be, almost half the world's 30 million modern day slaves continue to be in India. Obama along with India's president Pranab Mukherjee will be partaking in the celebration of a red letter day in 1950 that operationalised India's voluminous constitution.

Article 23 of the constitution, envisaged by its founding fathers as a fundamental right, explicitly prohibits trade in humans. After six and a half decades, India has more slaves than nations like Gambia, Gabon, Ivory Coast, or for that matter even Pakistan. It would appear that successive governments have failed the spirit of the constitution. A nation born out of a vision of equality has become the world's most notorious slave hole.

dna, in a three-part series, had narrated how a well-oiled network of slave traders were dealing in tribal kids from India's extremely backward regions. Most of them were left to rot in homes, from where they emerged bruised, battered and often traumatised for the rest of their lives.

"I didn't even know about this till you told me. Jual Oram is the minister in charge. He should be knowing about this. I will ask him and let you know," says Minister of State for Tribal Affairs, Mansukhbhai Vasava. Both Oram and Vasava have been personally involved over the past few weeks in supervising the grand decoration of their ministry's tableau for the republic day parade.

"Till the last of the child slave is saved, I will not consider this to be a free world. If kids are being traded like cattle and their lives are in perpetual danger, the world is a dangerous place. India needs to wake up. Slavery in this country is everywhere, if we open our eyes. But Indians keep their eyes shut. The parents of these kids cannot provide for them. There is no option but to give them away as slaves. We as a society must step in to help them, else slavery in India will never end," says Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi.

"India's commitment to social justice is floundering. Constitutional protections to vulnerable communities are being destroyed. Measures like the new land ordinance will uproot more tribals and push them deeper into slavery," says CPM leader Brinda Karat.

Amidst the show of military might, cultural pomposity and the power lunches of India Inc with their American business counterparts, it would be wise to remember that there is a world different from the ones we inhabit in our cocooned existence in the big city.

As Obama steps into the bullet proof enclosure to witness the gala celebrations, the thread of a common history that notoriously binds the two nations together would be invisible to his naked eye. A history that would reveal that India's 21st century tribal slaves are no better placed than their 17th century American black counterparts.

Find your daily dose of news & explainers in your WhatsApp. Stay updated, Stay informed-  Follow DNA on WhatsApp.
Advertisement

Live tv

Advertisement
Advertisement