Interstate cell, registration portal: NHRC group suggests steps to tackle bonded labour

New Delhi: An NHRC core group has suggested a slew of measures for the rights and welfare of bonded labourers, recommending to expand the interpretation of 'human trafficking' to include bonded labour in its ambit, and set up an interstate cell to track them while they migrate across states.

The suggestions were made at a core group meeting presided over by the National Human Rights Commission's acting chief Vijaya Bharathi Sayani who emphasised that an "integrated and a long-term strategy" is needed for rehabilitation of freed bonded labourers to ensure their reintegration into society with dignity.

Despite efforts and legal provisions, several people still get "trapped in forced labour and debt bondage", she was quoted as a saying in a statement issued by the NHRC on Friday.

Measures to prevent bonded labour should include public awareness campaigns, rights education, adult literacy programmes, worker organisation, income generation, and vocational skills development, she said.

Among several suggestions made during the meeting included the creation of a portal where such informal workers may register themselves to secure jobs outside their home states.

Setting up an interstate cell to track bonded labourers migrating across states; formalising the labour contracting mechanism; and expanding the interpretation of human trafficking to include bonded labour were also suggested.

The NHRC may develop a dedicated mechanism for filing complaints of bonded labour for expeditious interventions, the core group suggested.

According to the statement, the meeting also suggested that sensitisation of police and district administration officials is necessary while dealing with bonded labour.

The time gap between rescue, relief and rehabilitation of a bonded labour should be brought down, while the NALSA (National Legal Services Authority) should provide legal assistance to such victims, the statement said on the suggestions.

The NHRC convened the core group meeting to discuss impediments in the abolition of bonded labour and gaps in their rescue, relief and rehabilitation in the country, it said.

The meeting was also attended by NHRC Secretary General Bharat Lal, senior officers, experts and human rights defenders.

"The NHRC has taken significant steps, including issuing advisories to identify, release, and rehabilitate bonded labourers. However, the persistence of bonded labour in various industries indicates much more needs to be done. The bonded labour has various names extending into non-farming sectors including the Devadasi system and small-scale industries," the statement said.

Lal emphasised the need for concrete suggestions to abolish the menace of bonded labour, and said India still has value systems that provide ethical impetus towards dealing with this issue.

Therefore, while enforcing the implementation of the legal provisions, social awareness must be spread about the value systems protecting the rights and dignity of fellow human beings to reduce bonded labour in India, he said.

Lal also pointed out that almost two crore people are joining India's workforce every year, implying that there is a "mismatch of demand and supply" as far as labour is concerned, leading to some "anti-human labour practices".

Recently, the Commission took suo motu cognisance of an MNC engaging their workers in 10 hours of continuous labour. Delivery service-providing companies today also, at times, put the lives of their executives at risk while ensuring 15-minute deliveries and similar services, thus impacting an entire generation negatively. Domestic workers also come under the same purview, the statement said.

Earlier, giving an overview of the core group meeting, Joint Secretary Devendra Kumar Nim said that many children from distressed migrant families end up as bonded labourers in sectors like textiles, firecracker manufacturing, brick kilns, and granite extraction units.

"Women and children from marginalised communities, especially SCs and STs, are frequently targeted for bonded labour in agriculture and textiles. A study showed that 83 per cent of rehabilitated bonded labourers belong to SCs or STs. Rescued bonded labourers face threats and delays in registering first information reports (FIRs), complicating their path to justice," it said.

The agenda of the meeting focused on three technical themes -- existing constitutional and statutory provisions on bonded labour and their implementation; presence of bonded labour in industry with specific mention of agriculture, textile industry and brick kiln establishments; and situation of women and children as frequent targets of bonded labour.

NGO representatives advocated for involvement of NGOs in rescues and better enforcement of SOPs and reporting by gram panchayats, it said.

The Commission said it will further discuss various suggestions and inputs in the matter to firm up its recommendations for the government.