The on-going COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown that the country faced earlier resulted in severe loss of livelihoods in the economy in general, and informal sector in particular. This has further given rise to the apprehension that incidences of bondage and bonded labour will rise in near future.
Vulnerable individuals and families who have lost their jobs in the informal economy, in urgent need of funds for survival but with very little savings and limited access to social protection or other forms of State support, are likely to be at greater risk of falling prey to lenders providing credit on terms constituting debt bondage.
With more workers likely to contract debts to survive, the risk of increasing debt bondage is particularly imminent. Some of these vulnerable sections of the population might have come out of bondage in the past and were working as informal sector workers. Now, with the lockdown crippling the livelihood of unorganised sector workers, many have no option but to borrow money from unscrupulous moneylenders to keep themselves afloat.
Context
In the second week of June 2020, the Supreme Court advised the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to consider framing guidelines for protection and rehabilitation of bonded labourers, especially during the prevailing situation of COVID-19 pandemic.
This was in the context of a plea which alleged that authorities in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar had failed to take prompt action to help 187 victims of bonded labour who are working in brick kilns in these states. Two districts, Sambhal in Uttar Pradesh and Rohtas in Bihar, were mentioned in this connection.
Earlier the apex court, acting on plea filed by a social worker, issued notices to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar governments, instructing them to arrange urgent release and rehabilitation of victims of bonded labour, including pregnant women and children, who were being allegedly held at three different brick kilns in these states.
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Representatives of both the states deposed before the Supreme Court that appropriate steps were being taken to rescue bonded labourers. Subsequently, Supreme Court asked the district magistrates of Sambhal and Rohtas to submit a report regarding action taken by them in liberating the bonded labour victims.
The plea had also sought a direction to the authorities to frame specific guidelines to release, protect, rehabilitate and repatriate bonded labourers during the COVID-19 pandemic, taking into account measures to ensure access to shelter, food supplies, compensation and healthcare during the pandemic.
The plea further alleged that despite NHRC’s direction, the administration had not taken appropriate steps to rehabilitate bonded labourers. Consequently, they were made to continue in very poor and inhuman working conditions.
Background
Bereft of the basic dignity of human labour and breach of the basic human rights, the persistence of the age-old bonded labour system is totally incompatible with the Indian Constitution’s envisioning of an egalitarian socio-economic order.
The main feature of bonded labour system is that the debtor mortgages his person and/or members of his family for a loan and is released on the repayment of the debt.
Bonded labour is often found more prevalent among the impoverished, indigenous, marginalised, socially excluded and discriminated. They mostly live in backward regions in the flood-prone, drought-prone areas and in their habitations are mostly outside of the villages where the garbage is dumped and waste disposal is carried out.
Denied and deprived of the basic rights and resources respectively, they neither have literacy nor employable skills to earn their livelihood.
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Communities that face multiple disadvantages in life are also in great economic distress that exacerbates their pitiable situation. Being landless and not having any material or financial resources, the poor take loan for food intake in time of starvation, for medical treatment of ailing family members in times of acute health crisis, to incur expenditure towards social ceremonies, and other such inevitable essentials, which push them into debt-trap and bondage.
Without having land or any other assets to mortgage, they mortgage their services to the money-lender who force the debtors to work to repay debts they owe.
Due to their ignorance and illiteracy, they are not able to foresee the consequences of mortgaging themselves and/or their family members. The money-lenders and his men use various forms of ploys to trap and force them to work for long hours. The bonded labour does not have any idea with regard to the principal amount, rate of interest, period of repayment, repaid amount through their labour, and the outstanding.
The value of their work is invariably greater than the original sum of money borrowed. They are not allowed to work for anyone else. Bonded labour is an outcome of such strategic and systematic exploitation of the marginalised and vulnerable sections of the society by some of the rich, resourceful and influential.
Vulnerabilities and poor conditions
The bonded labourers and their families face multiple vulnerabilities at the workplaces. Exposed to the vagaries of weather, they are forced to work for long hours. They are also exposed to physical violence and verbally and sexual abused, all of which has a very adverse impact on their physical and mental health.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO):
“The intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or a group or community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment or deprivation.”.
The bonded labourers are hardly provided with food or non-food items to survive. The work sites are mostly located in isolated remote areas, hidden away from public view, and are difficult to reach.
