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GUJARAT NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY, GANDHINAGAR
LABOUR LAW - II
CASE ANALYSIS ON:
“PUCL v. State of Tamil Nadu (2004)12 SCC 381”
SUBMITTED TO:
DR. ASHA VERMA
(ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF LAW)
SUBMITTED BY:
SHUBHAM PHOPHALIA (16B153)
“MODERN SLAVERY- BE IT BONDED LABOUR, INVOLUNTARY SERVITUDE OR SEXUAL SLAVERY IS A
CRIME AND CAN’T BE TOLERATED IN ANY CULTURE, COMMUNITY AND COUNTRY – IT IS AN
AFFRONT TO OUR VALUES AND OUR COMMITMENT TO HUMAN RIGHTS”
- HILLARY CLINTON
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ACKNOWLEGEMENT
Writing a project has one of the most significant academic challenges we have faced. Any
attempt at any level can't be satisfactorily completed without the support and guidance of
well experienced people. Gratitude is a noble response of one’s soul to kindness or help
generously rendered by another and its acknowledgement is the duty and joy. I am
overwhelmed in all humbleness and gratefulness to acknowledge my depth to all those who
have helped me to put these ideas, well above the level of simplicity and into something
concrete effectively and moreover on time.
My first obligation, irredeemable by the verbal expression, is to my subject teacher Dr. Asha
Verma, which has given me her valuable help in a myriad way from the start to till the end. I
thank her for her support, with which I was able to perform this project work.
I would like to extend my thanks to my parents for their encouragement and selfless support,
given to me at critical junctures during the making to this project. They lent their valuable
suggestions, guidance and encouragement whenever I needed a helping hand.
Last but not the least, I would like to thank my friends who helped a lot in gathering different
information, collecting data and guiding each other from time to time in making this project.
They have been very kind and patient while suggesting me the outlines of the project.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Pg No.
TITLE
Introduction 4
Characteristics Of The Bonded Labour System 7
Fact Summary Of The Case Law 9
Initiatives Of The National Human Rights Commission
10
Bonded Labour In India
12
Analysis: Forced Labour And Policy Options
15
The Reality
17
Conclusion
19
Bibliography
20
INTRODUCTION
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Bonded labour - or debt bondage - is perhaps the smallest amount known sort of slavery
today, and yet it's the foremost widely used method of enslaving people. an individual
becomes a bonded labourer when their labour is demanded as a way of repayment for a loan.
The person is then tricked or trapped into working for little or no or no pay. Bonded Labour
as defined under the Bonded Labour (Abolition) Act, 1976 may be a system of forced or
partly forced labour in pursuance of an agreement by the debtor with the creditor (Bonded
Labour (Abolition) Act, 1976, u/s 2(g)):
i) For service without wages or with wages but the market wage normally purchased an
equivalent or similar labour within the locality
ii) Forfeiting the liberty of other livelihood for a specified or an unspecified period
iii) Forfeiting the liberty to movement throughout the territory of India
iv) Forfeiting the proper to appropriate or sell property or labour or outcome of the
merchandise of labour at market price. The said agreement is entered into for one or more of
the subsequent reasons: a) As a consideration of an advance obtained by him or by any of his
lineal ascendants or descendants (whether or not such advance is evidenced by any
document) and in consideration of the interest, if any, due on such advance, or
b) As a customary or social obligation, or
c) As an obligation devolving on him by succession, or
d) As a consideration for any economic consideration received by him or by any of his lineal
ascendants or descendants, or
e) By reason of his birth in any particular caste or community. Bonded labour is prohibited in
India by law vide Articles 21 and 23 of the Constitution. a selected law to ban the practice
was legislated only in 1976 referred to as the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act.
With the commencement of the Act the subsequent consequences followed: bonded labourers
stand freed and discharged from any obligation to render to bonded labour. All customs,
traditions, contracts, agreements or instruments by virtue of which an individual or any
member of family hooked in to such person is required to render bonded labour shall be void.
Every obligation of bonded labourer to repay any bonded debt shall be deemed to possess
been extinguished. No suit or the other proceeding shall dwell any Civil Court or the other
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authority for recovery of any bonded debt. Despite the statutory prohibition, bonded labour is
widely practiced. The worst affected are the youngsters and ladies particularly those from the
Dalit community. The legal framework against bonded labour provided within the Bonded
Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976 is supported by other legislations just like the Contract
Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970; the Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation
of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979; the Minimum Wages Act, 1948.
