Bonded labour – or debt bondage – is probably the least known form of slavery today, and yet it is the most widely used method of enslaving people. A person becomes a bonded labourer when their labour is demanded as a means of repayment for a loan. The person is then tricked or trapped into working for very little or no pay. The study done for the Planning Commission reports that 83 percent of the rehabilitated bonded labourers belong to Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes. 43.6 percent of the rehabilitated bonded labourers belong to Scheduled Tribes. Indebtedness has been cited as the main reason for landing in bondage, and 70.7 percent of those surveyed gave loan as the main reason for bondage and 92.3 percent of those who did take the loan, did so for “consumption/food”.
There are several emerging studies that indicate that this practice of bondage continues to exist, particularly in tribal dominated districts. An activist in the field reported to us that the Yanadis in Nellore districts in Andhra Pradesh, Irulas in Tiruvallur, Cuddalore and Vellore in Tamil Nadu, the Sahariyas in Baran districts of Rajasthan, Shivpuri in Madhya Pradesh and Lalitpur and Banda in Uttar Pradesh are among the tribal communities among whom extreme conditions of inhuman bondage can be found. Landlords in these areas are often politically powerful and have no trouble evading criminal processes initiated against them in this context.
In 2013, the Government of India acknowledged the continuing prevalence of bonded labour in the country and identified ten districts, including Gaya in Bihar, Bastar and Kondagaon in Chhattisgarh, Prakasam and Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh, Kanchipuram and Vellore in Tamil Nadu, Bolangir in Odisha and Gumla in Jharkhand. What this campaign has thrown up are repeated traces of modern day forms of bondage.
The Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976 was official acknowledgement of the existence of a form of forced labour which had both traditional and economic roots. Since then, there have been some efforts at ending this system of exploitative labour and relationships in bondage. The law provides for
identification, release and rehabilitation of bonded labourers as well as punishment for employers of bonded labour. Close to 40 years after the enactment of a law that recognizes and outlaws bonded labour, the practice has not disappeared. The Ministry of Labour and Employment in their Annual Report of 2007-2008 record 2,86,839 identified bonded labourers, of whom 93 percent are reported to have been rehabilitated. The maximum numbers of bonded labourers were reportedly rehabilitated in the early 1980s. This was the period when the Supreme Court in its public interest jurisdiction was also actively engaged in lending weight to the Bonded Labour Act and monitoring the progress of identification, release and rehabilitation. It is not immediately evident how many bonded labourers continue in various states of servitude that remain unidentified.
There is a close relationship between trafficking and bonded labour that recent reports reveal. In February 2014, a newsmagazine published its report after travelling to hamlets in Narayanpur and Kanker districts of Chhattisgarh. The report speaks of tribal women being lured by promises, sometimes of work and sometimes of other journeys. Official records, it says, show that 9000 girls have gone missing from Chhattisgarh in the past ten years. These are complaints that have been registered with the police, most of which are from Raipur. The report says that the government claims that the police have traced the whereabouts of 8000 girls, while a 1000 remain missing. Activists warn that the figure of missing girls could be closer to 90,000.
Placement agencies and local agents active in the region send them to become exploited labour in factories in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra. While there are some reports of the agents being arrested for human trafficking, there are no indications of any action being initiated in the factories and workplaces, who are using the labour of the girls. There are capacities created by the law for state governments to protect the workforce that travels from their state to another state from exploitation. The Inter-state Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979 has been on the statute books since 1979. This law enables the government of a state from where workers migrate to reach into state where they are taken for work.
The study submitted to the Planning Commission reports that 95.2 percent of those surveyed said that it was the help provided by the state government that had helped them come out of bondage. It is without doubt that the intervention of state government is imperative in preventing human trafficking, practices of bonded labour and protection against exploitation of persons and communities migrating outside the state.
