Protest Brutal Attack on Indian Child Labour Campaigners

Posted to the IUF website 16-Jun-2004

Share this article.



The IUF thanks you for your support. Kailash Satyarthi has ended his fast and is back in New Delhi. More girls have been discovered working in the Great Roman Circus, which forms part of a national network trafficking in children. India's National Human Rights Commission has begun a full investigation into the affair.

For updates on the situation and further action, please go to the global march website at http://globalmarch.org/index.php


Kailash Satyarthi, chairperson of the Global March Against Child Labour, and a group of other child labour activists were brutally attacked and beaten on June 15 while attempting to free a number of bonded child workers from the Great Roman Circus in the North Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Kailash Satyarthi is also a board member of The International Cocoa Initiative � working towards responsible labour standards for cocoa growing, of which IUF General Secretary Ron Oswald is Co-President.

In response to complaints by 11 parents, Satyarthi presented evidence of the illegal employment of many young children in the circus to the district administration, which instructed the Sub-Divisional Magistrate to carry out a raid on the encamped circus. Accompanied by the magistrate, a group of parents and Global March supporters went to the circus camp. Satyarthi was threatened at gunpoint by the circus manager, after which the entire group was attacked with knives and iron rods by the manager and his crew while the magistrate and police stood by. Satyarthi required emergency medical treatment as a result of serious head injuries and a fractured leg, only avoiding worse injuries through the action of the group to defend him. His son and other members of the group also suffered serious injuries; a photojournalist accompanying them was beaten and her camera smashed. According to reports, parents of the children are being held captive by the circus owner and the children remain in captivity.


The manager of the Great Roman Circus threatens Global March chairperson Kailash Satyarthi with a pistol.



Satyarthi had to be treated for serious head and leg injuries.

Many children are working under slave-like conditions in the circuses which are a popular form of entertainment in India. In April, the Global March joined volunteers and local authorities in successfully freeing more than two dozen Nepalese children who had been forced to work in the Great Indian Circus in Kerala state. Some of them had spent more than ten years of their lives in the circus.


Bonded labour - two of the young girls in the Great Roman Circus.


The IUF has protested this brutal attack to the Indian authorities, demanding that it act to free the children, prosecute the local authorities who connived in the attack, and provide adequate security to Satyarthi and child labour campaigners. The Global March Against Child Labour and the international trade union movement are calling for similar messages to be sent.

On the afternoon of June 18, Satyarthi and several dozen supporters began an indefinite fast in front of the Uttar Pradesh State Legislative Assembly to highlight their demands for the release of the children still trapped in the circus, an investigation of the situation of children working in all circuses in India and action against complicit government officials. While two Great Roman Circus staff have been arrested (though not the circus owner), no charges have been filed against them for the attempt to murder Satyarthi. None of the children have been freed from the circus, despite the fact that a medical examination has determined that one of the girls has been repeatedly raped over the last several months - apparently a common practice.

The following can serve as a sample message.

Sample message to the government of India

To: Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India
Fax: + 91 11 23016857
E-mail: [email protected]

cc: Dr. A.P.J.Abdul Kalam, President of India
Fax: + 91 11 2301 7290/2301 7824
E-mail:[email protected]

Concerns: brutal attack on Kailash Satyarthi and campaigners against child labour in Uttar Pradesh

Dear Mr. Prime Minister,

I write to protest the apparent connivance of local authorities in the June 15 attack on Kailash Satyarthi and other child labour campaigners. Mr. Satyarthi was threatened at gunpoint, attacked and brutally beaten when he visited the Great Roman Circus which was camped in Colonelganj Tehsil, Gonda District. Mr. Satyarthi was accompanied by other campaigners against child labour and some of the parents of the children working in the circus. They visited the circus after presenting the district administration with evidence that children were being illegally employed. The district officials authorized the sub-divisional magistrate to take action.

Despite the fact that they were accompanied by a sub-divisional magistrate, the group was attacked by the circus manager and his crew with guns, knives and iron rods. Satyarthi required emergency medical treatment as a result of serious head injuries and a fractured leg, only avoiding worse injuries through the action of the group to defend him. His son and other members of the group also suffered serious injuries; a photojournalist accompanying them was beaten and her camera smashed.

All of this, including a threat to kill Mr. Satyarthi on the spot and to follow him to his Delhi home, took place in the presence of the police, the representatives of the district authorities and the media. Our information is that not only do the child circus workers remain the captives of the owner, but some of their parents as well.

We therefore call upon your government to take all necessary measures to insure the physical safety and well-being of Kailash Satyarthi and other child labour campaigners, to take all necessary measures to investigate and bring to justice the district authorities who permitted these violent actions to proceed as well as the circus owner and his employees who perpetrated the violence, and to act to free the child workers and their parents held captive by the Great Roman Circus.

We also urge your government to carry out, as a matter of urgency, an investigation of the situation of all children currently working in circuses in India, to secure their immediate release and to bring to justice those employers responsible for these abuses.

Sincerely

Kindly send copies of any messages you send to the IUF secretariat. We thank you in advance for your solidarity and support.