Dalit women labourers in Punjab farms battle sex abuse

旁遮普农场的达利特女工与性骚扰作斗争

CHANDIGARH: In the wide expanse of a green field, Shabbo is busy digging up potatoes and gathering them in a sack. At the end of seven days she will get Rs 1000 for the work. Then she'll start looking for employment all over again.

昌迪加尔: 在一片广阔的绿色田地里，夏波正忙着挖土豆，把土豆装进袋子里。7天后她将得到1000卢比的报酬。然后她会重新开始找份活干。

Illiterate and still in her early teens, Shabbo doesn't even know how old she is. Asked about her age, she blushes and looks to her mother, Dheero, for an answer. “Mummy, k saalaan di haan mein? (Mom, what is my age?).” The older woman, a widow, isn't sure either. She turns to her brother Karnail Singh and together they guess that Shabbo, from Sarang Dev village in Amritsar, should be about 14.

夏波只有十几岁，目不识丁，甚至不知道自己的年龄。当被问及年龄时，她脸红了，问母亲迪罗：“妈妈，我几岁了?”这位年长的寡妇也不确定自己的女儿几岁了。她转而问哥哥卡耐尔，他们一起推测出夏波应该14岁左右，来自阿姆利则的Sarang Dev村。

Uneducated and dirt poor, hundreds of thousands of women labourers like Shabbo are employed in farms across Punjab. But the lush green fields that provide sustenance to a substantial population of the country hide tales of exploitation, sexual and otherwise, discussed only behind closed doors in hushed voices.

在旁遮普各地的农场，有成千上万像夏波这样没有受过教育、一贫如洗的女工。在这些为该国人口提供食物的郁郁葱葱绿色田地里，却隐藏着剥削、性和其他方面的故事，这些故事只在关起门后悄声讨论。

An overwhelming 92% of the rural women labourers in Punjab are Dalits and are often forced to work under exploitative conditions, according to researchers from Punjabi University, a top state varsity in Patiala. According to some estimates, there are in all about 15 lakh agricultural labourers in Punjab.

顶级邦立大学旁遮普大学（位于帕蒂亚拉）的研究人员称，旁遮普邦92%的农村女工是达利特，她们遭受剥削，经常被迫在恶劣环境下工作。据估计，旁遮普共有大约150万农业劳动力。

Professor Gian Singh, an expert on rural and agriculture economics, and his team collected primary data from 1,017 households across 12 districts of Punjab. Their study, released in April 2019, found that 70% of the women labourers admitted to facing sexual exploitation at some point in their lives but had kept quiet about it. Many were victims of caste discrimination.

吉安·辛格教授是农村和农业经济学专家，他和他的团队收集了旁遮普省12个地区1017户家庭的原始数据。他们在2019年4月发布的研究发现，70%的女工承认遭遇过性骚扰，却一直保持沉默。她们中的许多人是种姓歧视的受害者。

Compounding the situation for the women is their social and financial condition. Almost all of them in debt, most are too scared to raise their voice against the oppression as they fear losing precious days of wages, even if the money is often below what can be considered minimum.

使这些女性处境进一步恶化的是她们的社会处境和财政状况。她们中几乎所有人都负债累累，大多数人不敢大声疾呼反对压迫，因为害怕失去宝贵的工资，即使她们的工资往往低于最低标准。

“We have to face various types of exploitation and often even sexual advances. If we speak up, who will hire us?” Rajbir Kaur from Khunde Halal village in Muktsar district said.

来自穆克萨尔区Khunde Halal村的拉吉贝尔·考尔说：“我们面对各种各样的剥削，甚至常常遭到性骚扰。如果我们说出来，谁会雇我们?”

The 30-year-old is hopeful that once wheat harvesting season is over, she and her husband, Gurpreet Singh, would get jobs to remove straw left behind in fields. This would provide them with about 20 days of employment, she quickly calculates.

现年30岁的拉吉贝尔希望，小麦收获季节结束后，她和丈夫格普里特·辛格能找到一份清除田里残留秸秆的活儿。她很快计算出，这份活他们大约能干20天。

According to Gian Singh, an average rural woman labourer in Punjab earns Rs 77,198 annually. The amount is too low to meet even basic needs and ends up pushing the families into a spiral of debt.

