SPOTLIGHT: RURAL WOMEN DEVELOPMENT TRUST, INDIA

Alamelu Bannan

Meet Alamelu.

It's not a coincidence that Alamelu has used Women First funding to help rescue hundreds of bonded laborers.

Her parents were bonded laborers, and so were their parents before them. 

The bonded labor system in India creates an environment in which the wealthy can take advantage of less financially secure individuals and families. Landowners give families loans they need to survive, and then require years of work in return - with impossible interest rates that keep some families in service for generations. 

"My grandparents initially took a 200 rupee advance (3 U.S. dollars), and then my father continued this work," Alamelu explained. "He started early in the morning at 4 am, and worked until 11 o'clock at night. He made no money. We used to have cooked food one day and then kanji (leftover rice soaked in water) for the next three days."

When Alamelu was 10 and her brother was 9, their parents were infected with smallpox. Unable to work on the farm, her parents returned to their village 3 miles away. 

But the bonded labor debt remained unpaid, so Alamelu and her brother were forced to drop out of school and take their parents’ place as indentured servants.

During the day, Alamelu cleaned stalls and shoveled manure. At night, she was sexually assaulted by the landlord.

When a local teacher learned what had happened to his favorite students, he went to the landlord and asked that the children be permitted to attend school. The landlord refused and said the teacher could take the children for 2,000 rupees ($30) - two month's salary. 

“He took us and re-enrolled us in the school,” Alamelu said. ”He told us that we must study and that after our studies we shouldn’t just take any job, but work for the freedom of our people.”

So she did.

After graduation, Alamelu worked for the women's movement in India and organized for the rights of her caste - the Arunthathiyar. "I worked with people to educate them about their rights; to achieve more protections and have laws implemented properly; to have cases put against the perpetrators."

Seeking a way to create real and lasting change for the Arunthathiyar people, and especially for women in her community, she formed Rural Women Development Trust (RWDT).

"They don't have resources, money, land," she said of the caste. "They don't have options. They won't even let Arunthathiyar touch a cloth used for cooking in the kitchen. Once I touched a cow and the owners took the cow and washed it.”

“The women used to perceive these things as routine. Now they perceive these things as injustice.”

Currently, RWDT is training women former bonded laborers in coir rope making; it is an easily-taught skill with inexpensive raw materials (coconut fibers) that is marketable locally. Alamelu continues to identify families in bonded labor situations and RWDT works towards their release. When women are released, they can join RWDT’s training program, which has increased participants’ incomes by over 230 rupees a day - more than Alamelu’s grandparents accepted when they entered the bonded labor system all those years ago.

As an activist for the Arunthathiyar, women, and bonded laborers, Alamelu has been ostracized, arrested, threatened, and physically attacked. One assault left her in the hospital for over two weeks, and contributed to longer-term health issues. And yet, she continues to fight for the rights of her community and the women whose lives are most affected by historical exploitation and discrimination. Her courage and commitment inspire us, and we look forward to many years of partnership.