On 24 May 2014, a District level training on bonded labour to the government officers was organised by the Dharwad District Administration and Zilla Panchayat in Alur Venkatrao Sabha Bhavan, Dharwad at 11.00 a.m. Jeevika State Coordinator Mr Kiran Kamal Prasad conducted the training together with the Jeevika teams of Bailhongal taluk and Chikkodi sub division of Belagum district. The Additional Deputy Commissioner, Mr. K. Srinivas, representing the Deputy Commissioner, and the Project Director of the Zilla Panchayat, Mr. M.J. Kulkarni, representing the Chief Executive Officer, Zilla Panchayat, took part in the inaugural session.
Mr. K. Srinivas inaugurated the training and spoke that due to some reasons the training was delayed by two years. He said that he was aware of the seriousness of the issue of bonded labour. The workshop was organised, he told the participants, to motivate and equip the staff and officials to work efficiently to eradicate the bonded labour system completely in the District. He also informed that similar trainings were organised in all the taluks and the Mahanagarapalike of the District from the 29th May till the 3rd June 2014. After the trainings, the surveys on bonded labour were expected to be completed within 15days, i.e. from the 5th till the 20th of June. Finally he promised that the district administration would take necessary steps for rehabilitating any instance of bonded labour in the district.
As part of the inaugural session Kiran Kamal Prasad stressed the relevance still of the Bonded Labour Act, its main thrust and unique features. He also elaborated on the implementation of the Act in the state and briefly explained the methodology for Identification of bonded labour and the importance of rehabilitating the identified bonded Labourers. He revealed that since from 1976, only 64,000 bonded labourers were released and rehabilitated in the State; and out of that hardly one and half a thousand were from the northern districts of the state which contains almost half the geographical area within the state. He lamented that Dharwad district including the present districts of Haveri and Gadag had not identified, released and rehabilitated a single case of bonded labour since 1976 till date. He also pointed out that the ground reality was otherwise as revealed in a few recent events of atrocities on dalits in the district revolving around bonded labour, like that of August 2011 incident Nayakanur village in Navalgund taluk and February 2014 incident in the same taluk.
He further identified some of the unique steps taken by the Karnataka Government in eradicating bonded labour like the Karnataka Government Action Plan on Bonded Labour 2008, the GO to conduct a resurvey on bonded labour in all the 30 districts, the state scheme of providing support of Rs. 300 per month for 24 months from the time of release, the recommendation to the Central Government to enhance the rehabilitation grant to Rs. one lakh, the formation of task forces at taluk and gram panchayat levels to carry out surveys, formulating an elaborate process to conduct surveys indicating in the drawing up of nine schedules with questionnaires to conduct survey and so on. He also highlighted the specific and unique arrangements in Karnataka to tackle bonded labour, i.e., the monitoring of the Act by the rural Development and Panchayat Raj, the handing over of the responsibility to rehabilitate bonded labourers to the CEO of ZP, the amendment of the Karnataka Panchayat Raj Act, 1993 in Section 58A mandating a Gram Panchayat to report on bonded labour to the Deputy Commissioner.
After the inaugural session, the training went on from 12 noon till 3 pm with different sessions on overview of the Bonded Labour Act, the definition on bonded labour system in the Act, wrong interpretations of the definition of bonded labour prevalent among the general public and the officials, S.R. Sankaran’s Guidelines on identification of bonded labour, the Recommendations of the 1994 Central Committee on Bonded Labour and the nine Schedules and Questionnaires circulated by the Karnataka Government for conducting surveys on bonded labour. Before going into the nine Schedules, two Role Plays on faulty and correct ways of identification of bonded labour were acted out by the Jeevika teams of Bailahongal taluk and Chikkodi subdivision. These role plays and sessions were highly appreciated as indicated by the response in public at the end of one Executive Officer of a Taluk Panchayat.
The district level officials, Tahsildars, EOs, Labour Officers, Labour Inspectors Panchyat Raj Project Officers, Vigilance Committee members and activists, nearly 70 members, took part in the training.
Posted on behalf of Jeevika, a member of the Bandhua 1947 Campaign.
Bandhua 1947 