Bonded labour within the farming sector is usually thanks to caste based prejudices practiced
against the Dalit communities and thanks to the absence of a correct reform policy. Instead to
finish the practice, what's required is strict implementation of labour laws in India. aside from
this, the government should dovetail the Centrally Sponsored Scheme for rehabilitation of
bonded labourers with other ongoing poverty alleviation schemes like Swarna Jyanti Gram
Swaraj Rozgar Yojana (SJGSRY), Special Component Plan for Scheduled Castes, Tribal Sub
Plans, etc. 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 strategies to eliminate
bonded labour got to transcend the symptoms to deal with the basis causes. The multifaceted
and deeply rooted nature of these causes requires an integrated and future strategy.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:
The researcher has used doctrinal method in her research, that is, extensive use of literary
sources and materials. The researcher mainly uses secondary sources to supply substance to
the research analysis. The researcher has also put down immense effort so as to know the
terms and ideas associated with the topic which enriched the study to an excellent extent. In
some cases, the researcher shall be sure to extract materials directly from the literary
composition of certain authors which the researcher shall adequately cite and notify in due
course of your time. Doctrinal research or traditional research involves analysis of case laws,
arranging, ordering and systematizing legal prepositions and study of legal institutions, but it
does more, it creates law and its major tools through legal reasoning or rational deductions.
within the opinion of Boomin, this type of research represents more a practical regulative
ideal of how the judicial process need to be conceived by the judiciary than a theoretical
analysis of its actual structure and functioning.
RESEARCH PROBLEM
1. What are the conditions of migrant bonded labourers in India?
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2. What are the varied Social Security schemes associated with them?
HYPOTHESIS
1. There are tons of social schemes associated with migrant bonded labourers which aren't
properly implemented.
SOURCES OF DATA
: The following sources of knowledge are utilized in the completion of this project: *
Secondary Sources: Articles, Books, Websites.
SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS
: Though are often and this is often an immense project and pages can be written over the
subject, but because monetary and time concerns I couldn't affect the subject in greater detail.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BONDED LABOUR SYSTEM
Bonded labour in India is characterised by certain distinct and unique features:
i) It's an indicator of traditional social relations - A sketch of bonded labourers on the factor
of caste indicates the system as a vestige of social relations since the bulk of the bonded
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labourers are either Dalits or Tribals as compared to the members of the opposite social
categories. So in pursuance of any customary or social obligation or by reason of being born
in any particular caste or community, an individual may become a labour of service to the
creditor for a specified or unspecified period of your time, either with or without wages or for
nominal wages.1
ii) Debt as a task player - The pivotal role player in bonded labour is played by debt because
it facilitates the creditor/owner to stay the debtors/workers in captivity. Since complete
repayment of cash borrowed to satisfy daily (For the bulk of rural population who earn a
living through agriculture, finding a daily employment (due to non payment of proper wages
and drought) is impossible resulting in critical poverty thus, making them susceptible to fall
into the grip of the controlling rural elite) or exceptional emergency expenses cannot always
be materialized, the debtor agrees to repay the debt through the labour of either himself or
any of his relations thus paving way for the enslavement to start . A deeper understanding of
the socio economic realities of the agricultural India depict that the control over land and
every one its produce lies with the 5 elite upper caste leaving minimal for the dregs. A
member of the lower caste would haven't any alternative than working for the controlling
elite (Malik) leaving it quite natural for them to incur debts (Kamiauti). When an individual
incurs a debt, he needn't always find yourself being a bonded labourer, instead he would
mortgage the labour any or all of his relations in lieu of the incurred debt. Also quite one
member of the family could incur debts from an equivalent creditor thus resulting in the
whole family working for him. this might run generations together and become an inherited
family debt. Inevitably such a phenomenon results in child labour or prostitution too. as an
example, the Chukri System of West Bengal where the lady of the family is forced into
illegal flesh trade order to pay off the debts she incurred. She works without buy a year or for
a more longer period without pay till the debt to the brothel owner (money given to satisfy
the expenses of food, apparel, structure amongst others), in other words remains enslaved to
her creditor.2
iii) Livelihood - The primary effect of debt bondage is that the complete inability of the
worker to amass minimum capital. thanks to the unsettled debt his negotiating power is
nearly non-existent and therefore the remuneration that he receives remains bare minimum
which might lead him to be completely ensnared within the vicious circle over a period of
1
C. L. Katial, “Social Security in India,” India in 1951, India Information Services, 1952.
2
Dreze, Jean and Amartya Sen. 2002. “Democratic Practice and Social Inequality in India.” Journal of Asian
and African Studies 37(2): 6-37.