Entrenched in exploitative socio-economic caste-based hierarchical structures, the bonded labour system has spread its ghastly tentacles in different sectors of the economy, from agriculture to the supply chains of manufacturing, as well as the service sectors.
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Incidences of prevalence of indebted labour could be found in agriculture, horticulture, tea plantations, forestry, log-cutting, fish-processing, food-processing, rice mills, beedi-making, brick kilns, stone quarries, construction, mines, carpet-weaving, power looms and cotton handlooms, garments and textiles, match and fireworks, tanneries, and others.
Workplace closures have immediate and severe impact on informal sector workers. Having lost their livelihood opportunities and income due to lockdowns, the poor are left with hardly any means to provide for their families. Poverty stricken families become vulnerable to labour exploitation in different unorganised, unregulated and informal sectors.
Employers make use of such vulnerability of the poor and arrange independent labour contractors to make advance payments because they need cash income and the workers get bonded. They find it difficult to pay off their debts and borrow again to meet their basic needs and during acute health crises. Consequently, they end up in a vicious cycle of debt bondage.
This is happening at different places of the country. A recent report claimed that despite the Supreme Court’s order to prohibit bonded labour completely, a large number of such workers were spotted working in brick kilns in the Aligarh and Hathras districts in the state of Uttar Pradesh.
Earlier, as per government records, labour department of Uttar Pradesh rescued 670 bonded labourers, including 20 in Aligarh and 21 from Bulandshahr from the clutches of brick kiln workers. Brick kilns situated in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab are said to be engaging bonded labourers in large numbers.
Some organised gangs are involved in mobilising potential bonded labour from the immediate hinterland. They lure poverty stricken families with advance money and send them to work in brick kilns in different districts. In the process, these intermediaries earn commissions from the brick kiln owners.
In the recent past, 1200 bonded labourers have been rescued from different places. Out of these, 220 workers were rescued from Atrauli region in Aligarh district.
International conventions and national legislation
There are widely-ratified series of international conventions that have established a global consensus against bonded labour, forced labour and worst and enslaved forms of labour and also national laws.
Adopted on 7 September 1956 and entered into force on 30 April 1957, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention Number 105 stipulated complete abolition forced labour of any kind. Each member state agrees to take effective measures to secure the immediate and complete abolition of forced or compulsory labour, as specified in Article 1 of this Convention. The treaty supplements the 1926 Slavery Convention by acting to ban debt bondage, serfdom, servile marriage and child servitude.
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India has ratified both the ILO Conventions – Number 29 concerning Forced or Compulsory Labour (1930) and Number 105 concerning Abolition of Forced Labor (1957). The practice of bonded labour violates these international treaties.
At the national level, apart from various constitutional provisions, there is a specific legislation to prohibit bonded labour – Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976. The Supreme Court has, from time to time, interpreted various constitutional provisions to safeguard the weaker strata of society against the menace of bonded labour.
Impact of COVID-19
The socio-economically disadvantaged segments have a disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic disaster. Having lost their earnings and livelihood, without any income to sustain themselves and their families, and facing uncertainties, the negative effects of the pabdenuc may result in influx of the poor into bonded labour.
People who are in great economic distress may borrow money and fall into debt-trap. The New Indian Express recently reported the following story, which very eloquently describes the present scenario:
“Farmhand Amudha and her family of six live in a small hamlet near Acharapakkam in Kancheepuram district. They had to start from scratch after they were rescued from bonded labour at a wood-cutting unit five years ago. With no income since the Covid-19 pandemic brought the country to a halt in March, Amudha has almost used up her savings and fears if she will have to borrow money to keep feeding her family.
“It was loans that pushed us into bonded labour many years ago,” she told. The family has been running from pillar to post to receive some relief materials. “Most of our neighbours have begun to borrow money from rich farmers here. We are not ready to go down that road again,” Amudha’s husband Sankar said.”
What can be done?
In the present circumstances and in view of economic crisis that prevails, it is ideal to empower all the District Magistrates to provide special assistance to bonded labourers. It should be ensured that the Vigilance Committee is constituted and is functional in each and every district of the country.
