LAW AND POVERTY

BONDED LABOUR

Submitted by-
MOHD WASIF
ROLL NO. 37
B.A.LL.B(Hons.)
Regular
4th semester
2018
 Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ....................................................... 2
INTRODUCTION .................................................................. 3
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BONDED LABOUR AND
CONTRACT LABOUR .......................................................... 4
ORIGIN OF BONDED LABOUR SYSTEM ........................... 5
THE BONDED LABOUR SYSTEM (ABOLITION) ACT,
1976 ....................................................................................... 5
Misery and Suffering in Bondage………………………………7

CONCLUSION ...................................................................... 9
BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................. 10
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First of all I would like to thanks my subject professor Mr. Rasheed CA for giving
me such an assignment to prepare, which helped me to get knowledge on the
bonded labour, how it prevailed in our country and what the measures are carbed
by government to extinct it. I would also like thanks my family and friends who
helped me a lot by giving different creative ideas.

THANKING YOU
 INTRODUCTION
Bonded labour is a system in which a person provides labour in order to pay off
debts. The term ‘bonded labour’ or bandhua mazdoor is of recent origin. It is
konwns as debt bondage or debt slavery. It refers to “the relationship between a
creditor and a debtor who obtains loan owing to economic compulsions
confronting his day-to-day life, and agrees to abide by the terms dictated by the
creditor”. Despite the abolition of the zamindari system, land reforms, bhoodan
movement enactment of legislation, establishment of panchayat raj, interest shown
by social action groups and spirited individuals from society, lakhs of bonded
laborers continue to be exploited and carry the knot of neglect, suffering and
frustration in silence.

The important aspect of agreement is that the debtor accepts to mortgage his
services or services of any or all the members of his family for a specified or
unspecified time period. The relationship built by the agreement is of such unequal
terms and conditions that while for every labour or service, there must be some fair
remuneration equivalent to the price of labour in the market, under the bonded
labour system the service which is rendered is for the debt or in lieu of the interest
accruing to the debt. The debtor either works without receiving any remuneration
or if there is any remuneration, it is much less than the minimum wage or the
prevailing rate of market wage.

The term ‘bonded labour’ has been defined by the National Commission for
Labour as “labour which remains in bondage for a specific period for the debt
incurred”. The Commission 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”.
 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BONDED LABOUR AND
CONTRACT LABOUR

The ‘bonded labour’ is different from ‘contract labour’ employed in industries,

mines, plantations and docks, etc. Contract labour refers to people who are
employed on a fixed terms of contract. The contract may be fixed in terms of time,
so that the employee knows that they will for instance have a job for, say, six
months. It could also be fixed in terms of a particular project or object so that the
employee knows that they are employed for the completion of a named project and
that when it has been finished, the employment relationship will comes to an end.
The employment relationship could also be seasonal, for instance in agriculture,
some employees know that they will be employed only for named seasons.
Whatever may be the nature of the contract work, the employee gets paid for
rendering the service. The term ‘contract labour’ has however acquired
significance as well. Some employers who don’t want to deal with issues of labour
relations may source workers from a specialized agency. The workers have no
relationship with the person they actually work for, that is there exists no relation
of employer and employee among them, and can as such therefore have no labour
dispute with them. There’s a triangular relationship between the company, the
agency, and the workers, in which the workers interface with the company only for
the purpose of doing job. The company pays the agency and the agency pays to the
workers. In South Africa this sort of arrangement has given rise to serious labour
disputes since the worker often did not know who their true employer is.

Contract labour includes workers who are indirectly recruited by the establishment,
whose names do not appear on the pay-roll and who are not paid wages directly by
the employer. In theory, contract labourers in India are covered by the Factory Act,
1948, the Mines Act, 1952, the Plantations Labour Act, 1951 and the Dock
Workers Act, 1948 so as to give them benefits as admissible to labour directly
employed. Bonded labour, on the other hand, is where one person owes another,
and there is no hope of employee ever being able to repay the debt. The debtor then
enters into a relationship in which they works for the creditor in lieu of paying off
the debt. The exact nature of work for which they may be called upon to perform
may or may not be defined. The timeframe for rendering the service may or may
not be defined. In some places bonded labour is also called debt slavery.