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your time. Working times, freedom of movement also as work atmosphere and conditions
would become extremely taxing leaving him and his family completely hapless with no hope
of freedom. One would at the juncture understand that the excellence between bonded labour
and made labour is inversely proportional to the debt amount and becomes blurred with the
farcical increase of the debt amount.3
FACT SUMMARY
The plight of migrant bonded labourers from the State of Tamil Nadu, who were being
subjected to exploitation within the State of Madhya Pradesh, was originally delivered to the
notice of the Supreme Court (SC) through this petition. Later the scope of the petition was
3
International Standard Classification of Occupations, ISCO-08 (Geneva). 2012
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expanded so on cover the issues concerning the bonded labourers altogether States and Union
Territories within the country. The SC vide Order dated 11-5-1997 asked the National Human
Rights Commission (NHRC) to require over the monitoring of the implementation of the
directions of the SC which of the provisions of the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act,
1976 (the Act). An Action-taken-Report filed by the NHRC was considered by the Court.
After browsing the detailed report of the Expert Group, responses thereto by the govt which
of the friend of the court, and therefore the various Affidavits on record, the SC received the
conclusion that the main issue that's to be solved is that the aspects concerning rehabilitation
of bonded labourers. Once the bonded labourers are identified and released, they need to be
rehabilitated forthwith. The SC stated that it had been a reality that the rehabilitation and
related aspects of bonded labourers wasn't given adequate consideration till now. Considering
the vitality of rehabilitation issue within the endeavour to abolish bonded labour the SC
issued inter alia the subsequent directions to all or any States and Union Territories:
* - Submit their status report within the form prescribed by NHRC every six months.
* - Constitute Vigilance Committees at the District and Sub-Divisional levels in accordance
with Section 13 of the Bonded Labour Act, within a period of six months the date of the
order.
* - Make proper arrangements for rehabilitating released bonded labourers on land-based
basis or non-land basis or skilled/craft based basis depending upon the selection of bonded
labour and his/her inclination and past experience. Philanthropic organizations or NGOs
could also be identified with proven diary and good reputation with basic facilities for such
rehabilitation.
* - Sensitize the District Magistrate and other statutory authorities/committees in respect of
their duties under the Bonded Labour Act.
INITIATIVES OF THE NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION
The Supreme Court within the Writ Petition (No. 3922/1985)
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Public Union for Civil Liberties Vs State of Tamil Nadu & Others - requested the NHRC in
1997 to urge involved within the monitoring of the implementation of the Bonded Labour
System (Abolition) Act, 1976. Since then, the NHRC has been that specialize in States where
bonded labour is prevalent. During 2011, it took stock of things and therefore the following
charter of activities are haunted by the Commission on the difficulty of Bonded Labour:
1. Constitution of core on Bonded Labour: A Core Group on Bonded Labour has been
constituted by the Commission who will advise in chalking out and suggesting strategies to
the State/Central Government for elimination of bonded labour within the country. The last
meeting of the core happened on 10/1/2012. 4
2. Organized a National Level Seminar: The Commission organized a National level Seminar
on elimination of bonded labour system on 30/9/2011 at IIC, New Delhi. The Officers from
State Government/UTs participated within the seminar.
3. Workshops conducted in Bonded Labour prone States: The Commission altogether has
organized five Workshops on Elimination of Bonded and Child Labour system. These are
organized together with the State Governments to sensitize District Magistrates, Sub
Divisional Magistrates, SSPs and officers from the Labour Department. These Workshops
were held at Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
4. NHRC team to hold out surprise visits to bonded labour prone areas: Teams are
constituted in NHRC to hold out surprise visits to bonded labour prone areas. The team
consists of officers from the Investigation and Law Divisions of the Commission. Recently,
one team conducted a surprise visit in Ghaziabad, Bhagpat, Meerut and Bulandshahar
Districts of Uttar Pradesh, thanks to off season at brick-kilns, no workers were found.5
5. Development of an instructional manual on Bonded Labour: As of now, the Commission
has brought out a booklet under the Know Your rights series on Bonded Labour which is
being disseminated to all or any concerned.
