00:09.579 --> 00:15.439
Previously on Life, put people back into the
picture, and make the global economy work for them.

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People's voices are going to become more and more
important.

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There are some who win, but there are more and
more who are being left behind.

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The opportunity to get a job, the opportunity
to get into a situation where you can negotiate,

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where you can build your standard of living, is
something that very many people want.

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I want to tell you a little about the plight of
the Dalits.

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A community of 200 million fellow human beings
in

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India.
The so-called untouchables.

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They suffer from discrimination under the caste
system, which has

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dehumanised them.

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You will see in the episode of Life, what it

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means to be born into this community.

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India was in the forefront of the struggle
against apartheid.

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We believe that the Indian people

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would want to end the scourge which is a blot.

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For humanity in this new millennium.

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Let us work together.

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To end it, India

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today has nuclear weapons, a computer industry,
and its very own Hollywood-style film industry.

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It has an extremely rich upper class and a huge
middle class.

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But it also has 200 million poor outcasts or
Dalits, stigmatised from the day they are born

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and who suffer massive discrimination.

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Viraami lives in a small village in southern
India.

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All the inhabitants here are outcasts.

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Viraami's job consists of doing the washing
for the 19 families in the village.

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No.
When

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I go and collect the laundry, I ask why we have
to do this.

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We have to do it because we belong to this
caste.

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People say we will be reborn, and that's the
reason why we must do it.

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Ma.
And the outcasts themselves are subdivided into

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further groupings.
The washer men and women belong to the very

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lowest scale of this hierarchy.

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The only payment Viraami receives for his work
are leftovers from the meals other inhabitants

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in the village have already eaten.

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Very few people usually say that it causes you
no harm to do this.

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Kind of job.
They say that in the end you will go to heaven.

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For having done this.

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Do you believe that?
One would have to die to find out.

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I, oh.

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Mira Sami's family have been washermen for
generations.

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Coming from the lowest caste in Indian society,
it's their destiny.

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His wife Desam and their three children help him do
the work.

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If we had our own land, we would be happy.

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We would not depend on others, but we don't
have our own place, and we have to be very

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servile and obey orders.

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If we had our own land, we would work hard and
do something else.

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For instance, we could open a fruit shop, but
we are dependent on others,

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and that's the reason why we have to live this
way.

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No.
If you are rich, it's no problem.

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Discrimination based on caste has been
prohibited by law since India first gained its

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independence in 1947, but the 200 million
outcasts in the country are still being

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oppressed, still discriminated against.

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Many have left their fingerprints on contracts
which make them indebted for the rest of their

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lives to people from higher castes.

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Often too, the outcasts or Dalits are caught up
in working conditions that are more like

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slavery.

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This is very dangerous work.

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You can hardly avoid being hurt, but we have to
work.

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The stones cut me on both my arms and my legs.

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Look at the scars on my legs and here, but we
tolerate it because we are fighting for our

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lives.
We are fighting the grim reaper.

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It is a hard and dangerously deadly job.

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Mr.
Kumar and his family are bonded labourers.

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They owe money to the owner of the quarry.

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During the rainy season, the stones are buried
under the soil,

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and my manager says we must dig them out.

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We have to dig out the stones and cut them to
pieces.

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If we don't, we receive no payment.

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I can't go anywhere else because we have been
paid in advance,

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so he would claim his money back before we
could go anywhere.

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If we only knew how to make
more money, we could choose to do something else.

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We have to work like slaves to survive.

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We have to work like slaves to earn our daily
bread.

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In

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Yeah

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Asan is 12.
He's the son of outcast parents and has worked

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in the silk industry since he was 8.

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He's just one of approximately 100 million
child labourers in India.

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I work 10 hours a day from 7:30 a.m.
To 6 p.m.

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Without lunch and including lunch.

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That makes 10 hours.

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And you work how many days a week?

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All 7 days of the week.
You don't have a day off on Sundays?

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No.
You don't have Sundays.

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No, but we get the day off when there is a
celebration of some kind,

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for instance, Deepavali or Amai.

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We have 10 days off for the harvest festival.

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Do you like working in a weaving mill?

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Yes, sure.
Once you've learnt it, it's not difficult.

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They only go on at you in the beginning until
you have learnt it.

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Then it's fun to work alone.

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In the West, there's been a lot of publicity
about child labour,

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and the owners of big textile factories are
wary of giving interviews to human rights

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organisations or Western media, but the owners
of small weaving mills are not so defensive.

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Do the children come from poor families?

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Yes, indeed, all of them.

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Rich people
don't work in this industry.

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Are the children Dalits?
Yes, it's hard work,

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isn't it?
Yes, you have to be alert all the time.

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It's not like driving an ox cart or working in
the rice fields.

