Domestic servitude inflicted on Dalits, the ‘untouchable’ lowest Indian caste, was supposed to have been made illegal in Britain. Why hasn’t the law been implemented?
Permila Tirkey believed she was born on bended knee, with no other purpose in life than to serve the higher-ups of Indian society. It is hard for Westerners, with all their rights and sense of entitlement, to understand why anyone would ever think so little of themselves.
But Permila is Dalit, someone from India’s lowest caste. An untouchable, whose life as a domestic servant was pre-ordained long before her birth.
During a rare moment of respite, while lying on the foam mattress in the hallway of the house where she worked and slept, the 36-year-old would say to herself: “Permila, you are a slave.”
Her masters were a young business couple at ease with treating Permila like a chattel (genstand /løsøre); a non-person they employed to nanny their newborn twins – a boy and girl whose own hopes and horizons were not demarcated at birth.
The slave cooked (lavede mad), cleaned and generally remained at the beck and call (klar til at hoppe og springe) all day, every day of her masters and their extended family.
In return, Permila received the equivalent of 11pence (ca. 90 øre) an hour, with no days off, no room of her own, no privacy, no access to her personal documents or bank account, no contact with her family or friends, no freedom to worship and no liberty to leave the house on her own.
India, right? Wrong. This all happened over a four-year period in Milton Keynes (relativ nyanlagt by ca. 80 km nord for London, red.).
A legal breakthrough Permila escaped her bondage (trældom) in November 2012, with ten British pounds (ca. 88 DKR) from her masters. Ironically, the money was part of the gift-giving tradition of Diwali – the Hindu festival of light’s triumph over darkness.
Last year, an employment tribunal awarded her 266,000 British pounds (ca. 2,34 mio. DKR) for the discrimination suffered at the hands of Pooja and Ajay Chandhok. It was the first UK case of discrimination on the grounds of caste, but its significance is much greater.
The judges wholly preferred the word of a lower-caste woman over that of an upper-caste family, who they found had “concocted” (opdigtet) evidence and lied to the authorities in order to bring Permila to Britain, effectively as a slave.
“The Chandhoks wanted someone who would be not merely of service but servile, who would not be aware of UK employment rights, and whom they could treat as servants in India,” the tribunal ruled.
The decision would be unthinkable in India, where the simple casting of an untouchable’s shadow over someone of higher caste can result in a beating or worse.
Indian turmoil
Læs videre på https://inews.co.uk/explainers/iq/dalits-indian-caste-discrimination-britain-uk-modern-slavery/
Kilde: Seneste nyhedsbrev fredag fra Det Internationale Solidaritetsnetværk for Dalitter (IDSN). Stammer fra nyhedsmediet I News