6. Revised format for Monitoring of Bonded Labour in States: A new format has been
devised for compiling bi-annually status from States/UTs regarding identification, release and
rehabilitation of bonded labourers. However, most the States/UTs are sending the knowledge
4
Breman, Jan. 2007. Labour Bondage in West India: From Past to Present. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
5
Ibid
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in old format only. This issue is being haunted with the Chief Secretaries of the State
Governments to send the knowledge as per the revised format.
7. Review existing schemes of the Central and State Governments on Bonded Labour: The
Commission has haunted the difficulty with the Ministry of Labour and Employment. it's
conveyed that they need adopted an integrated convergence based approach to stop bonded
labour with the assistance of ILO. 6 Recently, Justice Shri B.C. Patel held a gathering with the
Director General within the Ministry of Labour & Employment to debate increase within the
rehabilitation grant under the centrally sponsored scheme.
8. Recommendation to government for organizing orientation training programme in each
bonded labour prone district: The Commission has written to all or any the Chief Secretaries
of the government /UTs for organizing orientation training programmes for DMs/DSMs/SSPs
and also for the sector functionaries of labour enforcement.
9. Recommending States to constitute a State Level Monitoring and Coordination
Committees under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary with Secretaries to Government of
varied departments as Members. The committee also will convene meetings to require stock
of bonded labour situation in their States and can apprise the Commission every six months.
BONDED LABOUR IN INDIA
Bonded labour, which is characterized by a long-term relationship between employer and
employee, is typically solidified through a loan, and is embedded intricately in India’s socio-
6
International Labour Organization. 2005. A Global Alliance Against Forced Labour. In International Labour
Conference 93rd Session. Geneva: ILO. http://www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/relm/ilc/ilc93/pdf/rep-i-
b.pdf.
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economic culture- a culture that's a product of sophistication relations, a colonial history, and
protracted poverty among many voters. Also referred to as debt bondage, bonded labour may
be a specific sort of forced labour during which compulsion into servitude springs from debt.
Categorized and examined within the scholarly literature as a kind of forced labour, bonded
labour entails constraints on the conditions and duration of labor by a private. Not all bonded
labour is forced, but most forced labour practices, whether or not they involve children or
adults, are of a bonded nature. 7
Bonded labour is most prevalent in rural areas where the agricultural industry relies on
contracted, often migrant labourers. However, urban areas also provide fertile ground for
long-term bondage. Characterized by a creditor-debtor relationship that a labourer often
passes on to his relations, bonded labour is usually of an indefinite duration and involves
illegal contractual stipulations. Contracts deny a private the essential right to settle on his or
her employer, or to barter the terms of his or her contract. Bonded labour contracts aren't
purely economic; in India, they're reinforced by custom or coercion in many sectors like the
agricultural, silk, mining, match production, and brick kiln industries, among others. 8
Researchers of bonded labour in India seek to know its long-standing practices through an
examination of up to date sorts of labour coercion, their origins and relationships to poverty
and inequality, and implications for policymaking. Child labour, agricultural debt bondage,
and bonded migrant labour are persistent sorts of modern slavery that fall into the Indian
constitutional definition of forced labour. While child labour and bonded labour in India are
typically addressed separately within the literature, many researchers specialise in the causes
and consequences of pervasive child labour within the world’s largest democracy. Child
labourers face major health and physical risks: they work long hours and are required to
perform tasks that they're physically and developmentally unprepared. Child labour is deeply
entrenched as a standard practice in many sectors and states, due partially to India’s
economic emphasis on exports in recent years. consistent with a current estimate, 1 / 4 of
Indian children ages six to fourteen - roughly 2 hundred million childrens are working, and a
3rd of the remaining seventy-five percent are bonded labourers. The most important single
employer of youngsters in India is that the agricultural sector where an estimated twenty-five
million children are employed; and therefore the second largest employer of Indian children
7
Bardhan, Pranab K. 1983. “Labor-Tying in a Poor Agrarian Economy: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis.”
The Quarterly Journal of Economics 98(3): 501-514.
