ARTICLE Mission: Bonded Labour ‘Abolishment’: Balance Sheet of Identification, Release and Rehabilitation (1
Abhay F Xaxa is Project Officer, Campaign and Advocacy, Bonded Labour Project, Centre for Education and Communication, New Delhi. Email: Abhay@labourfile.org. (Abhay F Xaxa)
“The Bonded Labour System stands abolished throughout the country with effect from 25th October, 1975, with the enactment of Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976...” says the opening paragraph of the chapter on Bonded Labour in every Annual Report of the Ministry of Labour (MoL) for the past 30 years. But at the 89th International Labour Congress, representatives from three state governments admitted that the scourge of bonded labour continues to plague them despite sustained attempts to eradicate, what they confessed, is the worst form of human exploitation. Similarly, the ILO Global Report on Forced Labour 2001 clearly explains the problem of bonded labour in the present context. “Old forms of coercion and compulsion are transmitting into newer ones. The bonded labour system remains very much in evidence today and accounts for the greatest number of forced labourers in the contemporary world.”
Due to political and economic reasons, various state governments still deny any existence of this inhuman system in their jurisdiction. As a result, the statistics of bonded labour available with the MoL for the past nine years indicates that there is a decreasing trend of Identification, Release and Rehabilitation (IRR); in 2005–2006, only 304 bonded labourers have been released and ‘rehabilitated’. According to the MoL Annual Report 2005–2006, “(It) …shows that as a result of concentrated efforts made by the government through various anti-poverty programmes, awareness, sensitization, etc., the incidence of bonded labour reported from states are declining…”
Year-wise Trend of IRR of Bonded Labourers throughout the Country | |
| Year | No. of IRR throughout the country |
| 1997–98 | 6,000 |
| 1998–99 | 5,960 |
| 1999–2000 | 8,195 |
| 2000–01 | 5,296 |
| 2001–02 | 3,929 |
| 2002–03 | 2,198 |
| 2003–04 | 2,465 |
| 2004–05 | 866 |
| 2005–06 Upto 30/11/2005 | 304 |
| | |
Source: MoL Annual Report 2005–2006
However, other stakeholders, such as the Supreme Court, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), ILO, NGOs, trade unions and the people’s movement, reject the government’s claim and present a contrasting picture of the whole problem. The NHRC, which took up the monitoring of the implementation of the Bonded Labour System Abolition Act in early 1998, on request from the Supreme Court in WP No. 3922/1985, clearly says that a “high incidence of Bonded Labour system is still found in both agricultural and non-agricultural sector in states of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa, Punjab, Tamilnadu, M.P., Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Gujarat. Presently, there are 190 districts in 17 states that have been identified as bonded labour prone states. (But) the respective state governments tend to ignore or refuse the existence of Bonded Labour in their states. Authorities are found unresponsive to the complaints of Bonded labour brought to their notice. Instead of acting promptly on such complaints and effecting the identification and release of bonded labourers, they are even found helping the keepers of bonded labourers to arrange the dispersal and disappearance of bonded labourers after hurriedly settling their accounts.” (NHRC, 2004–2005)
Number of Bonded Labourers Identified, Released and Rehabilitated up to 31. 03. 2005 and during 2005–2006 (upto 30. 11. 2005) under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme
| Name of the State | Identified and Released Upto 31. 3. 2005 | Identified and Released during 2005–06 upto 30. 11. 2005 | Rehabilitated upto 31. 3. 2005 | Rehabilitated during 2005–06 upto 30. 11. 2005 |
| Andhra Pradesh | 37,988 | -- | 31,534 | -- |
| Bihar | 13,651 | 141 | 12,974 | 141 |
| Karnataka | 63,437 | -- | 57,185 | -- |
| Madhya Pradesh | 13,087 | 38 | 12,200 | 38 |
| Orissa | 50,029 | -- | 46,901 | -- |
| Rajasthan | 7,488 | -- | 6,331 | -- |
| Tamil Nadu | 65,573 | -- | 65,573 | -- |
| Maharashtra | 1,398 | 6 | 1,325 | 6 |
| Uttar Pradesh | 28,236 | 114 | 28,236 | 114 |
| Kerala | 823 | -- | 710 | -- |
| Haryana | 551 | -- | 49 | -- |
| Gujarat | 64 | -- | 64 | -- |
| Arunachal Pradesh | 3526 | -- | 2,992 | -- |
| Chhattisgarh | 124 | -- | 124 | -- |
| Punjab | 69 | -- | 69 | -- |
| Uttaranchal | 5 |
Author Name: Abhay F Xaxa
Title of the Article: Mission: Bonded Labour ‘Abolishment’: Balance Sheet of Identification, Release and Rehabilitation (1 Name of the Journal: Labour File Volume & Issue: 4 , 3 Year of Publication: 2006 Month of Publication: May - June Page numbers in Printed version: Labour File, Vol.4-No.3, Hey listen! Bonded Labour: It`s not over, but it`s all over (Article - Mission: Bonded Labour ‘Abolishment’: Balance Sheet of Identification, Release and Rehabilitation (1976– Weblink : https://labourfile.com:443/section-detail.php?aid=346 KeywordsCurrent Labour NewsRecent Issues
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