ORIGIN OF BONDED LABOUR SYSTEM

In India, bonded labour system finds its genesis in country’s peculiar socio-
economic culture. Like other various social evil practises prevailing in India,
bonded labour is also an off-shoot of our Caste system. Mainly, it is person
belonging to the higher castes such as Rajpoot and Brahmins who are the
exploiters and person belonging to the so lower castes such as Sudras who are the
exploited.

Due to their weak economic and social conditions within the society, the SC/STs,
dalits are forced to sell their labours for nominal or no remuneration to the village
landlord or moneylenders. It is a practice continuing from ancient times and is still
prevalent in some parts of the country. Furthermore, lack of livelihood options,
large families, poor education level and lack of awareness among them make their
condition worse. Sometimes force or coercion is also used by powerful landlords to
make bonded labor contracts.

THE BONDED LABOUR SYSTEM (ABOLITION) ACT, 1976

The bonded labour system act, 1976 has been passed to provide for abolition of
bonded labour system with a view preventing the economic and physical
exploitation of the weaker section of the people and matter for connected therewith
or incidental thereto. It was stated in the objects and reason of the acts that there
still exists in different part of the country a system of usuary under which the
debtor or his decedents or dependent have to work for the creditor without
reasonable wages or with no wage in order to extinguish the debt. At times several
generation work under bondage for the repayment of a paltry sum which has taken
by some remote ancestors. The interest rates are exorbitant and such bondage
cannot be interpreted as the result of any legitimate contract or agreement. The
system implies the infringement of the basic human right and destruction of dignity
of human labour.

Article 23(1) of the Indian constitution prohibits ‘begar’ and other similar forms of
forced labour. It also provides that any contravention of the said prohibition shall
be an offence punishable in accordance with law. Article 35 (a)(ii) of the
constitution not only confer the power on parliament to provide for punishment for
the contravention of the said provision of article 23 (1) but expressly takes away
the power of the state legislature to make any legislation with regard to said matter.
Accordingly the bonded labours system (abolition) ordinance, 1975 was
promulgated by the president on 24th October, 1975. But the said ordinance the
bonded labour system was abolished and the bonded labour were freed and
discharged from any obligation to render any bounded labour and their bonded
debts were also extinguished.

The Supreme Court in public union for civil liberties v. state of Tamil Nadu and
others1, the question was regarding rehabilitation of bonded labour. Going through
the reports of national human right commission and expert group, the Supreme
Court pointed out that the major issue to bonded labour was their rehabilitation.
Therefore the court issued direction to the state government and the union
territories towards archiving such rehabilitation.

The Act implies:

(i) Identification of bonded labourers;

(ii) Release of bonded labourers;

(iii) Action against offenders, i.e., creditors who had forced agreement upon the
debtors;

(iv) Holding of regular meetings of vigilance committees at the district and tehsil
level;

1
(2004)3 L.L.J. 7 (S.C.).
(v) Maintenance of the prescribed registers; and

(vi) Conferring of judicial powers to executive magistrates.

The act prohibit bonded labour system. The act provides that if there is any
agreement or instrument or custom which requires such bonded labour, it shall
stand inoperative after the commencement of the act. Any liability to repay bonded
debt shall stand extinguished. The property of the bonded labour shall stand freed
and discharge from mortgage, charge, lien or encumbrance and shall be restored to
the possession of the bonded labour. For the compliance of the provision of the act,
the state government is authorized to confer such power and impose such duties on
district magistrate as it deemed fit for the purpose.

Misery and Suffering in Bondage

One former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (Justice P.N. Bhagwati) described
bonded labourers as ‘non-beings, exiles of civilisation living a life -worse than that
of animals’, for the animals are at least free to roam about as they like and they can
plunder or garb food whenever they are hungry, but these outcastes of society are
held in bondage and robbed of their freedom even.