8
http://www.ituc-csi.org/IMG/pdf/India_report_final.pdf
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is that the service sector where children add hotels and as household maids. a further five
million Indian children are employed in other labour-intensive industries.9
ORIGINS AND CAUSES OF INDIA’S BONDED LABOUR PROBLEM
Bonded labour stems from a spread of causes, which are highly debated within the literature:
an ingrained legacy of caste-based discrimination, vast poverty and inequality, an inadequate
education system, unjust social relations, and therefore the government’s unwillingness to
change the established order all exemplify a couple of such causes. Additionally, India’s
colonial background and class structure have made it difficult to delineate the history of
labourers unfreedom, as termed by several authors, and to know legal and actual
differentiations between slavery under British rule and debt bondage and child labour today.
There are many cultural reasons for the persistence of kid labour in India. 10 An expectation
that children should contribute to the socioeconomic survival of the family and community,
also because the existence of huge families, land scarcity, and inadequate enforcement of
labour laws are contributing factors to the present problem. In urban areas, following the
migration of families to overpopulated cities, the disintegration of such families thanks to
alcoholism and unemployment often leads to a proliferation of youngsters living on the road,
becoming labourers, and getting into prostitution.
LEGAL RESTRICTIONS AND ENFORCEMENT
The domestic legal treatment of individual labour rights, which are clearly articulated but
seldom enforced, reflects India’s blurry history with slavery. Article 23 of the 1949
Constitution of India outlaws both the trafficking of citizenry and made labour, but the
legislation defining and banning bonded labour was only approved by Parliament in 1976.
The Bonded Labour System Abolition Act of 1976 stipulates that the monitoring of labour
violations and their enforcement are responsibilities of state governments. The Indian
government has demonstrated a severe lack of will to implement this ban on bonded labour.
Such pervasive non-enforcement could also be attributed to many factors, including
government apathy, caste bias, corruption, a scarcity of accountability, and inadequate
9
Majumdar, Manabi. 2001. “Child Labour as a Human Security Problem: Evidence from India.” Oxford
Development Studies 29(3): 279-304.
10
Khan, Ali. 2001. “The Dignity of Labor.” Columbia Human Rights Law Review 32(2): 289-382.
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enforcement personnel. The Supreme Court of India has interpreted bonded labour because
the payment of wages that are below the prevailing market wage or the legal wage.11 As a
response to complaints of human rights violations, the Court relies on Public Interest Law
(PIL) whereby citizens are ready to petition India’s courts if they believe their rights, or the
rights of their fellow citizens, are being denied. The Supreme Court’s two major
examinations of kid labour in 1991 and 1997 resulted in PIL rulings that emphasized the role
of poverty, and promoted children’s education. However, the Court refused to ban child
labour outright, citing its role as a judicial and not a legislative body. The Indian government
has not yet actively linked economic development to human rights violations at work. A
recent government measure to boost the wage for youngsters exemplifies a lagging
commitment to the eradication of kid labour especially, by essentially legitimizing children’s
work obligations and conditions. Nevertheless, the choice of the Supreme Court to determine
a rehabilitation and welfare program for working children, additionally to the efforts of the
National Human Rights Commission, are instrumental in sensitizing policymakers to the
intense problem of kid labour.12
ANALYSIS: FORCED LABOUR AND POLICY OPTIONS
Interpretations of bonded child labour as an ingrained consequence of poverty, an
impediment to genuine democracy and development, and a caste-based practice reinforced by
11
http://jlsr.thelawbrigade.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Indranali-Sen.pdf
12
Pandhe, M.K., ed. 1979. Child Labour in India: Indian Institute for Regional Development Studies.
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deep-seated biases, inform the range of policy recommendations. The challenge of effective
policy design echoes the paradox of India’s steady rise as an economic and technological
powerhouse, despite the persistence of poverty and underdevelopment. Development and
human rights-minded analyses of kid labour as an economic phenomenon dominate the
literature concerned with policy solutions.
Economic-based research on bonded labour in India centres on the links between fertility,
poverty, and access to education, while bearing in mind the policy options available to the
government. The struggle emerges within the debate which receives limited official policy
attention over whether to enforce the ban on child labour, plan to curb it, or maintain the
established order. Economists attribute the persistence of bonded labour and child labour to a
spread of factors: long-standing caste-based discrimination, inequality, a scarcity of
educational opportunities, high fertility levels among poor Indians overall, to poverty as a
self-reinforcing cycle. Others challenge the position that child labour are going to be
eradicated after poverty has been eliminated. As labour is the engine of the country’s
increasing technological sophistication and growth driving India toward a more equitable
future, the state may gradually move faraway from its traditional roots and move within the
direction of ensuring human rights protections for all citizens.13
Some analysts argue that poverty alleviation is that the government’s most promising
approach to the eradication of bonded child labour, given the self-perpetuating patterns of
illiteracy, inferior or non-existent education, and children’s prevalent work participation.