It would be trite to say that it is persons in various states of poverty who become susceptible to these forms of exploitation. The bonded labour law, and an acknowledgement of the prevalence of bonded labour has been around for close to 40 years. That this practice has not abated, that modern forms of slave-like practices have emerged, and that there is a preponderance of Scheduled Tribes, along with Scheduled castes in the population that makes up bonded labour is inexcusable. Dealing with this issue, while not adversely affecting the right of the free movement of all persons, is a matter that needs to be urgently attended to.
Xaxa Committee recommendation
- The persistence of bonded labour, and the trafficking, in large measure, of women from tribal areas needs a concerted effort to end it. The state has to take primary responsibility to identify, release and rehabilitate bonded labour, wherever they are found.
- The need of the hour is to focus on safeguards for release of bonded labourers and prevention from their lapsing into bondage again. For instance, identification, release and rehabilitation should be simultaneous.
- Prosecution of employers is also weak. Prosecution of employers must go simultaneously but separately with identification and release of bonded labourers. Delay in conviction of the bonded labour keeper or even his eventual acquittal should not inhibit or stall the rehabilitation process.
- The Ministry of Labour, Government of India has initiated a Centrally Sponsored Scheme under which Rs. 30,000 is provided for the rehabilitation of each bonded labourer, to be equally contributed by the Centre and the State Governments. In the case of North Eastern States, 100% central assistance is to be provided if they express their inability to provide their share. But, by and large, the process of rehabilitation is poor and is frequently delayed, particularly in the case of inter-state bonded migrant labourers, and the degree of concerted convergent action required on the part of the administration is rarely forthcoming. Since the bonded labourers are very poor and assetless, most of them relapse into bondage, while others experience only a very marginal increase in income. The financial assistance from the Government, even if realized, in the absence of any additional support mechanism for a released and assetless labourer is not sufficient support to start a new life. However, increasing the quantum of the support amount is not a viable solution. Instead to end the practice, what is required is strict implementation of labour laws in India.
- Other than this, the State Government should dovetail the Centrally Sponsored Scheme for rehabilitation of bonded labourers with other ongoing poverty alleviation schemes .
- Preventive efforts must recognize the social dimensions of bondage, and thereby address it through public sensitization and rights awareness, adult literacy, organizing workers, income generation and vocational skills development.
- The role of District Magistrates in elimination of bonded labour is significant. The law provides for the duties and responsibilities of the District Magistrate and every officer specified by him. They have to ensure that the provisions of the Act are properly carried out. The law also provides for the constitution of Vigilance Committees at the district and sub-divisional level, duties and responsibilities of such committees in the area of identification and rehabilitation of freed bonded labourers. The District Magistrates have to ensure the release of identified bonded labourers on the basis of reports submitted by the Vigilance Committees after conducting the survey at the district and sub-divisional level. They would also formulate suitable schemes for the rehabilitation of freed bonded labourers-land based, non land based and skill/craft based occupations, keeping in view the preferences, felt needs and interest of the beneficiaries.
The government has revamped the scheme for rehabilitation of bonded labourers, allowing a certain proportion of the fund dispersed per person to be put into annuity while raising the limit of immediate assistance from Rs 20,000 to Rs 30,000. The revamped central sector scheme is effective from January 27, 2022. Under the revamped scheme, there will be an option for Rs 1 lakh of rehabilitation assistance per adult male to either deposit it in an annuity scheme or receive cash grant.
However, in case eof special category beneficiaries including children, orphans or women, at least Rs 1.25 lakh of the Rs 2 lakh rehabilitation assistance will be put into annuity and the balance transferred to the beneficiary account through direct benefit transfer.
Likewise, in case of bonded labourers involving extremes cases of deprivation such as trans-genders or sexually expolited women and children, at least RS 2 lakh of the total assiatnce of Rs 3 lakh will have to be put in the annuity scheme and the rest given to the beneficiary.
The revised scheme shall be a central sector scheme and shall come into effect from January 27, 2022. The state government shall not be required to pay any matching contribution for the purpose of cash rehabilitation assistance,” the labour ministry said in a notification dated February 7, 2022.