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I don't care about my next life.
If I

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can't be happy together with my children in
this life,

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how can I then dream about the next life?

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I can't send them to school or give them a
happy life or give them enough food.

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Why am I in this unhappy situation?

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When I was a child, I wasn't happy, but now I
see that my children aren't any better off.

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Is this their lot in life?

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The Indian caste system stems from Hinduism,
and about 80% of all Indians are Hindus.

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If you're an outcast, a Dalit, it's because
you've led a bad life in an earlier incarnation.

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This is your fate, and you have to put up with
it.

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According to Hinduism, man has more than one
life, and if a person behaves well in his

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present life, he can be reincarnated into a
better one.

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Prabhakaran is a Brahmin priest and belongs to
the highest caste.

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Each caste has its particular kind of work.

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Take me.
I'm a priest.

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I couldn't carry out the work of a carpenter or
a bricklayer.

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Every person has his own trade.

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Oh, Navid.
It

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it.
Yeah.

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My

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

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We work, but the owner doesn't pay us
sufficiently.

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Prices go up, and so we want higher wages, but
we're told that first we

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have to work off what we have been paid for.

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When we have paid our debt, we are free to go
somewhere else.

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There is no other way out.

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What else can we do?
We work like slaves, but where else can we find

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work?
That is why we stay here.

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I don't force them to stay.

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You can go and ask them yourself.

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I haven't forbidden them to go and work
somewhere else.

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They work here because they want to.

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They follow their hearts.

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How many of them have borrowed money from you?

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

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Has everyone received payment in advance? Yes.

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How much have they had in advance?
20,000 to ₹30,000, but they work for them.

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If you borrow 1000, you work for 1000.

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₹1000 is about $24.

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We get about 20 to ₹30 a day.

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After eight days' work, we receive about 100 to
₹150.

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Let's say we spend ₹50 on a bicycle, then there
is only 100 left.

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I have a big family.

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There are 5 mouths to feed, and 1 kg of rice
costs ₹10.

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A week's payment of ₹100 is about $2.40.

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Hinduism makes a distinction between clean and
unclean people.

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As outcasts, the Dalits are regarded as unclean,
while people within the caste system are

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considered clean.
Clean people must not touch unclean people.

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This is why many of India's 200 million
outcasts live in separate villages,

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and it's why the unclean Dalits are also known
as the Untouchables.

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Even if it is 12 at night and we have come all
the way to Madras by bus,

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we must take off our clothes and wash ourselves
before we enter the house.

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Outside, there are many people, and some of
them are unclean,

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but we have to be clean at all times.

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If you want to enter our house, you must wash
your feet first.

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Some might say, but we washed our feet before
putting on our shoes.

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Why must we then wash them again?

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But you have to wash them before entering.

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The outcasts come into the temple even when
they're not allowed.

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They can't understand why they're not allowed
in.

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What's your view?
Even when we explain it to them,

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they won't understand and accept it.

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It's unbelievable.

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They say that they're cleaner than us.
They say that they doubt that I have washed

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myself in the morning.
I have holy ashes on my forehead,

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but they could just put on some of it too.

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They have this silly attitude.

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They refused to accept the situation exactly.

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It is our destiny to wash these things.
That's

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why we have to do this work.

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We wash the linen by hand and return it.

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Even linen used at childbirth and during
abortions.

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Uh-huh.
At the washerman's, the pre-washing

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is now finished and the family can eat the
leftovers which Darsan collected in a pot in

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the village and brought down to the river.

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I make the sherry in

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Eke the sherry, Bo they tummy.

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My wife also comes from a washerman's

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family.
They do the same work as we do, so we

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don't have family problems.

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If she was from another caste and if she
disagreed with me,

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she might regret marrying me.

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But she doesn't belong to another caste, so
there is no problem.

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The laundry has been steamed for one hour and
the family is ready for the big washing

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programme of the afternoon.

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I go to work because my family is poor, other
children are not poor,

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and their parents aren't sick, but I have to
work.

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If the boys fall ill, their parents ask me to
lend them ₹500.

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We also pay them an advance of ₹2000 to ₹5000
before they start working.

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If they have problems, we help them.

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It's Assan's responsibility to repay the
family's debt to the owner of the looms.

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We were paid ₹4000 in advance and they reduced
it by ₹200 every month.

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₹200 of ₹500.

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Do you get more than that?

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No, only ₹200.

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Yes, ₹200 only.

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We can't ever pay back our debts because when
we borrow ₹300,

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he writes down ₹400.
Maybe we will have to be here for the rest of

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our lives.
So you'll have to remain in slavery?

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Yes.
I

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Their children are the stonemason's only hope
of breaking their chains.

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With help from a local organisation, the
children are able to attend school a couple of

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hours every weekday.