A dedicated helpline should be introduced. Areas of severe economic distress and relatively remote backward areas should be under close supervision. There should be close monitoring of situations of potential incidences of bonded labour and reporting of incidences if any, on a dynamic basis.
An identification-reporting mechanism should be developed. An awareness generation drive focusing on bonded-labour hotspots should be devised. Social media should also be utilised such that common citizens can be sensitised and involved. Special drives should be organised in each district with the help of agencies, including the civil society organisations, NGOs, trade unions/workers’ organisations, students of social work, National Cadet Corps (NCC), National Service Scheme (NSS) and National Youth Corps (NYC), Panchayati Raj institutions, Central Board of Workers Education, training institutions, and others to locate bonded labourers in distress.
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Direct cash assistance should be provided to take care of the immediate needs and prevent them from falling into destitution. The bonded households lag behind others in some basic socio-economic needs. Along with cash assistance, they should also be provided with other facilities like safe housing, medical assistance, sanitation, water, and the likes.
It is imperative to prevent them from influx to bondage because of the prevailing pandemic situation. Therefore, poverty reduction strategies should be merged with skill development activities. Skill development will generate more employment and hence, more income and reduced vulnerability to bondage.
Literacy level of the poorer households should be taken seriously while planning to develop skills. Skills that are less demanding on education may be chosen.
The Central Sector Scheme for Rehabilitation of Bonded Labour 2016 should be effectively implemented for the rehabilitation of boned labour with clear and simple financial and administrative arrangements. Entitlements to the vulnerable communities should be reached out, recognising their multi-topographic locations.
Sanctioned staff should be in place with specific role and responsibilities for providing social protection arrangements with coordinated and concerted efforts. These programmes should be designed with a rights-based approach in order to deal with the specific vulnerabilities of the marginalised, impoverished, indigenous, socially excluded, disadvantaged and discriminated population groups.
Issues of exclusions with regard to identity, eligibility and geographic location should be addressed. Intensive studies and surveys may be undertaken on stone quarries and brick kilns to locate bonded labour
Much work to do
It is essential to ponder that, because of their socio-economically disadvantaged status and suffering from vulnerabilities, those in bondage are not in a position to raise their voice and express their inhuman and sub-human conditions.
Promoting justice, equality and equity would prevent them from becoming bonded to those who constitute the rich, resourceful and influential sections of society and would end the bonded labour system. The exploitative socio-economic structures are designed and perpetuated by the those who have control over the productive assets.
The policies, programmes and actions should, thus, be formulated, planned, launched and implemented effectively in favour of the poor, with the profound insight of this reality.
Lack of empathy and sensitivity on the part of those who are involved in the process of preventing the incidences of bonded labour is also one of the major obstacles that come in the way of protecting the poor from vulnerability to bondage. The fruits and benefits of development should be uniformly, consistently and equitably distributed to address inequality, inequity and impecuniousness.
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Protecting the poor from vulnerability to bondage would also require progressive reduction in poverty, unemployment and underemployment, setting adequate minimum wages and improving compliance, and improving the standard of living of the poor.
Strict measures need to be take up to ensure that the vigilance committees are constituted in every district as required under Section 13 of the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976 Act. In districts where the vigilance committees have already been constituted, it is to be ensured that these committees do not lie dormant and special care needs to be taken so as to ensure that the members are vigilant towards the growing menace of bonded labour.
Adequate emphasis has to be given on the functioning of government departments along with the NGOs, so as to ensure they supplement each other, simply because the state has the authority, resources and expertise to enforce the law. NGOs have the grassroots connections to detect and report any violation of law to the government departments.
It is absolutely necessary to formulate and implement a time-bound action plan so as to enforce the existing legislations and constitutional provisions.
Views expressed here are the authors’ own and not necessarily that of the organisations they belong.
Featured image (representational): Brick kiln workers in India | Needpix
Dr Kingshuk Sarkar is an independent researcher and also works as a labour administrator with the Government of West Bengal. He earlier served as a faculty of the V V Giri National Labour Institute, Noida and NIRD, Hyderabad. He can be contacted at kingshuk71@hotmail.com.
Dr Helen R Sekar is a Senior Fellow at the V V Giri National Labour Institute, Noida and Coordinator at the National Resource Centre on Child Labour (NRCCL). She may be contacted at helensekar@gmail.com
