COMMENTATOR (COMM.): Previously on Life...

JUAN SOMAVIA: Put people back in the picture. Make the global economy work for them. People's voice are going to become more and more important.

SUSAN GEORGE: There are some who win but there are more and more who are being left behind.

JAMES WOLFENSOHN: The opportunity to get a job, the opportunity to get into a situation where you can negotiate where you can build your standard of living is something that very many people want.

ARCHBISHOP DESMOND TUTU: I want to tell you about the plight of the Dalits - a community of 200 million fellow human beings in India - the so-called Untouchables. They suffer from discrimination under the caste system which has dehumanised them. You will see in the episode of Life what it means to be born into this community.

India was in the forefront in the struggle against apartheid. We believe that the Indian people would want to end the scourge which is a blot for humanity in this new millennium. Let us work together to end it.

COMM: India has nuclear weapons. A computer industry and its very own Hollywood. It has an extremely rich upper class population and a huge middle class. But it also has 200 million poor outcasts - or Dalits - who are stigmatised from the day they are born and who suffer massive discrimination.

Veerasamy lives in a small village in Southern India. All the inhabitants here are outcasts. Veerasamy's job consists of doing the washing for the 19 families of the village.

VEERASAMY (Translation): When I go and collect the laundry I ask why we have to do this. We have to do it because we belong to this caste. People say we will be reborn and that is the reason why we must do it.

COMM: And the outcasts themselves are subdivided into further groupings. The washermen and women belong to the very lowest scale of their hierarchy. The only payment Veerasamy receives for his work are the left-overs from meals the other inhabitants in the village have already eaten.

Old people usually say that it causes you no harm to do this kind of job. They say that in the end you will go to heaven for having done this.

QUESTION: Do you believe in that?

VEERASAMY: One would have to die to find out! (laughs)

COMM: Veerasamy's family have been washermen for generations. Coming from the lowest caste in Indian society, it's their destiny. His wife Dhasam and the three children of the family help him to do the work.

VEERASAMY (Translation): If we had our own land we would be happy. We would not depend on others. But we don't have our own place and we have to be very servile and obey orders. If we had our own land we could work hard and do something else. For instance we could open a fruit shop. But we are dependent on others and that is the reason why we have to live this way. If you are rich it's no problem.

COMM: Discrimination based on caste membership has been prohibited by law since India gained Independence in 1947. But the 200 million outcasts of the country are being oppressed and still discriminated against. Many have left their fingerprints on contracts which make them indebted for the rest of their lives to people from higher castes. Very often too the outcasts or Dalits are caught up in conditions that are more like slavery.

Mr KUMAR (translation): This is very dangerous work. You can hardly avoid being hurt. But we have to work. The stones cut me on both arms and legs. Look at the scars on my legs. . . and here. But we tolerate it because we are fighting for our lives. We are fighting the Grim Reaper. It is a hard and deadly dangerous job.

COMM: Mr Kumar and his family are bonded labourers. They owe money to the owner of the quarry.

Mr KUMAR (translation): During the rainy season the stones are buried under the soil and my manager says we must dig them out. We have to dig out the stones and cut them to pieces - if we don't we receive no payment. I can't go anywhere else because we have been paid in advance. So he would claim his money before we could go anywhere. If we just knew how to make some money we could choose to do something else. We have to work like slaves to survive. We have to work like slaves to earn our daily bread.

COMM: Assam is 12. He's the son of outcast parents and has been working in the silk industry since he was 8. He is just one out of approximately 100 million child labourers in India.

ASSAM: I work 10 hours a day. From 7.30 am to 6 pm without lunch.

QUESTION: And what about lunch?

ASSAM: That will make 10 hours

QUESTION: And you work how many day a week?

ASSAM: All seven days of the week.

QUESTION: You don't have a day off on Sundays?

ASSAM: No.

QUESTION: You don't have Sundays?

ASSAM: No. But we get a day off when there is a celebration of some kind, for instance Deepvali or Amavasai. We have 10 days off for the harvest festival.

QUESTION: Do you like working in a weaving mill?

