Structure:

Its Direct question-

1. What is bonded labour: 30-40 words ( if you know fact mention its prevalence in Karnataka)
2. Measures taken by government (100-120 words)

Content:

Bonded labour

• The 1976 Bonded Labour (Abolition) Act defines ‘bonded labour system’ as “the system of forced labour under which a debtor enters into an agreement with the creditor that he would render service to him either by himself or through any member of his family or any person dependent on him, for a specified or unspecified period, either without wages or for nominal wages, in consideration of loan or any other economic consideration obtained by him or any of his ascendants, or in pursuance of any social obligation, or in pursuance of any obligation devolving on him by succession”.
• The term ‘bonded labour’ has been defined by the National Commission on Labour as “labour which remains in bondage for a specific period for the debt incurred”.
• The Commissioner for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes explained the term bonded labour in its 24th report as “persons who are forced to work for the creditors for the loan incurred either without wage or on nominal wage”.
• Advantages of employing bonded labour
  • Labour is engaged at a lower cost,
  • The employers have not to extend fringe benefits to the workers, and
  • The employers are not under any obligation of providing welfare and security measures to the workers as stipulated in various Acts. The system of contract labour in our country was abolished in September 1970 by an Act called ‘Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act’.
• The two basic features of bonded labour are indebtedness and forced labour. Forced labour can hereditarily descend from father to son or be passed on for  generations together. During the period of bondage, the debtor cannot seek employment with any other person. In economic terms, this means that he cannot ‘sell his labour in the market at market value’.
• The bonded labour system is mostly found among agricultural labourers in villages, though today it has extended to workers working in stone quarries, brick kilns, bidi factories, glass factories and in detergent carpet, gem stones and many other
• Bonded labourers are known by different names in different parts of India. For example, in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka they are known as ‘Jeethams’, in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh as ‘Halts’, in Bastar district in Madhya Pradesh as ‘Kabadis’, in Hyderabad as ‘Bhagela’, in Rajasthan as ‘Saggris’, in Bihar as ‘Kamias’ or ‘Kamiantis’, in Orissa as ‘Gothees’, in Tamil Nadu as ‘Pandiyals’, in Kerala as ‘Adiyas’, ‘Paniyas’, and ‘Kattunaikens’, and in Uttar Pradesh as ‘Koltas’.

Causes of Bonded Labour:

• Though the main causes of origin, growth and perpetuation of bonded labour system are economic, the social and religious factors to support the custom
• The economic causes include: extreme poverty of people, inability to find work for livelihood, inadequate size of the landholdings to support family, lack of alternative small-scale loans for the rural and urban poor, natural calamities like drought, floods etc., destruction of men ‘ animals, absence of rains, drying away of wells, meagre income from forest produce, and inflation and constant rising prices.
• The social factors include: High expenses on occasions like marriage, death, feast, birth of a child, etc., leading to heavy debts, caste-based discrimination, lack of concrete social welfare schemes to safeguard against hunger and illness, non- compulsory and unequal educational system, and indifference and corruption among government officials
• Sometimes, exploitation by some persons in a village also compels people to migrate to some other place and seek not only employment on the employer’s conditions but also get protection from influential persons. Religious arguments are used to convince the people of low castes that religion enjoins upon them to serve people of high castes. Illiteracy, ignorance, immaturity and lack of skill and professional training sustain such beliefs. Broadly speaking, it may be maintained that bondage originates mainly from economic and social pressures.

Measure taken

• Article 23 of constitution - prohibited ‘traffic in human beings’, ‘beggar’ and other similar forms of forced labor
• The Forced Labour (Abolition) Convention adopted by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in 1919 was ratified by India only in November 1954
• Some states in India had also enacted laws for abolishing bonded labour For example, the Bihar Kamianti Act was passed in 1920, the Madras Agency Debt Bondage Regulation in 1940, Kabadi System Regulation in Bastar in Madhya Pradesh in 1943, Hyderabad Bhagela Agreement Regulation in 1943, Orissa Debt Bonded Abolition Regulation in 1948, Rajasthan Sagri System Abolition Act in 1961 (which was amended in 1975), and Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, Kerala in 1975
• The Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act
• The Act implies:
  • Identification of bonded labourers;
  • Release of bonded labourers;
  • Action against offenders, e., creditors who had forced agreement upon the debtors;
  • Holding of regular meetings of vigilance committees at the district and tehsil level;
  • Maintenance of the prescribed registers; and
  • Conferring of judicial powers to executive magistrates
• The Act also provides for the rehabilitation of bonded labourers who are freed from their creditors
• The 1976 Act was amended in 1985 in which it was clarified that the contract workers and inter-state migrant workers, if they fulfill the conditions laid down in the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, will be considered as bonded labour

Issues with act

• The main problem that is faced in the implementation of the 1976 Act is the identification of bonded labourers
• Neither the administrators at the district and tehsil levels admit the existence of bonded labourers in their areas nor do the creditors accept that any bonded workers are serving them, nor are the workers themselves willing to give statements that they are being forced to work as bonded labourers since long
• It is the social workers attached to non-political social action groups and voluntary organisations who identify the bonded labor
• The other handicap which aggravates the problem is the economic rehabilitation of the released labourers. The economic rehabilitation includes: finding jobs for them, getting them minimum wages, giving them training in arts and crafts, allotment of agricultural land, helping them in developing the allotted land, helping them in the processing of forest produce, educating them and their children, arranging for their medical care,
• All these are Herculean tasks. Besides ensuring economic rehabilitation, the state governments are also expected to arrange for their psychological rehabilitation and integration of various schemes of central and state governments. In chalking out plans and strategies of rehabilitation, the freed labourers are to be given the choice between various alternatives (Sharma, 1990:54).
• It is estimated that there are about 32 lakh bonded labourers in Of these, 98 per cent are said to be bonded due to indebtedness and 2 per cent due to customary social obligations. The highest number is believed to exist in three states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, followed by Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.