吉安•辛格表示，旁遮普农村女性劳动者的平均年收入为77198卢比。这点收入太少了，甚至无法满足基本需求，最终将这些家庭推入债务的漩涡。

Baldev Kaur, a Dalit labourer in Lang village in Patiala district, said that work on the fields is seasonal and for most part of the year they are dependent on local commission agents for loans to run their households. “Even when I work along with my husband for a few months, we are unable to clear the debts,” she said.

巴尔德夫·考尔是帕提亚拉区朗村的达利特劳工，他说，地里的活是季节性的，一年中的大部分时间，他们都要依靠贷款养家糊口。“即使我和丈夫一起工作数月，我们也无法还清债务。”她说到。

Singh added that usually the amount of loan taken is not too high but local moneylenders charge very steep interest rates, making it difficult for borrowers to repay. He said that 93.71% of women labourers who were part of the study were reeling under debt and the average amount was Rs 53,916 per household. A little over 81% of the loans had been taken from non-institutional (local) lenders.

辛格补充说，通常贷款数额并不高，但当地放债人收取的利息非常高，使得借款人难以偿还贷款。他说，参与这项研究的93.71%的女性劳动者负债累累，平均每户负债53916卢比。81%以上的贷款是从当地机构贷款获得的。

Even the pittance that the women earn comes at a heavy price.

这些女性的收入微薄，付出了沉重的代价。

About 90% of the study respondents were not aware that they were entitled to standard working hours and minimum wages. Over 36% of them were not paid equal wages compared with men.

约90%的受访者不知道自己有权享有法定工作时间和最低工资。超过36%的女性的工资与男性不一样。

“Work starts at 8am and there are no breaks until lunch. Most of us try to finish as much as possible since we are paid to complete a certain task and not on a per day basis,” said Dheero.

迪罗说：“从早上8点开始工作，午餐前没有休息时间。我们中的大多数人都尽力完成尽可能多的工作，我们是按完成的工作量计算工资的，不是按天计算的。”

Gian Singh said that government schemes like MGNREGA have improved the situation of women labourers, but efforts need to be made to provide them dignity of labour. The study also recommended paying women wages of Rs 600 per day against Rs 240 that's given now.

吉安·辛格表示，像“全国农村就业保障法”（MGNREGA）这样的政府计划已经改善了女工的处境，但仍需要努力提升她们的尊严。研究还建议将女工工资设定为每天最低600卢比，而目前是240卢比。

Dr Surinder Singh Thind, a retired professor from the department of economics at Punjabi University and a former member of the Planning Commission of India, said that no welfare schemes have been rolled out to address issues that women labourers in the rural areas of Punjab are struggling with. Thind added that prior to Gian Singh’s study there was no primary data available in this regard which has led to a delay in formulation of policies for their welfare.

旁遮普邦大学经济系退休教授、印度计划委员会成员苏林德•辛格•辛德博士表示，目前还没有推出任何福解决旁遮普邦农村地区女工们所面临问题的计划。

Harpal Kaur from Seona village in Patiala district admitted that MGNREGA has helped them -- at least in regularisation of wages. “Earlier, we were entirely at the mercy of landowners who paid us whatever they wanted. Since MGNREGA, we get paid Rs 250 a day,” she said. A male labourer gets Rs 450 for the same job.

来自帕蒂亚拉区的Seona村的哈帕尔·考尔承认，“全国农村就业保障法”帮了她们。早些时候，我们完全听凭地主的摆布，他们想给我们多少就给多少。有了“全国农村就业保障法”后，我们每天的工资是250卢比。同样的工作，男工可以获得450卢比。”

The wage disparity does not seem to bother the women, who have internalised the gender bias. Their collective voice, the bargaining chip that gains currency during elections, is muted too. They say they vote for who their employer or village head, generally a male, tells them to.

工资差距似乎并没有影响到这些女性，她们已经接受了性别歧视。把票投给雇主或村长(通常是男性)。

Many farm labourers TOI spoke to said that “we go by what the sarpanch or our employer tells us

接受《印度时报》采访的许多农场劳工表示：“我们照村长或雇主说的做”。

The study by Punjabi University also found that 96% of the women respondents had cast their votes in the 2017 Punjab legislative assembly elections, but 89.3% of them did not know who the chief minister of Punjab was, 93% had no clue who the Prime Minister of the country was and 99% could not name the President.

