National Workshop on Elimination of Bonded Labour System and Child Labour:

The National Human Rights Commission convened a National Workshop on Elimination of Bonded Labour System and Child Labour on 27^th June 2007 at India Habitat Centre under the Chairmanship on Honourable Justice Shri S. Rajendra Babu, Chairperson, NHRC. The Representatives from almost all the States and UTs took part in the National Workshop.  

On the basis of the detailed deliberation, the following guidelines emerged for implementation by the concerned authorities of the States/Central Governments: -

1.      Art 23 of the Constitution prohibits all forms of forced labour including begar. It makes no difference whether the person who is forced to give his labour or service to another is remunerated or not.

2.      When a person provides labour or service to another for a remuneration, which is less than minimum wage, the labour or service provided by him falls within the scope and ambit of forced labour under Art 23.

3.   An intensive survey of the areas, which have been traditionally prone to the system of debt bondage, should be undertaken by the Vigilance Committees with the assistance of the social action groups operating in such areas. 

4.     Social action groups operating at the grass root level should be fully involved with the task of identification and release of bonded labourers.

5.   Officers who are posted at different levels to deal with the problem of bonded labour should be properly trained and sensitized so that they may develop a sense of involvement with the misery and suffering of the poor. 

6.     Every officer who is placed in charge of identification, release and rehabilitation of bonded labourers should be made fully conscious of his/her responsibilities.  He/she should be imbued with a sense of purpose and dedication, which is necessary for successful accomplishment of the task. There must be a sense of urgency and seriousness of concern in regard to the speed of rehabilitation among the officials who have been made responsible for the same.

7.     A release certificate to each of the bonded labourers so released would be issued forthwith by the concerned Collector/DM or the SDM or the Executive Magistrate vested with powers of a judicial magistrate.  The certificate which should be in the local language only (and not in English) should be handed over to the persons so released simultaneously.

8.      The State Government must rehabilitate the released bonded labourers on permanent basis.

9.      Rehabilitation must follow in the quick footsteps of identification and release; if not, released bonded labourers would be driven by poverty, helplessness and despair into serfdom once again.

10. Adequate funds should be released under the scheme framed under the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act for rehabilitation of all released bonded labourers.

11. The Collector with such other officers who have been assigned the responsibility of supervising implementation of the rehabilitation scheme shall ensure that the full amount intended for the freed labourers reaches them.

12. A large number of prosecutions are pending at various stages, they should be carried to their logical conclusion in the shortest possible time.

13. Prosecution should invariably be launched in all cases of bondage and pursued vigorously so as to affirm and publicize the determination of the Govt.  This need not, however, be linked with release of the bonded labourer from bondage and his/ her rehabilitation which will have to proceed independently as a matter of high priority.

14. Section 21 of Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976 provides that the offences are to be tried by Executive Magistrates. The State government may confer, on an executive Magistrate, the powers of a Judicial Magistrate of the first class or of the second class for the trial of offences under this Act; and, on such conferment of powers, the Executive Magistrate on whom the powers are so conferred, shall be deemed, for the purposes of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, (2 of 1974), to be a Judicial Magistrate of the first class, or of the second class, as the case may be.  An office under this Act may be tried summarily by a Magistrate

15. The Hon’ble Supreme Court in a judgement of M C Mehta Vs. State of Tamil Nadu and others, has categorically emphasized (a) recovery of Rs.20,000/- from each offending employer as a punitive fine for employing children in hazardous work and (b) stringent legal and penal action against all offending employers.  In the light of such clear directions of the apex court, which are binding on all concerned (regardless of whether they are parties to the dispute or not) the need for and rationale of non-invasive surveys with a view to allaying fears of employers about prosecution are not very clear.  If the intention is not to file prosecutions against offending employers even after working children have been found in hazardous work, then it becomes a clear infringement of the directions of the apex court.

16. The provisions of SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 wherever victims of bonded labour system are SC/STs should be stringently applied. 

17.The following registers are required to be maintained for the record of bonded labourers:

(a) a register containing the names and addresses of the freed bonded labourer (s);

(b)  a register containing statistics relating to the vocation, occupation & income of every bonded labourer;

(c) a register containing the details of the benefits which the free bonded labourers are receiving including benefits in the form of land, inputs for agriculture, training in handicrafts and allied occupations, loans at differential rates of interest of employment in urban or non-urban areas; and

(d)  a register containing details of cases under sub section (6) of section 6, sub section (2) of section 8, Sub Section (2) of Section 9, Section 16, Section 17, Section 18, Section 19 & Section 20.

