NRLM Partners with Bandhua 1947 to Combat Bonded Labour

A moment that had many of us at the Bandhua 1947 office celebrating was the statement made by Jairam Ramesh, expressing his keenness for the government to be a part of the national campaign against bonded labour.

“We cannot say that we have abolished bonded labour. It may be true on paper and we have laws on it, but we haven’t managed to finish it,” said Jairam Ramesh, Union Minister for Rural Development. He admitted that millions were still enslaved, even four decades after India enacted the Bonded Labour System Abolition Act in 1976.

“Under the National Rural Livelihoods Mission umbrella, we will begin pilot projects in 10 districts which are considered to have a substantial population of bonded labourers. We will locate the bonded labourers there, get surveys done, rehabilitate them and create conditions for alternative livelihood,” he said to the media.

Why are we so elated? Because in order for freedom to prevail, the system needs to change. For years, states governments have sworn that there is no bonded labour in their states, but the media has played a massive role to bring the truth to the surface. After umpteen media reports on bondage and slavery, the government has decided to step up to the plate. The NRLM has signed up to be an institutional partner of the Bandhua 1947 campaign.

What does this mean? Starting December 2013, NRLM will fund projects in the districts of Gaya (Bihar), Bastar & Kondagaon (Chhattisgarh), Bolangir & Naupada (Odisha), Gumla (Jharkhand), Prakasam & Chittoor (Andhra Pradesh), Kanchipuram & Vellore (Tamil Nadu). They will help locate and rehabilitate bonded labourers by inclusion in self-help groups and their federations, provision of soft loans and vulnerability reduction funds, and special projects for alternative livelihoods including skill development interventions. Sarada Muraleedharan, COO of the NRLM also stated that convergence with the interventions of the Ministry of Labour for rehabilitation of bonded labour are also underway.

Hope for Released Bonded Labourers in Bihar

In a small village outside of Patna, Bihar’s government is making history. Seven months after being released from bonded labour in the agricultural sector, three workers and their families are benefiting from unprecedented state government efforts to ensure their restoration under the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976 (BLA), and Minimum Wages Act, 1948 (MWA).

Thanks to the concerted energies of the Patna Labour Department and local Justice Ventures International (JVI) Project advocates, three men once trapped in agricultural bonded labour received over Rs.45,000 each from their former employers, as back-payment of wages through a case filed under the MWA. This was the first decision of its kind for bonded labourers in Bihar. Such determined restorative support by the government, following on the heels of its efforts to free the workers with the support of JVI, is a significant advance for bonded labour efforts in the state.

The three clients had previously each received Rs.10,000 under the BLA from the Bihar state government, in addition to an initial Rs.1000 for the opening of a bank account, secured with their release certificate at the time of rescue.

As bonded labourers, the rescued men were made to work for up to 15 hours per day with little or no wages, one of them receiving just two kilograms of rice each day for his labour.  Today the men and their families are free. JVI and our aftercare partners are working with the clients to ensure they are safe, have viable livelihood options, and receive the vital government benefits due to them under the BLA and other schemes.

JVI has worked with Bihar authorities to secure the release of 134 bonded labourers and their dependents so far in 2013.  We are collaborating with the government to secure similar restoration benefits under the BLA and MWA for each client.