旁遮普大学的研究还发现 ,96%的女性受访者在旁遮普2017年立法议会选举中投票,  89.3%的人不知道旁遮普首席部长是谁, 有93%的人不知道这个国家的总理是谁，99%不知道总统是谁。

Majority of the women labourers said that they had no interest in politics. Punjab goes to polls on May 19 in the last phase of Lok Sabha elections. “We are constantly worried about feeding our families under growing debts. What have politicians done for us?” asked Paramjit Kaur, 50, from Khunde Halal.

大多数女工说她们对政治不感兴趣。旁遮普省将于5月19日进行人民院选举的最后阶段投票。来自Khunde Halal的帕拉姆吉·考尔说:“我们一直担心，在债务不断增加的情况下，如何养活我们的家庭。政客为我们做了什么?”

The debts have grown in the last decade as agriculture becomes highly mechanised, eating into the odd jobs that employed the women workforce.

随着农业机械化的提高，女性劳动力能做的零活不断减少，她们的债务在过去十年不断增加。

Other research has also highlighted the appalling conditions of women labourers in Punjab's farms. A survey by Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union in 2018 found that most women were working alongside men to supplement the family income but not only did they face income disparity, they were also more likely to face various types of abuse.

其他研究也显示了旁遮普农场女工的恶劣处境。旁遮普Khet Mazdoor工会2018年的一项调查发现，大多数女性与男性一起工作，以增加家庭收入，但她们不仅拿着比男工更少的工资，还有可能受到各种虐待。

"The humiliation and harassment is an everyday reality for many as the need to put food on the table leaves them with little choice," said Diljit Singh, a social worker in the rural belt of Fatehgarh Sahib district. "Labourers are made to work for hours at a stretch and casteist remarks from rich, upper-caste employers are common."

Fatehgarh Sahib地区农村地区的社会工作者迪尔吉特·辛格说:“对很多人来说，羞辱和骚扰是每天都要面对的现实，因为要养家糊口，这让她们别无选择。这些女工被迫连续工作数小时，来自富裕高种姓雇主的种姓歧视也很常见。”

印度时报读者的评论：

译文来源：三泰虎 http://www.santaihu.com/47605.html   译者：Jessica.Wu

外文：https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Ravendra • 2 hours ago

This report appears to be motivated. I have worked and toured punjab villages and I can say confidently that cast discrimination in Punjab is very very minimum. This story appears false.

这篇报道似乎动机不纯。我在旁遮普工作过，也去过旁遮普的村庄，我可以肯定，旁遮普的种姓歧视是非常非常少的。

Lucky B • 2 hours ago

Billionaire Mayawati is also Dalit and farm laborers tool First you need to fix definition of the Dalit. Dalit is an artificial word created few decades ago.

亿万富翁玛雅瓦蒂也是达利特。首先需要修正达利特的定义，达利特是几十年前造的一个词。

Naveen • Delhi • 2 hours ago

I should be asking Congress what you have done in last 70 years ? pls allow me to give atleast 20 years to BJP. till that time I will vote for BJP.

国大党在过去70年里做了什么?请允许我们给人民党至少20年的时间，我将一直投票给人民党。

naveen arora • 36 mins ago

This is a problem all across India, not just Punjab. So what does the Economist propose as solutions? The government should cap private interest rates to those in line with public banks. Controlling the ever alarmingly growing population, less mouths to feed, better for all.

这不仅是旁遮普的问题，也是整个印度的问题。经济学家有提出什么解决方案吗? 政府应该将私人贷款利率限制在与银行相同的水平，控制日益增长的人口，减少需要养活的人口，这对所有人都有好处。

Skrishna • 1 hour ago

A spine chilling harrowing tale of the rich exploiting the rootless poor in the countryside. Dalit, illiterate, women --all such are additional negatives in the countryside. The real fight is between the haves (the rich) and the have-nots (the poor). Our state governments as well as the Centre must take this matter very seriously and earnestly to implement all the exsting laws to eradicate the exploitation of the poor and ensure their upliftment without losing any more time.

