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

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