Bond

Girl taking a shower in 'Baba Salahdin Hari' camp, close to Kotri.









When I titled the previous entry 'Chain', I did so with 'chain of events' in mind. That, and the bicycle part. After all, I had it back, including the chain.
Now that a few days have passed, I've come to understand that the real meaning of 'Chain' is shackles.

I lost my mobility with the theft, I've lost my freedom of movement with the return.


(Picture: Ms. Margareth, the teacher of the camp, in her classroom.)

Yesterday the police came to the house. In remarkably straight forward language they told me to leave the city. I had been caught 'roaming around and socialising with locals'. As if these activities are crimes one can be found guilty of. It posed a threat to me (they would not clarify, they had their sources; probably the same policemen that I had friendly greeted on the street). Two options: move on or accept a permanent escort. "Well, let's have the escort." But then the truth came out that there was no support for such a situation.


(Picture: Mr. and Mrs. Punhoun Bheel, two social workers at the camp, in the makeshift place of worship. The instrument is a 'tanbura', which normally has snares.)

Coincidently I got to know people from a local non-governmental organisation. They invited me to come and stay with them and took me to one of their projects, a camp for liberated 'bonded labourers'. As I wrote in 'The Saints', Sindh is still very much a feudal society. Labourers work for a landlord in exchange for a marginal share of the harvest. If the harvest fails, tough luck for the workers. On top of this they often get indebted to the landlord, for instance when money is advanced for medical treatment. In practice, working for a landlord on the basis of shared revenue is a declaration of dependence.

(Picture: just done with the dishes.)








(Picture: woman in camp making a 'rillee', a traditional Sindhi rug.)






For a landlord, a family counts as 1 entity. Whole families work the land, but in the end, the share is based on entities. Also, the debt of 1 person is subsequently carried by the whole family. This way of organising labour is called bonded labour by the NGO, or according to a co-worker: modern slavery.
The organisation advises the workers to only work for daily wages.

(Picture: shower in the camp.)











The organisation tries to release the workers from their precarious situation, and offers them a stay in 1 of the 3 camps they have in the surrounding of Hyderabad. Like this there are approximately 1000 released labourers in 'Baba Salahdin Hari' camp, 3000 in 'Sikander Abad Hari' camp and 2000 in 'Azad Nagar' (meaning 'Freedom Colony'), the latter distinguishing itself in that the inhabitants can actually build a house there.

(Picture: generations in the camp)








In the other two places people live in huts made of clay, as it is a temporary place of residence (for the last 10 to 12 years). They are unwanted where they are, and wanted back where they were. Sometimes landlords organise a visit to the camps with a group of armed men to claim back their previous possessions. So far the people in the camp have been successful in keeping these armed men at bay.

(Picture: cyclebeasts in the camp)








(Picture: colleague at the NGO.)








After the visit to the camp, on our way back to town we passed by the London housing project. Bond Street is one of the main streets on this plot. Luxurious villa's for the super rich. A temporary clay hut for the super poor. From Bond to Bonded: a ten minute drive, a world apart.