ASSAM: Yes, sure. Once you have learnt it it's not too difficult. They only go on at you in the beginning until you have learnt it. Then it's fun to work with the loom.

COMM: In the West there's been a lot of publicity about child labour. And the owners of big textile factories are wary of giving interviews to human rights organizations or the Western media. But the owners of the small weaving mills in the villages are not so defensive.

QUESTION: Do the children come from poor families?

MILL OWNER: Yes indeed. All of them. Rich people don't work in this industry.

QUESTION: Are the children Dalits?

MILL OWNER: Yes.

QUESTION: It's hard work isn't it?

MILL OWNER: Yes, you have to be alert all the time. It's not like driving an oxcart or working in the rice fields.

ASSAM's MOTHER: I don't care about my next life. If I can't be happy together with my children in this life how can I then dream about a "next life"? I can't send them to school or give them a happy life or give them enough food. Why am I in this unhappy situation? When I was a child I wasn't happy. But now I see that my children aren't any better off. Is this their lot in life?

COMM: The Indian caste stems from Hinduism and about 80 per cent of all Indians are Hindus. If you are an outcast, a Dalit, it is because you have led a bad life in an earlier incarnation. This is your fate and you have to put up with it. According to Hinduism man has more than one life - and if a person behaves well in his present life he can be reincarnated into a better one.

Prabakaran is a Brahmin priest and thus he belongs to the highest caste.

PRABAKARAN (translation): Each caste has its own particular kind of work.. Take me, I am a priest. I couldn't carry out the work of a carpenter or bricklayer. Every person has his own trade.

COMM: Mani is the owner of the quarry. He visits the stonemasons every day.

MR KUMAR: We work but the owner doesn't pay us sufficiently. Prices go up and therefore we want higher wages. But we are told that first we have to work off what we have been paid for. When we have paid our debt we are free to go somewhere else. There is no other way out. What else can we do? We work like slaves but where else can we find work? That is why we stay here.

MANI (translation): I don't force them to stay. You can go and ask them yourself. I haven't forbidden them to go elsewhere. They work here because they want to. They follow their hearts.

QUESTION: How many of them have borrowed money from you?

MANI: They don't borrow money. They get their payment in advance.

QUESTION: Has everyone had their payment in advance?

MANI: Yes.

QUESTION: How much money have they had in advance?

MANI: 20 to 30 thousand rupees. But they work for them. If you borrow a thousand you work for a thousand.

COMM: 1000 rupees is 24 dollars (US)

Mr KUMAR: We receive about 20 to 30 rupees a day. After 8 days work we receive about 100 to 150 rupees. Let's say we spend 50 rupees on a bicycle and then there is only a hundred left. I have a big family. There are five mouths to feed. And a kilo of rice costs 10 rupees.

COMM: A week's payment of 100 rupees is about 2 dollars and 40 cents. Hinduism makes a distinction between clean and unclean people. As outcasts the Dalits are regarded as unclean while people within the caste system are considered clean. Clean people mustn't touch unclean people. This is why many of India's 200 million outcasts live in separate villages. And it's why the unclean Dalit people are also known as "Untouchables".

PRABAKARAN (translation): Even if it's 12 in the night and we are coming all the way to Madras by bus we must take off out clothes and wash ourselves before we enter the house. Outside there are many people and some of them are unclean but we have to be clean at all times. If you want to enter our house you must wash your feet at first. Some might say - but we washed our feet before we put on our shoes. Why do I have to wash them again? You must wash before you enter.

The outcasts come into the temple even when they are not allowed in. They can't understand why they're not allowed in.

QUESTION: What's your view?

PRABAKAN (translation): Even when we explain it to them they won't understand and accept it. It's unbelievable. They say they are cleaner than us. They say that they doubt that I have washed myself in the morning. I have Holy ashes on my forehead but they could just some of it on too. They have this silly attitude.

QUESTION: They refuse to accept the situation?

PRABAKAN (translation): Exactly.

PART TWO

VEERASAMY (translation): It is our destiny to wash these things. That's why we have to do this work. We wash linen by hand and return it. Even linen used in childbirth and during abortions.

COMM: At the washerman's the pre-washing is now finished and the family can eat the leftovers which Dhasam has collected in a pot in the village and brought down to the river.