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By learning to read, write and do arithmetic,
they'll be able to take the first steps towards

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changing their destiny.

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But it's a long and difficult road ahead and
one made harder by the repressive reactions of

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the authorities whenever the outcasts attempt
to protest.

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Before the outcasts didn't come here, but today
75% of those who do the cleaning

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here are outcasts.

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They also moved the statues around.

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But they work here.

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Formerly, when we were on our way to the temple,
the outcasts would step aside for us

19:03.280 --> 19:08.020
and take off their scarves and shoes in order
to pay their respect.

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Now they rub shoulders with us.

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They have changed.
We used to put things out for them outside

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which they would come and pick up, but now they
simply stretch out their hands and want us to

19:22.260 --> 19:27.689
put the things directly into their hands
because they say they're cleaner than us.

19:27.979 --> 19:30.410
They wash themselves twice a day.

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What do you think of that?

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I don't want to comment on that.

19:36.300 --> 19:37.959
It's very difficult.

19:38.880 --> 19:45.640
I don't speak to them and I don't give them
anything of

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that which you've been sacrificing when they
enter, I go out.

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Ah.

20:12.099 --> 20:15.670
I don't want my children to grow up and have
these kinds of problems,

20:15.739 --> 20:17.060
this kind of work.

20:17.869 --> 20:20.300
They should learn as much as possible.

20:20.790 --> 20:25.420
If only somebody would help us give them an
education, then we would support them,

20:25.949 --> 20:28.599
but with this work it is impossible for us.

20:29.469 --> 20:31.739
We wish for them to get a better education.

20:32.390 --> 20:34.819
We don't want them to end up in this job.

20:35.349 --> 20:39.260
If only they could study, they would do
something other than this.

20:39.910 --> 20:41.900
This work ends with me.

20:42.670 --> 20:44.459
I don't want them to do this.

20:46.979 --> 20:49.310
Yeah, I

20:54.430 --> 20:58.140
Kumar and the other stonemason families have
the afternoon off.

20:58.430 --> 21:01.670
They cannot work because of the nearby blasting
in the quarry.

21:04.250 --> 21:06.239
Oh yeah, all right.

21:15.010 --> 21:20.410
However, not all Dalits are prepared to go on
being treated as social and cultural outcasts

21:20.410 --> 21:24.739
in India.
In the summer of 1999, thousands of Dalit

21:24.739 --> 21:29.780
labourers from the tea plantations in the state
of Tamil Nadu mounted a demonstration for

21:29.780 --> 21:34.540
higher wages.
As in previous cases, the authorities' reaction

21:34.540 --> 21:35.579
was to clamp down.

21:39.219 --> 21:43.660
These pictures from the film Death of a River,
showing the laborers' demonstration, were

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screened 3 months later in a small cinema in
Madras.

21:47.550 --> 21:52.310
The film was subsequently seized by the police
and the owner of the cinema was arrested and

21:52.310 --> 21:56.810
imprisoned under Indian censorship laws
governing commercial feature films.

21:57.680 --> 22:00.239
Police brutality cost 18 lives.

22:11.199 --> 22:12.199
We are 19 families here and we stick together.

22:21.859 --> 22:25.969
We have no problems or disagreements.

22:27.619 --> 22:28.819
Some of us are related.

22:29.084 --> 22:31.415
But we are like one big family.

22:32.785 --> 22:34.295
We listen to each other.

22:35.104 --> 22:37.454
We also respect what the children say.

22:40.344 --> 22:44.015
We live in harmony with one another and respect
each other.

22:45.744 --> 22:46.765
We don't argue.

22:47.665 --> 22:50.474
Our extended family doesn't work like that.

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She's hiding samba, huh?

22:56.584 --> 22:57.824
Actually, this is not samba.

22:59.270 --> 23:04.099
If I work faster, I could make one month's pay
in 25 days.

23:04.349 --> 23:07.099
If I did, I could provide for my family.

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If I was paid ₹1500, I could pay the bills and
the hospital bill and still save money.

23:16.989 --> 23:20.885
For myself.
Build a mill, find a house, and make it suitable for

23:20.885 --> 23:22.515
weaving activities.

23:27.645 --> 23:28.994
There should be room for that.

23:29.285 --> 23:33.074
We could start out with one room; later, we could
buy another one.

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Then three, then four, and so forth.

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Yeah, yeah.

23:46.369 --> 23:49.439
In terms of rights, a washerman stands alone.

23:49.729 --> 23:54.069
There is only one washerman in each village.
If somebody supported me,

23:54.170 --> 23:57.660
we could fight for our rights, but there is
only me.

24:00.290 --> 24:01.530
I'm left in the lurch.

24:02.479 --> 24:08.270
If you want to achieve something, you have to
be either rich or be in a group of many people.

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I am neither.

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Was it up, up?