Debt Bondage/ Bonded Labour in India -Ajoy Kumar ... - Fastenopfer

Debt Bondage/ Bonded Labour in India 

-Ajoy Kumar 

The system and consequences: 

In a typical debt-bondage agreement a laborer enters into bondage by taking 

a small loan of Rs. 1000 to Rs. 5000 for emergency subsistence requirement 

from a landlord. He works for up to 18 hours and receives a daily wage of 

1.5 kilos paddy (worth Rs.10.-). He looses double the wage for one day’s 

absence. His wife suffers indignity and abuse while rendering one-day free 

labour to collect his wage weekly. He is kept in a situation of below 

subsistence to ensure that he is never able to repay his debt. As a result, after 

death, the bondage is passed on to his son or his wife. Bonded labourers are 

subjected to cruel measures if they refuse to fulfill the demands of the 

landlords. 

The contemporary practice of bonded labour violates not only the Bonded 

labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976 which declares it illegal and Minimum 

Wages Act 1948 but also the most fundamental human rights guaranteed 

under the Indian Constitution like: Right to equality before/ protection by 

law (Article 14), Right to protection of life & personal liberty (Article 21) 

and Right against forced labour (Article 23). Under international 

conventions the system violates the Right to Land under ILO convention 169 

of 1989 on Indigenous & Tribal people (who are mostly affected by the 

system). 

The scale of the problem: 

No exact and official statistics exist about the exact extent of debt-bondage 

in India. However, the estimate by different agencies ranging from the 

Human Right Commission to the frontal organizations leading the 

interventions to liberate the bonded labourers in the country varies from 40 

millions to 365 millions. We estimate the number to be definitely more than 

200 millions. 

The root causes: 

Debt bondage in India has its historic origin in the customary forced labour 

extracted from the members of the socially discriminated Dalit (‘Scheduled 

Castes’) and Adivasis (‘Scheduled Tribes’) communities by the caste 

landlords in the feudal society. However, the practice not only continued 

after independence but multiplied as a result of increase in poverty, 

reinforcement of social (caste) discrimination and displacement of the poor 

from the land and forest based livelihood by the very process of

development planning, liberalization and globalization. So, while India 

shines in some quarters for its ‘economic achievements’ and ‘high growth 

rate’ its poorest languishes in worse poverty. They not only continue to fall 

victim to the traditional form of debt bondage in agricultural sector but are 

also forced to migrate into the contemporary forms of debt bondage in other 

sectors of economy like: brick kilns, textile, construction, plantations and 

domestic work etc. 

The legislation: 

India has been the first country in South Asia to enact the most progressive 

law: The Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, in the year 1976 to legally 

abolish the practice of debt bondage in any form, in the country. The law 

provides clear criteria for identification of the bonded labour, mechanism for 

their release and rehabilitation by the state and penal action for the offenders 

by designating the implementing authorities and requiring the establishment 

of vigilance committees for the purpose, in all districts of the country. 

The measures taken: 

The first 15 years after the enactment of the law witnessed a flurry of 

interventions by the NGOs/ Civil society, judicial activism by the highest 

court of the land and a pronounced political will by the central government 

to implement the law seriously. Despite hard resistance posed by the 

feudalistic bureaucracy and administrative harassment at the local level, the 

efforts succeeded in releasing and rehabilitating about 2,50,000 bonded 

labourers (up to March 1993) all over India. 

The next 15 years (from 1993 till to date) -the era coinciding with the 

liberalization and globalization however, witnessed a steep decline in the 

political will and activism to address the issue seriously. The sluggish and 

half-hearted efforts could result in release and rehabilitation of a mere 30 to 

35,000 bonded labourers across the country. The state euphoria with ‘market 

solution’ to the problem of poverty and increasingly greater integration of 

NGOs into the Micro Finance –as the new approach to poverty eradication 

has resulted in abandonment of ‘human right’ and ‘justice’ based 

interventions, seriously undermining the potential for eradication of bonded 

labour. 

Our experience: 

Our experience with the struggle of bonded labourers in the state of 

Chhattisgarh which resulted in one of the most successful example of release

and rehabilitation of a large number of bonded labourers (about 6000) 

through the intervention of Supreme Court of India, taught us the following 

lessons: 

• Existence of the law and legal intervention though crucial, is not 

sufficient in itself. 

• Mobilization and accompaniment by NGO/ civil society is imperative 

for effective release and rehabilitation of bonded labourers. 

• Resistance, reprisal and harassment by the creditors and local 

political-bureaucracy combine face any intervention. 

• Land based livelihood (in case of agricultural bonded labourers) as 

long term rehabilitation measure is crucial for effective rehabilitation. 

• Creation of alternative credit facility by “group-saving” and overall 

empowerment is necessary to make release and rehabilitation 

sustainable. 

(The whole process of struggle up to the stage of the first/ historic 

intervention of the Supreme Court of India ordering release and 

rehabilitation of 693 bonded labourers is documented in the attached 

booklet.)

Debt Bondage/ Bonded Labour in India -Ajoy Kumar ... - Fastenopfer

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