VEERASAMY (translation): My wife also comes from a washerman's family. They do the same work as we do. So we don't have family problems. If she was from another caste and if she disagreed with me she might regret that she ever married me. But she doesn't belong to another caste so there is no problem.

COMM: The laundry has been steamed for one hour and the family is ready for the big washing programme of the afternoon.

ASSAM translation): I go to work because my family is poor. Other children are not poor and their parents aren't sick but I have to work.

MANI (Mill owner) (Translation): If the boys fall ill their parents ask me to lend them 500 rupees. We also pay an advance of two to five thousand rupees before they start working. If they have problems we help them.

COMM: It is Assam's personal responsibility to repay the family's debt to the owner of the looms.

ASSAM (translation): We were paid 4000 rupees in advance and they take away 200 every month.

COMM: 200 rupees are five dollars (US).

QUESTION: Do you get any more than that?

ASSAM ( translation) No only 200. Yes 200 only.

Mr KUMAR (translation): We can't ever pay back our debts because when we borrow 300 he writes down 400. Maybe we will have to be here for the rest of our lives.

QUESTION: So you'll have to remain in slavery?

MR KUMAR (translation): Yes.

COMM: Their children are the stonemasons' only hope of breaking their chains. With help from a local organization the children are able to attend school for a couple of hours every weekday. By learning to read, write and do arithmetic they will be able to take their first steps towards changing their destiny. It's a long and difficult road ahead - one made harder by the repressive reaction of the authorities whenever the outcasts attempt to protest.

PRABAKARAN (translation): In former times the outcasts didn't come here. But today 75% of those who do the cleaning here are outcasts. They also move the statues around.

QUESTION: But they work here?

PRABAKARAN (translation): In former times when we were on our way to the temple the outcasts would step aside for us and take off their scarves and shoes in order to pay their respect. But now they stick close to us. They have changed. We used to put things out for them outside which they would come and pick up. But now they simply stretch out their hands and want us to put things directly into their hands because they say they are cleaner than we are. They wash themselves twice a day.

QUESTION: What do you think of that?

PRABAKARAN (translation) I don't want to comment on that. It's very difficult. I don't speak to them and I don't give them anything.

QUESTION: Of that which you've been sacrificing?

PRABAKARAN (translation): When they enter I go out.

VEERASAMY (translation): I don't want my children to grow up and have these kind of problems - this kind of work. They should learn as much as possible. If only somebody would help us give them an education then we would support them. But with this work it is impossible for us. We wish to give them a good education. We don't want them to end up in this job. If only they could study they would do something other than this. This work ends with me. I don't want them to do this.

COMM: Kumar and the other stonemason families have the afternoon off. They cannot work because of the nearby blastings in the quarry.

However not all Dalits are prepared to go on being treated as social and cultural outcasts in India. In the summer of 1999 thousands of Dalit labourers from tea plantations in the state of Tamil Nadu mounted a demonstration for higher wages. As in previous cases the authorities' reaction was to clamp down. These pictures from the film "Death of the River" showing the labourers demonstration were screened 3 months later in a small cinema in Madras. The film was subsequently seized by the police and the owner of the cinema was arrested under Indian Censorship laws governing commercial feature films. Police brutality cost 18 lives.

MR KUMAR (translation): We are 19 families here and we stick together. We have no problems or disagreements. Some of us are related but we are like one big happy family. We listen to each other, we also respect what the children say. We live in harmony with one another and respect each other. We don't argue. Our extended family doesn't work like that.

ASSAM (translation): If I worked faster I could make one month's pay in 25 days. If I did I could provide for my family. If I was paid 1500 rupees I could pay the bills and the hospital bill and still save money for my own weaving mill and find a house and make it fitted for weaving activities. There should be room for it. We could start out with one loom, later we could buy another one, then three, then four and so forth.

VEERASAMY (translation): In terms of rights a washerman stands alone. There is only one washerman in each village. If somebody supported me we could fight for our rights. But there is only me. I am left in the lurch. If you want to achieve something you have to be either rich or be in a group of many people. I am neither.

END