Welfare programs and therefore the provision of incentives for families to not send their
children to figure are components of suggested strategies to fight child labour. Other
researchers afflict the notion that the link between poverty and child labour is inevitable; their
approach highlights the human security’s approach to economic and social development,
during which case ensuring the rights of the kid may be a social and state responsibility. The
case for compulsory primary education, made prolifically by Myron Weiner, suggests that
change must come from within the Indian legal framework, and must be supported by official
attitudes, so as to beat profound class divisions and to realize the government’s broader free-
market goals. Efforts to form primary education compulsory would require an interpretation
of education as not only a constitutional principle, but also as a fundamental right enforced by
the state. this attitude views education because the main alternative to lifelong labour for all
13
Kanbargi, Ramesh and P.M. Kulkarni. 1991. “Child Work, Schooling and Fertility in Rural Karnataka, India.”
In Child Labour in the Indian Subcontinent: Dimensions and Implications, edited by R. Kanbargi. Delhi: Sage
Publications India.
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Indians, and as a building block within the construction of a various, educated human
resource base capable of supporting a more open and competitive economy. Exploitation of
youngsters working in dangerous conditions not only leads to constraints on a child’s health
and development, but also solidifies his or her fate as an unskilled, low-paid worker. A
greater specialise in female education would precipitate a decline in both fertility being seen
as a self-reinforcing cause and effect of kid labour’s and in children’s work participation. The
debate amongst analysts of the economics of forced labour, particularly of bonded working
children, revolves around whether work are often eradicated completely or whether current
labour conditions in India are acceptable given the economic demands of
underdevelopment.14 The suggestion has also been posited that learn and earn policies, which
combine work and faculty, could also be feasible. For the foremost part, the govt fails to
enforce extant laws. Whether child labour should and may be completely outlawed and
therefore the ban enforced, or whether the financial system in India can realistically leave all
children to attend school, have remained at the crux of the talk for a few time.
THE REALITY
The Bonded Labour Abolition Act, 1976 is undoubtedly a really comprehensive law because
it provides for freedom of bonded labourers, re empower them and at an equivalent time
provides for prosecution of offenders. the maximum amount promising and effective the Act
appears to be, the truth doesn't shine bright. On a general note, this celebrated legislation has
created a framework for elimination of bonded labour, but the Supreme Court of India
14
http://ncib.in/pdf/ncib_pdf/Labour%20Act.pdf
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(Bandhua Mukti Morcha v Union of India, 1984, Neerja Chaudhary v State of Madhya
Pradesh, 1984, P. Sivaswamy v State of Andhra Pradesh , 1988, T. Chakkalackal v State of
Bihar and Ors, 1993, People’s Union for Civil Liberties and Ors v State of Tamil Nadu and
Ors 1994(interim order),2004 & 2013 and therefore the National Human Rights Commission
(National Human Rights Commission, Annual Report 1999 - 2000) have time and again
stated clearly that the implementation of this legislation by the States has been unsuccessful.
1. Non recognition of newer sorts of bonded labour
The Bonded Labour Abolition Act 1976 including its amendment in 1985 stills covers the
normal sorts of bonded labour existing within the feudal agricultural system of India thus
remaining faraway from reality. India now has evolved neo-bondage mechanisms which
are devised so on remain outside the ambit of the Act. Neo bondage mechanism or
attached labour has stark differences as compared to traditional bondage mechanisms like
its time bound nature and absence of coercion. The attached labour system is predicated
on a contract that's concluded through a mutual intermediary. It provides mutual
advantage of the employer and therefore the labourer unlike the bonded labour which was
focused only on advantage of the employer. Moreover, it's time bound and therefore the
refore the labourer is liberal to work elsewhere after giving due priority to his present
employer and the wages are at par with the prevalent wages for an equivalent category of
labor within the area. there's wage advance which ensures income security and isn't
considered as a debt because the labourer isn't able to work until he's paid an advance.