They are consigned to an existence where they have to live either in hovels or
under the open sky and be satisfied with what- ever unwholesome food they can
manage to get, inadequate though it may be to fill their hungry stomachs. Not
having any choice, they are driven by poverty and hunger into a life of bondage, a
dark bottomless pit from which, in a cruel exploitative society, they cannot hope to
be rescued.

It is estimated that there are about 32 lakh bonded labourers in India. 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.
According to the figures released in May 1997 on the basis of a state government-
sponsored survey (conducted as per the Supreme Court direction), Tamil Nadu has
the maximum number of 24,000 bonded labourers, in the country, engaged in 30
different occupations (The Hindustan Times, May 13, 1997).
It has been pointed out that the majority of bonded labourers works as agricultural
labour in villages and belong to the Dutcaste or tribal communities. Of the total
labour force in the rural areas, about 33 per cent are engaged in non-agricultural
activities, 42 per cent work as cultivators, and 25 per cent as agricultural labourers.
Of those who work as agricultural labourers, 48 per cent belong to Scheduled
Castes and 33 per cent to Scheduled Tribes.
Being unskilled and un-organised, agricultural labourers have little for their
livelihood other than personal labour. Bonded agricultural labourers occupy the
lowest rung of the rural ladder. Social and economic stratification in a village is
linked with land and caste which in turn govern economic and social status of ‘he
people. Bonded labourers thus live in pitiable and miserable conditions.
They are socially exploited because though in theory they are assured food,
clothes, free tobacco, etc., in practice they get the food that is left over, and clothes
that are discarded by family members. They are made to work for 12 to 14 hours a
day and are forced to live with cows and buffaloes in shed. If they fall ill, they may
be procured some medicines from the local Hakim depending upon the sweet will
of the employer.

The total number of bonded labourers identified and freed in India by March 1989
was 2.42 lakhs, of whom 2.18 lakhs (i.e., 90%) were said to be rehabilitated also.
Thus, hardly 8 per cent of total bonded workers in India have been identified so
far, indicating lack of interest of state governments in solving the problem of
bonded labour. At least four reports submitted to the Government of India between
1979 and 1983 pointed out how the disgusting and squeamish practice of bonded
labour existed in India and continued to disfigure the social and economic life of
the country.
These reports were:
(a) Report of the Centre for Rural Development to the Ministry of Labour,
Government of India, on ‘Rehabilitation of Bonded Labour in Monghyr District,
Bihar’,
(b) Report of the Public Policy and Planning Division of the Indian Institute of
Public Administration to the Ministry of Labour, Government of India, on
‘Evaluation Study of Bonded Labour Rehabilitation Scheme in Tehri Garhwal,
Uttar Pradesh’,
(c) Report of Laxmi Dhar Misra, Director General (Labour Welfare) of
Government of India based on the ‘Spot Studies Regarding Identification, Release
and Rehabilitation of Freed Bonded Labourers in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh,
Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Orissa, Bihar, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Kerala’,
and
(d) Report of the National Seminar on ‘Identification and Rehabilitation of Bonded
Labour’ held from February 7-9, 1983.
Of the 2.42 lakh bonded labourers identified and released up to March 1989, 26
percent were got released in Karnataka, 20 percent in Orissa, 16 percent in Tamil
Nadu, 14 percent in Andhra Pradesh, 11 percent in Uttar Pradesh, 5 percent in
Bihar, 4 percent in Madhya Pradesh, 3 pecent in Rajasthan, 0.5 percent in
Maharashtra, 0.3 percent in Kerala and 0.2 percent in Haryana.

CONCLUSION
Therefore, due to efforts of several NGOs and the vigilant role played by the
supreme court, the system of bonded labour has been on the decline. But it’s not
altogether abolished from the society which is a very unfortunate situation for a
country like India who wants to be a world leader in a 21 st century. So, it is
important that we as a society must change our attitude towards persons of weaker
sections and try to restore the value of human dignity which is a part of the right to
life.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

 LABOUR AND INDUSTRIAL LAWS, BY SURYA NARAYAN

MISRA.
 advocatekhoj.com
 lawyerslaw.org
 lawteacher.net