1023 Opening Celebration & Plenary I
Planning Committee Sponsored

Danielle Sinkford
General Assembly
Opening

This past February I went to India with my father-Bill Sinkford-to meet the Khasi Unitarians and our UU Holdeen India Partners. In those two weeks I learned more than in my four years of high school.

I met Ela Bhatt, the tiny woman who founded a women's union CALLED SEWA that helps over 250,000 women defend their rights. SEWA people have rebuilt, and rebuilt again, the houses of Muslims and Hindus LOST FIRST IN THE JANUARY 2001 earthquake and then in the Gujarat RIOTS THIS SPRING.

I met Vivek Pandit, who had endured torture and house arrest for the rights of people called the "untouchables".

I met Sajena. I was with Denny Davidoff when I met her. Many of the words of this story are Denny's. Sagena is in a special residential school Vivek runs… for children of migrant brick kiln workers who are often tribal people: the poorest of the poor. Sagena is 12 years old. She is skinny. She doesn't smile much. Sajena's father had to borrow 800 rupees from the owner of the brick kiln where he works. That's about $16 US, $25 Canadian. THE PLAN WAS TO HAVE Sajena WORK as a Head Load Carrier. That means carrying 16 bricks at a time on her head, from storage to kiln: from kiln to delivery truck, until the debt, with interest, was paid with her labor. It would have taken years, perhaps a lifetime. It was like slavery.

It was Vivek's organizers who said to the kiln owner, "You cannot do that. This act of child labor is illegal. We are taking the child to our school outside the village." And they did. So the owner went to Sajena's parents and threatened them. The frightened parents tried to force Sajena back to work; afraid for their lives.

The Union intervened again. This time with a writ of appeal to the state Human Rights Commission. They ordered the owner to release Sajena from labor, and her father from the debt. The agreement was illegal and therefore invalid. Sajena was free to enter first grade at the age of twelve.

I came away from the trip with a new understanding of privilege. I have been a part of the AMERICAN public educational system for 15 years. School has always been a "given" just as my enrollment in a college or university this coming fall was a "given." When I returned to my classes I had a new vitality and desire to learn. It seemed the least that I could do after meeting people like Sajena who had to alter and in some cases, endanger their lives for a privilege that has always been handed to me. This newfound understanding of privilege was not the only lesson that I learned. In fact, the most valuable lesson I took away was the people, working together, have the power to change lives.

Web Designer Julie Albanese

Back to Opening Celebration & Plenary I

General Assembly 2002 · Program Grid 2002 · General Assembly Home