The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: The newly-built Hindu temple in New Jersey – that had hit the headlines in 2021 amid allegations of forced labour and exploitation – opened its doors earlier this month.
The Akshardham Mahamandir in Robbinsville, New Jersey was built over 15 years and is managed by the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha or BAPS.
In May 2021, a group of Indian workers had filed a lawsuit in US District Court alleging violations of human trafficking and wage law against BAPS. The workers said that they were confined and forced to work for about $1 per hour on constructing the massive Swaminarayan temple. They also said that the organisation made them work for as much as 87 hours a week.
This, when New Jersey’s minimum wage is $12 an hour and US law requires the pay rate for most hourly workers to rise to time-and-a-half when they work more than 40 hours a week.
Once on their construction jobs, the complaint said “they were forced to live and work in a fenced, guarded compound which they were not allowed to leave unaccompanied by overseers affiliated with (BAPS).”
Many of these workers belong to the Dalit community and were brought to the US as ‘religious workers and volunteers’. Following the allegations, US federal authorities had raided the construction site in 2021.
Also read: Dalit Workers Allege ‘Shocking Violations’ in Building Temple in New Jersey
The same lawsuit was also updated to add that BAPS had flouted labour laws not just at the temple in New Jersey but at other temple sites across the country as well.
According to the New York Times (NYT) report, BAPS has strong ties with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has built temples around the world.
“It is an occasion of profound spiritual significance for the vast legion of devotees worldwide,” Modi had written in a letter to BAPS, congratulating them on the inauguration of the temple.
According to Hindustan Times he also said that the inaugural celebrations of Akshardham Mahamandir showcased India’s architectural excellence and its glorious ancient culture and ethos.
The temple that cost around $96 million to build, sits on 180 acres of land and includes 10,000 statues and 200 feet tall spires. On the entrance is a 49-foot gold statue of the sect’s chief deity, Nilkanth Varni, the child-yogi form of Bhagwan Swaminarayan, balanced on one leg in a yogic posture, the NYT reported.
In addition to the lawsuit and allegations of forced labour, a 17-year-old boy volunteering for constriction at the temple had fallen to his death, the NYT report said.
Patricia Kakalec, a lawyer for the workers, told NYT that she plans to continue fighting for the labourers who are part of the complaint, but their civil claim is on hold pending a federal investigation.
Of the 21 workers who were initially part of the lawsuit, 12 withdrew their complaint this month. Their lawyer, Aaditya Soni, who is based in Jaipur, told NYT that the workers pulled out based on their religious conviction.