Anti-Slavery - News Release

INDIAN HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS WIN 1999 ANTI-SLAVERY AWARD
Indian human rights activists Vivek and Vidyullata Pandit will receive an award from UK human rights organisation Anti-Slavery International on 27 October at the Nehru Centre, London. Neil Gerrard MP will present the Anti-Slavery Award to Mr and Mrs Pandit in honour of their work on behalf of bonded and child labourers in Maharashtra, India. Keshav Nankar, who was born into a bonded family but was released by the Pandits' organisation, will also be attending the ceremony. People become bonded labourers when they take or are tricked into taking a loan for as little as Ł30 - the cost of medicine for a sick child. To repay the debt, they are forced to work long hours, seven days a week, 365 days a yer. They receive food and shelter as "payment" for their work, but may never pay off the loan, which can be passed down through several generations. Bonded labour was outlawed in India in 1976, yet there are at least 10 million people entrapped in debt bondage in the country today. The wholesale disregard for this legislation led the Pandits to set up organisations which would release bonded labourers and provide them with the necessary skills to remain free. In 1979 they set up Vidhayak Sansad, which has helped to free more than 1,500 bonded labourers in the state of Maharashtra. The Pandits' work is funded by UK development agency Action Aid. The Award ceremony marks the launch of Anti-Slaveryšs Bonded Labour Campaign, in which members of the public will be asked to send post cards to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson asking her to make the eradication of bonded labour a priority for her office.
Notes to the editors: Journalists are welcome to the ceremony which begins at 18:45: Nehru Centre 8 South Audley Street London W1Y 5DQ Mr and Mrs Pandit speak English and Marathi, Keshav Nankar speaks Marathi; Vivek Pandit will act as translator. All are available for interview. Mike Dottridge, Anti-Slaveryšs director, is also available for interview. Action Aid is one of the UK's largest international development charities and works in more than 30 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin American and the Caribbean. For further information about Action Aid's work with the Pandits, please contact Action Aid's Press Office. An eight-minute video news release (Beta) shows the Pandits at work and released bonded labourers. Photographs are also available.
16 October 1999	PR/7/99