Hindu Sect Accused Of Using Forced Labor To Build Temple

New York City NY

14 May, 2021

4:27 PM

Description

By Deanna Garcia, DocumentedNY May 14, 2021 Workers at a Hindu temple filed a lawsuit Tuesday alleging the sect had lured them from India, forced them to stay on the New Jersey temple's grounds and paid them about $1 an hour to perform grueling labor. According to lawyers for the workers, Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha, a Hindu sect with close relations to India's ruling party, may have exploited hundreds of low-caste men as they spent years building the temple. The workers were brought to the U.S. on R-1 visas, and say they were promised jobs with standard work hours and time off. The temple denied claims of underpaying the workers. The New York Times Documented event Wednesday at 2 p.m.: Documented and Waterwell will release a documentary that examines how the COVID-19 pandemic has devastated New York's Latin American immigrant communities. "Yo sé qué es pandemia" or "I know what pandemic means" is a bilingual film and was directed by filmmaker Frisly Soberanis. It includes voices of the readers of Documented Semanal, a publication that provides undocumented New Yorkers with valuable information via WhatsApp. The film follows the loss, community, financial pressures and an overwhelming sense of helplessness within the City's Latin American immigrant communities. It's not too late! Register here for today's free Zoom screening. NYC Democratic Mayoral Candidates Speak on Immigrant Issues Four Democratic candidates for New York City mayor gathered for a virtual forum Thursday to discuss issues affecting the city's immigration population. Maya Wiley, Dianne Morales, Shaun Donovan and Andrew Yang discussed their views and goals regarding housing, education, employment and participation in political action for immigrant communities. All the candidates offered plans for ensuring immigrants had access to health care, and discussed how they'd address the economic downfall brought about by the pandemic. The forum was streamed in English, Mandarin and Spanish. Gotham Gazette Documented Survey: What News is Most Important to New York's Caribbean Communities? Documented is looking to improve coverage of issues that are important to the Caribbean community. If you'd like to give us your input to help us achieve that goal, please answer a set of questions here. Support the work of Documented Documented was founded with the goal of making sure the people affected by our stories were also the people reading them. Immigration reporting is often extractive and isn't produced or published with the main protagonists as the intended audience. Through our reporting and out outreach via WhatsApp, we've created award-winning journalism that is created with and for New York's immigrant communities. This work is not easy and it is not cheap. Consider becoming a member today to help fuel this work. By joining the Documented Community, you can not help only provide us with the financial freedom needed to fulfill our mission but also meet others who are passionate about immigration in the New York area. Become a member today. Documented NY is a non-profit news site devoted solely to covering New York City's immigrants and the policies that affect their lives.