这个悲惨故事令人毛骨悚然，富人剥削乡下的穷人。达利特、文盲、妇女——所有这些都是农村负面因素的叠加。真正的斗争发生在富人和穷人之间。我们的邦政府和中央政府应当认真对待这一问题，执行所有现有的法律，消除对穷人的剥削，并确保尽快提高穷人的生活水平。

Skrishna Skrishna • 51 mins ago

The article is silent about the size of the family i.e children each labour couples have. If they have more children only they have to be blamed for their utter condition of poverty. Only by implementing two children per man birth control rule, throughout India we will be in a position to remove the poverty from our country at least within 50 years. If population grow unchecked none will be in a position to save the poor including the Lord Almighty.

这篇文章对他们的家庭人口只字未提，比如他们有多少孩子。如果生得太多，那穷就是自找的。只有在全印度实行每对夫妻生育两个孩子的计划生育政策，我们才能在50年内消除贫困。如果人口无限制地增长，穷人会越来越多

Skrishna Skrishna • USA • 41 mins ago

This is the real picture of dirt poor third world dump India!

这是印度这一极其贫困的第三世界国家的真实写照!

Xxx • 58 mins ago

Congress is ruling in punjab, in case you have not noticed

不知道大家有没有注意到，旁遮普邦由国大党执政。

Ramkrishnareddy Reddy • 1 hour ago

Pappu should feel shame on this

拉胡尔应该为此感到羞耻

Razia Khan • 1 hour ago

What did the congress do in last 70 years?? Why blame BJP for your failures. This is what happens when people live with freebies.

国大党在过去70年里做了什么?为什么要把自己的失败归咎于人民党呢?人们指望免费赠品过活，必然会沦落到这种地步。

Mahesh • Agentk • Hyd • 2 hours ago

Why these kind of news come only before elections? Must be sponsored by International church mafia with local support from Christian converts.

Why can''t this issue be taken up with Modi ji? I am sure he would do something if state government cooperates.

为什么这类新闻只在选举前发布?

为什么莫迪不处理这个问题?我相信如果邦政府配合的话，他会有所作为的。

Mahesh • 1 hour ago

Until the poors themselve realise that education is the key to grown not even Gods can help them

穷人应该意识到知识改变命运，否则神也不帮不了他们

Ayaz • Razia Khan • Hyderabad • 2 hours ago

If CONgress needs more time to fix what Akali and BJP has done in Punjab in 10 years, what time do you think Modi should be given to clean the mess CONgress has done in 60 years across India.

莫迪得花多长时间来收拾国大党60年来留下的烂摊子？

Nand • 1 hour ago

This is real state of women of poor class all over country what we talk about Me Too or Men Too of welloff people.

这是全国贫困阶层妇女的真实状况，

Kapil • 1 hour ago

This is happening all over India only free education can solve it.

这种问题印度各地都有发生，只有教育才能解决这个问题。

Anushka • Surat • 1 hour ago

If law is not like UAE, these things will not be improved.

如果不搞阿联酋那样的法律，这种状况不会得到改善。

Bounty Hunter • 2 hours ago

Why this timing of news? Was this not happening from so long?

为什么选择这个时间发布这篇报道?这不是很久以前发生的事吗?

Bounty Hunter • 4 mins ago

Why ask timing question? It is neither BJP nor congress issue........it is real issue, and any time is good to rake it up.

这既不是人民党的问题，也不是国大党的问题。这是一个真正的问题，任何时候都可以把它翻出来。

Ramesh • Bangalore • 2 hours ago

OMG, when will this discrimination among people end?

天哪，这种人与人之间的歧视什么时候才能结束?

YE HAI MERA HINDUSTAN MERA • Doha • 2 hours ago

Feku must be kicked out of power for India all problems to end

为了解决印度各种各样的问题，必须把莫迪赶下台，

Rahul • 1 hour ago

Come to Kerala my dear labourers. We give highest daily wage in South Asia , free insurance, free health care and govt has started building houses for migrant workers too.

亲爱的劳工们，来喀拉拉邦吧。我们这的工资是南亚最高的，免费保险，免费医疗，政府为农民工盖房子。

William India • MANGALORE • 2 hours ago

IN INDIA RICH BECOMMING RICHEST AND POOR BECOMMING POORER. THIS HAS BEEN STAMPED AND PROVED BY MODI THROUGH THE ECONOMY POLICY...

在印度，富人越来越富，穷人越来越穷。