Many Nepalis in New York have no safety net

Oped >> Interview

OCT 26 - Luna Ranjit is the executive director of Adhikaar, a New York-based women-led non-profit organisation promoting human rights and social justice for all by working with Nepali-speaking communities. Among other things, the organisation facilitates access to information and resources on immigration, health, workers’ and womens’ rights; mobilizes and supports community members to advocate against social injustices and human rights abuses; and conducts research and advocacy. Akhilesh Upadhyay spoke to Ranjit about the work Adhikaar is doing with Nepali immigrants in New York.

Q: What motivated you into social work?

Ranjit: I consider myself to be a social activist rather than a social worker. In this country, a social worker is one who intervenes one on one, whereas I consider myself from a bigger picture. I had always been interested in development issues, but even as a kid I never thought that would be my career. One of my high school teachers — in Budhanilkantha — went to work at Action Aid. And that made me realize that such a career was possible. So I studied economics and was going into international development. Right after my under graduation, I had an opportunity to work with International Environmental Policy in Washington, D.C. And that sort of opened another field for me.

Q: What does Adhikar do and when was it founded?

Ranjit: Adhikar was founded in 2005, and the idea was to be a bridge between the growing Nepali community and social justice. I was working with a couple of South Asian social justice organizations and I was the only Nepali there. But these organizations were not reaching out to the Nepali community. So we wanted to be the bridge between the Nepali community and the social justice work going on here. New York being immigrant friendly, there are plenty of resources here. But it was somehow not reaching to the community, so we wanted to be a bridge. We envisioned ourselves more as working at the macro level — at the policy level. But we also wanted to be community driven. We started with issues of immigration, workers’ rights and access to health care. But when we communicated with the community, we realized there was a need for direct action. So we started with English classes and free health care camps. We also talked about filing taxes. We have done parenting workshops. In this country, parenting rules are strict, which the Nepali community was not aware about.

Q: What are the major areas of concern for Nepali workers in the US, particularly in New York?

Ranjit: In New York, most of our community members work in the informal sector; so there isn’t this safety mechanism available to other workers. They can get fired any day, they work long hours, they don’t get paid on time, and working conditions are unsafe. We see a lot of those things.

Q: Can you describe what unsafe working conditions means?

Ranjit: An example is a domestic worker with no protection right. If they are cleaning the house, they are not given protective gear. They are made to work without gloves or masks or anything like that. They are not given any information about the possible dangers.

Q: How do you compare the working conditions of Nepali workers here as compared to those in say Arab countries?

Ranjit: In absolute terms, things are better. On an individual basis, we have heard stories as bad as Middle Eastern countries where they are made to work up to 20 hours a day. And without proper meals and people being yelled at for eating a piece of bread when they are hungry. People being verbally harassed, and in some cases, physically abused as well. We haven’t heard about sexual harassment within the Nepali community, unlike other South Asian communities. But if you want to stand up and speak out, there are recourses here, whether you have legal immigration status or not.

Q: Would you cite some cases of extreme harassment? And could you give a general picture of the working conditions of Nepalis?

Ranjit: For women, it’s domestic work; and for men, it’s driving cabs or working in restaurants. We are starting to see some in construction work as well. For construction workers, it’s safety issues; and for cab drivers, they have to sit all day in one place, and not being able to take proper bathroom breaks, being harassed by the police as well as by the customers. For domestic workers, it’s really long hours of work. And since they are women, who don’t speak English, they are at their employers’ mercy — in case of resident domestic workers — having to work from six in the morning till late at night with no breaks. They are paid below minimum wages — say US$ 350 per week. And if they try to assert their rights, they get fired. Only last Labour Day, one of our members was fired in the middle of the night for not being able to do the task assigned. In fact, she wasn’t saying that she wouldn’t do it; but rather that she would do it at her own time. She asked her employer to let her stay the night, but this was to no avail. And she had to walk three hours to get to her house.

Q: Many South Asian workers go to work with South Asian employers. But these employers are known to be abusive. Any comment on that?

Ranjit: Employers can to be abusive irrespective of their ethnicity. A South Asian employer is both good as well as abusive, and the same is true of white American employers. Because of cultural proximity, South Asian workers prefer South Asian employers.

Q: Give me a profile of your average beneficiary and how does the process start?

Ranjit: Earlier, we had outreach workers who went out in the communities. Most of us live in Queens, and we are a population of around 30,000. We are working with the census bureau so that we get counted properly this time around. We get people of all kinds, across age groups. We deal with people who are facing problems with workers’ rights or people who are simply looking for a job. We even receive people who are facing domestic violence. With regard to domestic violence, we receive people who have either faced violence in the past or those who are in need of immediate support. So probably they will be in need of some kind of counselling and support structure. But a majority of the people who come to us either seek language assistance or translation of things that they need. Recently, people have been coming to us for assistance in seeking jobs. With the recession, people are losing their jobs. They are getting fired easily. And when they come to us, we also talk about their minimum wages and rights and negotiating skills. Of course, they will not be able use all this all the time. But if and when they choose to speak out, they know their rights.

Q: How many people are you helping?

Ranjit: On an average, we have 500 people coming to us every year. And the number is growing. Last year, we had organized a workshop, and we ran out of chairs as more people came. The depth of our work has also increased. Out of the 500 people earlier, we used to have one timers, but now it’s more of a holistic nature. The same person may attend a workshop or a health camp.

Q: What are the programmes that you have? Could you be specific?

Ranjit: One of our core programmes is English for leadership programme. It’s a programme whose focus is on leadership development. We have classes for women, but now there are people across the cross-section in it. There are people who have never seen a classroom in their lives to people with either an intermediate or a bachelor’s degree back home; but they don’t have enough skills or the confidence. So we help build confidence in these people. We also have regular workshops on issues that are important to the community. We organize free health care services. At the policy level, we are working to change the policy for domestic workers. At the moment, domestic workers are not covered by some of the labour protection. We are trying to change that at the New York state level. And we are getting pretty close. We were hoping for victory this year, but it didn’t happen. So we are working on it. We are also trying to change immigration laws at the national level. But this cannot be done alone, so we are working with other organizations of national and local levels. Recently, we have also had a youth group for kids from 16-25. They meet every week to discuss issues important to them. They are also working on art activism, whereby they explore their identity.

Q: How do people manage time for all this?

Ranjit: We open when everybody else closes; we work on Sundays. So we have to accommodate people who are working. Almost all our activities happen on Sundays. The youth group has its own timing. In fact, this is a place where people can find companionship, so they come here irrespective of their busy schedule.

Q: What is the retention rate of people who come to your programmes?

Ranjit: Actually, the retention rate is quiet high for English classes. We have women who have been coming to us regularly for three years now. And most of them are blue collar workers. Earlier, we used to have a two-and-a-half-month course. But then we had to keep adding on, given the demand. And now we have six levels of this programme.

Q: Is Adhikar only for Nepalis?

Ranjit: We say Nepali-speaking communities. Since no organization is helping this community, we are there for them.