01'58

The heart of the Indian sub-continent. Seven out ten people here live in one of India's five hundred thousand villages. And for most people life is a struggle from early morning till late evening. A struggle to feed and clothe the family.

02'20

Nayagam is among the first in the village to start her long day's work. She and her family are the Dalits-Untouchables. Nayagam is a Dhobi, one who washes other people's  laundry.

This is the untouchables' part of the village. They have their own temple, where Goddess Kali is supposed to protect the down trdden and bring luck to them later in life.

02'43

If you accept life as it is, you mat be rewarded by re-incarnation into a better life.

Nayagam continues her daily round picking up laundry.

03'02

Her life resolves around water. The well is the centre of the village only for the untouchables. Villages belonging to higher castes have their own well.

03'19

Rice is the single most important food-product for the untouchables it's often their only food.

03'25

village leader Mr. Thuruvanthavar.

We can't get three meals a day. We have to do without one of them. These are the conditions.

Nayagam, the laundry woman gets rice for her work which she uses to feed her family. She doesn't get money

03'46

If they get to work for people of a higher caste  they work as slaves, for the lowest wage. That's why they have no food. When they work other peoples fields they get low salaries -so they can't give their children an education  afford clothes for their children. This is what happens if you don't own land of your own.

This area is not short of food. Some places you harvest three times a year mostly rice and they grow other crops.

04'13

The woman plant the rice. They produce 65% of all the agricultural crops. And in India there is equal pay for equal work at least in theory. A full day's work in the fields pays about 50cents.

This is where they go to shop in the ration shop. 20 kilos of rice per month, 3 kilos of sugar, 3 litres of kerosene. The government subsidizes prices to keep them at about two-thirds of the market price.

The ration book is a precondition to shop here at lower prices. But some of the villages have pawned their books in order for loans either at the pawnshop or at the landowner.

The minimum wage for one day's full work is about 50 cents.

05'15

And to add to the situation there will be no jobs for half their family. And with so many receiving their pay as food they're locked into a tight system of hand to mouth subsistence. And many  only get paid once the harvest is over forcing them to borrow at exorbitant rates meanwhile.

05'50

Vetha Salam-Landless Peasant

Vetha; I don't get paid enough. But I cannot get away fro here!

Did you work here because you are without any land yourself?

Vetha: I work here at piece rate, and I got that for six months.

Why can't you leave?

Vetha: I can't get away from my debt.

Why are you in debt.

Vetha: Because I had to celebrate a wedding.

Does that mean that you don't make enough money to sustain your family? 

Vetha: No, I have to borrow money all the time. That's how it will be for the rest of my life!

06'26

The peasant's wife is a day labourer. She does get money for her work but only enough to go to bed on a full stomach.

06'36

It makes all the difference to her quality of life.

06'44

Outside the village former Dhobis laundry workers  have managed to change their caste designated roles. They produce bricks which sell well and generate a real income. They make about $1.50 a day.

07'03

Puniya Morthy

Former laundry worker

(Dhobi)

Previously I worked only to get food. Self-respect was never on my mind. Now, making a daily income I make enough, I experience self-respect and I go to sleep on a full stomach.

Nayagam and her husband still haven't made up their minds whether they will join the association of laundry workers, which had been organised with the assistance of the local aid organisation. Through their association the Dhobies try to force the clients to pay in money instead of rice. In some cases this has this has led to attacks on the Dhobies. So Nayagam and her husband continue their work as their predecessors did.

In this village about one third are Untouchables - and there fore landless.

Some of the Untouchables did own land ... given to them by the British before they left. But it this land has been taken over by others or laid to waste.

08'04

S Angeles

Lawyer

This land we are standing on.This land was formerly owned by Dhalit people. Then slowly the high caste people. Lend money to the Dhalits which they were unable to pay back. This is agricultural land, but they started to ask these people not to cultivate it. And slowly they took over by force as well as by means of threatening. Once these people start cultivating here they will be working the upper castes people land.

For a very low salary?

Yes, for a very low salary, at about 20 rupees a day.

08.46

M. Thiruvanthavar

Village Leader

We are not economically strong enough to get the land back. In order to make an efficient performance we need both education and money, and we don't have that. We go on hunger strike one day, and block the traffic the next. But the bureaucrats are being bribed by the high caste people.  That's why our demands are ignored.

We scream and shout until we have no voice left. But nothing happens.

In order to get some of their old land back, young untouchables have organised what they call the ‘youth army'.

09'25

Arul
Youth Leader

We would like to solve the problems in a peaceful way. But if the high caste people disagree with us, we have to use other means.

Around the village as much as half the land actually lies fallow. And what land is planted often only cash crops such as jasmins for perfume. These crops do not reduce the food prices, neither does sugar cane production. They simply generate cash profits for the landowners.

A local aid organisation is trying to organise the laundry workers offering them loans for small geese farms calls itself the Social Action Movement-SAM. It is fighting for the untouchables and provides preschool education for children of illiterates.

10'24

Durai Durai

If we educate the children they will achieve a better life, economically and socially. In this way we also help their parents.

The children talk about poverty but they  often don't have enough for their own bowl.

The man behind the Untouchables movement is a Catholic priest. His work is supported by the Church but is not a popular with the local authorities.

11'06

Father Martin

Catholic priest

They think we are crating a law and order problems for the government so they think we are trouble shooters that is the labels we get but we are proud of getting those labels because I think we are proud of getting those labels because I think we are with the poor people they are with us. And these are the majority people they are with us. And these are the majority people who inhabit India and it is these people who need food, who need land and who need to have resources which are valuable in India.

Reporter

Now what is the reaction of your own church?

Father Martin

Cathoic Priest

The Church in India is also dominated by the upper caste and rich class people. The leaders for example, the bishops and the priests, the majority of them are from the upper caste so when we try to organise the poor people they say, ‘No you are not doing your work, you are not doing your religious preaching, you are doing political work, it is not your work', they say, but my conviction is that this is real work and this is the work of our leader, Lord Jesus Christ.

While Nayagam and the untouchables are struggling in the villages others flee the countryside. They join the exodus to the cities, hoping for wood and work. Former peasants struggle as construction workers but prices are higher in  the cities. Without the support of their families and village infrastructure a bit of bad luck can easily turn them into beggars.

12'26

Prakesh Singh

Socciologist

New Delhi 

What happens is that the small land owners are made to sell the lands to big corporations to big lando0wners and in the process they are being divested of their land rights. And what is happening is that this land was a surety where they could cultivate something. Now these people are not trying to cultivate food crops, they will cultivate non-food crops. Today and for two or three years we are sufficient in food but in the near future I suppose we will have a crisis because by non-food cultivation you can get money but not nutrients.

13'38

END