18. In the Special schools under National Child Labour Projects we follow multi disciplinary rehabilitation effort which comprises of education nutrition, vocational skill training and check up of health of the children.  It is on account of adoption of such a package approach that the per capita expenditure in special schools under the NCLP is nearly Rs.4000/- as against of Rs.1000/- in the formal school system.  Despite such a heavy dose of investment the reasons for high drop out rate in some of the NCLPs are not clear.  This needs to be assessed and critically analysed.

19. Children belonging to migrant families are not to be left in the lurch.  They are also required to be rehabilitated along with other children in the general category through education, nutrition, check up of health and vocational skill training. In case they want to be rehabilitated at the destination point they should be rehabilitated there according to the directions of the apex court.

20.Similarly migrant workers, according to the spirit of the directions given by the Supreme court in series of judgements, are to be asked as to where they would like to be rehabilitated i.e. at the originating point or at the destinations State.  They cannot just be despatched to their native states and left in the lurch there, which would be violative of the letter and spirit of Supreme Court judgement.

21.Vigilance Committees have to go out and conduct field surveys by adopting a non-formal, unarthodox and non-threatening approach and are not required to occupy static positions.  They will never be able to identify bonded labourers by sitting at their arm chair offices and not going out and making discrete enquiries.  

22. There is a provision for payment of immediate financial relief of Rs.1000/- to each identified and released bonded labourer.  This financial assistance is extremely important because it relieves the bonded labourer of his immediate financial hardship.  It may be ensured that this immediate financial relief is paid to each released bonded labourer.  NHRC had earlier directed the State Governments to issue instructions under TR-27.

23. There is need for a fresh, comprehensive survey to determine the magnitude of the incidence of child labour including bonded child labour and those in hazardous categories

24.A comprehensive list showing complete details such as residential address of the State of origin etc. may be prepared in respect of those bonded labourers who were identified in the State, but were sent to their originating State for rehabilitation.  A copy of the list may be forwarded to the NHRC as well as to the Labour Commissioners of the States to which they originally belonged. 

25.Convergence should be effected between Govt. Departments and also with NGOs.  This would mean the following:

·        Pooling resources form a variety of sources;

·        Integrating them imaginatively & skillfully to achieve the objective of a meaningful, effective and permanent rehabilitation.

26.The Deputy Commissioners would be the Centre of Convergence efforts in regard to all actions relating to bonded labour and child labour.

27.The Constitution of District and Sub-Division level Vigilance Committees will have to be taken up wherever those are not in place.  Periodic meetings of these Committees should be conducted within the stipulated time frame.  The Vigilance Committee should examine the cases involving a review of the present status of already-rehabilitated bonded labourers, fresh plan for rehabilitation of identified bonded labourers and close monitoring of the bonded labour-prone areas/ industries etc.  Cooperation and participation of NGOs and other social service organizations may also be explored in these Vigilance Committees so that the information received from such organisations may be useful in taking corrective action.

28. District Magistrates have been empowered under Section 10, 11 and 12 of the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976 All the DMs should have positive and proactive attitude and approach towards abolition of bonded labour system and should exercise their powers judiciously, diligently and with empathy and sensitivity.

29. This district and sub-divisional level Vigilance Committees should be reorganized and activated; their meetings should be more frequent than now.

30. There has to be a periodic review of the actual functioning of the Vigilance Committees constituted and such of those members who are non-functional should be eased out & replaced by new members.

31. The minimum number of meetings and the format for the VCs, to submit minutes and information on a periodic basis, have to be specified by separate notifications and these must be strictly enforced.

32.To ensure rehabilitation of transferred bonded labourers at their native place, the release order should be sent demi-officially to the District Collector of the district concerned with a copy each to DG (Welfare) and NHRC.

33. The important task will be comprehensive psychological rehabilitation of the families.

34. Severe punishment must be meted out to brokers and middlemen who traffic child labour and export children to other States.  A dedicated Control Room needs to be set up at the State Headquarters.  A flying squad for providing protection to field level functionaries and NGOs engaged in the release operations should also be attached to the Control Room.