#debt labor

According to some recent reports, districts around Chennai such as Tiruvannamalai, Tiruvalluar, Vellore, and Kancheepuram remain as a belt of bonded labor in Tamil Nadu. Bonded labor is also practice in other parts of Tamil Nadu. A vast majority of them toil for 15-18 hours a day and seven days a week, for daily wages that are as low as Rs.20, in places like agricultural farms, rice mills, brick kilns, stone quarries, crushing mines, even construction industry, and textile mills.

Those born into bonded labor and also those bound by debts live an estranged life of indebtedness. According to a survey undertaken by International Justice Mission (IJM), debt is the main reason for bonded labor. Nearly 70.7% of bonded laborers were working to repay their loans, most of which even lesser than Rs.5000. The sad part is, these loans that have bound them were taken to buy food for their families.

Studies have identified that bonded laborers are mostly from Scheduled Castes (86%) and Scheduled Tribes (13%) communities. Illiteracy and lack of skills - therefore lack of job opportunities - keeps them vulnerable to middlemen, who lure them into bonded labor by paying a paltry sum as advance. In a way, basic survival needs drive them into this modern slavery. As families; men, women, and children enter this quagmire until they get rescued, but then some voluntarily return to bonded labor as they may have no other skills to rely upon, while many of them feel compelled to get back, threatened by middlemen and contractors. The government assured sum of Rs.20,000, upon release, may never reach their hands. Swindlers in the system may gobble them up. With no identity and address on record, and with no legal support, their legitimate claims could make no sense, unless some welfare organizations or individuals took some extraordinary efforts to help them.

Recently, Union Labor Minister Bandaru Dattatreya, in a written reply to Rajya Sabha said that the government had prepared a perspective vision document for the total abolition of bonded labor. He stated that the government envisages to rehabilitate an estimated number of 1.84 crore bonded laborers along with cent percent conviction of people who are keeping them in bondage.

A release from the ministry proposes an increase in the quantum of financial assistance from the annual budget of Rs.5 Crore to Rs.47 Crore and cash assistance from Rs.20,000 to Rs.One Lakh. The release also quotes the statement of the Labor Minister, who has said, "Under this new package the money will remain in an annuity account, controlled by the District Magistrate and a monthly earning will flow to the beneficiary account for his/her comfortable living. The corpus remains untouched until decided by the DM."

But how well the rehabilitation of bonded laborers would happen is something we may have to wait and watch. The world of bondage is a shadowy world. Its players operate in nexus with moles in the flawed system. If they are going to be just booked and bailed out by law, with no conviction, the perpetrators of such crimes would still be at large, enslaving new victims. Whereas, if state administrations across the country could show some sincerity in purpose, they will be able to go on a spree of raids, slap charges on these inhumane criminals and rescue gullible people perishing in the dark alleys of human civilization. Every product that comes out for human utility and consumption should carry a labeling that says the product is free from human abuse in the form of bonded labor. And as far as rehabilitation is concerned, mere cash distribution may not help bonded laborers to embrace a new life of free labor. Real freedom for them would be acquiring a skill and job opportunities that will remunerate them sufficiently to provide their families fulfillment of basic needs and comforts. And it's about time our system acts with a sense of urgency to alleviate the distress of these people.

Article by Ajay Kumar Jagadeesh