Thus in these cases neither party treats the labour done as bonded and remains
complacent with the conditions.
2. Non availability of definitive figure of bonded labourers
The main impediments to the successful implementation of the legislation are then on
availability of definitive figure of bonded labourers and non co-operation on the part of State
Governments. it's quite shocking to understand that the majority of the states in India have
absolutely denied the existence of bonded labour within its jurisdiction. the required
consequence of this is often the non - conducting of periodic surveys. This has made it
impossible to reach a definitive figure and thus understand the magnitude of things. the
primary alternative national level survey was administered by the Gandhi Peace Foundation
in association with the V.V.Giri National Institute in 1978-79 and has been criticized for the
non scientific methodology adopted as a results of which its findings weren't acceptable to
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the govt . The states which acknowledged the presence of bonded labour showed initial
enthusiasm in identification of bonded labourers which, bogged down over a period of your
time and therefore the net result's that the available figure relates to at least one time effort
only.
3. Judicial Intervention
Despite the intervention by judiciary the State governments have exhibited a severe
absence of will in complying with the wants of the Act. The Supreme Court had entrusted
the National Human Rights Commission the responsibility to watch the implementation
of the Act vide order dated 11.05.1997 in pursuance of which an Expert Group was
constituted by the NHRC which submitted the Action Taken report back to the Supreme
Court on 06.06.2001. Following this, the apex court in (PUCL v State of Tamil Nadu and
Ors 2004) gave express direction that each one states and union territories should submit
the NHRC prescribed status report on bonded labour within six months. The submitted
reports by States were hardly unsatisfactory and had to be returned for clarification and
extra information. The National Human Rights Commission has time and again clarified
that the approach of the states towards implementation of the legislation remains hardly
satisfactory. It clearly states that despite financial assistance of an amount of two lacs per
district every three years to conduct surveys, it's been done only in few selected areas of
states which have actually conducted the survey.15 Moreover there are cases where the
reported cases of bonded labour are dropped by the district state officials without proper
reasons (Public Union for Civil Liberties and Ors v State of Tamil Nadu and Ors 2013).
CONCLUSION
Over the previous couple of decades the whole world has been hospitable globalization
and liberalization and become economically empowered. India as an emerging global
power also paces forward in its economic process within the hope of gaining recognition
Weiner, Myron. 1996. “Child Labour in India: Putting Compulsory Primary Education on the Political
15
Agenda.” Economic and Political Weekly.
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amongst the worldwide powerful. during this journey, it's still facing hindrances within
the social and economic problems like bonded labour which the authorities prefer to
cover instead of tackle. The much acclaimed transformation that the country has made has
did not promote changes during this matter. Bonded labour has sustained of these changes
undergone by the country due to its hierarchical division of the social organization
including persistent poverty which has consciously or unconsciously made the people of
India remain attuned to the present evil hook line and sinker it. Additionally to the
present, the shameful active or passive connivance of the implementing authorities and
therefore the Governments has led to the failure of the legislation enacted to deal with the
matter. Thus it's going to safely be said the short term dream of eradicating the evil of
bonded labour is indeed distant. India as an emerging global power must not be forgetful
of the very fact that as long because the most vulnerable population is permitted to be
severely and fiercely exploited economically; she is going to be deficient of the moral
authority to act on the worldwide front.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books Referred
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Saharay H.K. (Dr.), Textbook on Labour and Industrial Law, 5th Edition 2011,
Universal Law Publishing Co. Ltd.
Misra Surya Narayan, Labour and Industrial Laws, 24th Edition 2008, Central Law
Publications
Goswami V.G. (Dr.), Labour and Industrial Laws, 8th edition 2004, Central Law
Agency.
The Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970’; Universal Law
Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, 2011.
Pai GB, Labour Law in India, Volume-I, Butterworths India
Pai GB, Labour Law in India, Volume-II, Butterworths India
Padhi P.K., Labour and Industrial Laws, 2nd Edition, PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd.
Websites
http://www.legalserviceindia.com/article/l12-A-Study-of-Contract-Labour-
(Regulation-and-Abolition)-Act,-1970.html
http://jlsr.thelawbrigade.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Indranali-Sen.pdf
http://aioe.in/html/IndustrialRelations.pdf
http://ncib.in/pdf/ncib_pdf/Labour%20Act.pdf
