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CHANAKYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY, PATNA

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FINAL DRAFT PRESENTED FOR LABOUR LAW- II

PUCL v. State of Tamil Nadu (2004)12 SCC 381-Analysis

Submitted to :- Dr. S.C.Roy

Submitted by :- Priya Jha
Roll No. 1419
3rd Year, 5th Semester, B.B.A.LL.B. (Hons.)
Date:- November 2017.
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ACKNOWLEGEMENT
Writing a project has one of the most significant academic challenges I have ever faced. Any
attempt at any level can't be satisfactorily completed without the support and guidance of
well experienced people. Gratitude is a noble response of one’s soul to kindness or help
generously rendered by another and its acknowledgement is the duty and joy. I am
overwhelmed in all humbleness and gratefulness to acknowledge our depth to all those who
have helped us to put these ideas, well above the level of simplicity and into something
concrete effectively and moreover on time.

My first obligation, irredeemable by the verbal expression, is to our subject teacher Dr.
S.C.Roy has given me his valuable help in a myriad way from the start to till the end. I thank
him for his support, with which I was able to perform this project work.

I would like to extend my thanks to my parents for their encouragement and selfless support,
given to me at critical junctures during the making to this project. They lent their valuable
suggestions, guidance and encouragement whenever I needed a helping hand.

Last but not the least, I would like to thank my friends who helped a lot in gathering different
information, collecting data and guiding each other from time to time in making this project.
They have been very kind and patient while suggesting me the outlines of the project.

Priya Jha

5th semester
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page
TITLE Number

Introduction 4

Characteristics Of The Bonded Labour System 7-8

Fact Summary Of The Case Law 9

Initiatives Of The National Human Rights Commission 10-11
Bonded Labour In India 12-15
Analysis : Forced Labour And Policy Options 16-17
The Reality 18-19
Conclusion 20
Bibliography 21
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INTRODUCTION
Bonded labour - or debt bondage - is probably the least known form of slavery today, and yet
it is the most widely used method of enslaving people. A person becomes a bonded labourer
when their labour is demanded as a means of repayment for a loan. The person is then tricked
or trapped into working for very little or no pay.

Bonded Labour as defined under the Bonded Labour (Abolition) Act, 1976 is a system of
forced or partly forced labour in pursuance of an agreement by the debtor with the creditor
(Bonded Labour (Abolition) Act, 1976, §2(g)):
i) For service without wages or with wages less than the market wage normally paid for the
same or similar labour in the locality
ii) Forfeiting the freedom of alternative livelihood for a specified or an unspecified period
iii) Forfeiting the freedom to movement throughout the territory of India
iv) Forfeiting the right to appropriate or sell property or labour or outcome of the product of
labour at market value.

The said agreement is entered into for one or more of the following reasons:
a) As a consideration of an advance obtained by him or by any of his lineal ascendants or
descendants (whether or not such advance is evidenced by any document) and in
consideration of the interest, if any, due on such advance, or
b) As a customary or social obligation, or
c) As an obligation devolving on him by succession, or
d) As a consideration for any economic consideration received by him or by any of his lineal
ascendants or descendants, or
e) By reason of his birth in any particular caste or community.

Bonded labour is prohibited in India by law vide Articles 21 and 23 of the Constitution. A
specific law to prohibit the practice was legislated only in 1976 known as the Bonded Labour
System (Abolition) Act. With the commencement of the Act the following consequences
followed: bonded labourers stand freed and discharged from any obligation to render to
bonded labour. All customs, traditions, contracts, agreements or instruments by virtue of
which a person or any member of family dependent on such person is required to render
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bonded labour shall be void. Every obligation of bonded labourer to repay any bonded debt
shall be deemed to have been extinguished. No suit or any other proceeding shall lie in any
Civil Court or any other authority for recovery of any bonded debt.

Despite the statutory prohibition, bonded labour is widely practiced. The worst affected are
the children and women particularly those from the Dalit community. The legal framework
against bonded labour provided in the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976 is
supported by other legislations like the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act,
1970; the Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of
Service) Act, 1979; the Minimum Wages Act, 1948.

Bonded labour in the farming sector is mostly due to caste based prejudices practiced against
the Dalit communities and due to the absence of a proper land reform policy.
Instead to end the practice, what is required is strict implementation of labour laws in India.
Other than this, the State Government should dovetail the Centrally Sponsored Scheme for
rehabilitation of bonded labourers with other ongoing poverty alleviation schemes such as
Swarna Jyanti Gram Swaraj Rozgar Yojana (SJGSRY), Special Component Plan for
Scheduled Castes, Tribal Sub Plans, etc.
Preventive efforts must recognize the social dimensions of bondage, and thereby address it
through public sensitization and rights awareness, adult literacy, organizing workers, income
generation and vocational skills development. The strategies to eliminate bonded labour need
to go beyond the symptoms to address the root causes. The multifaceted and deeply rooted
nature of those causes requires an integrated and long term strategy.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

The researcher has used doctrinal method in her research, that is, extensive use of literary
sources and materials. The researcher mainly uses secondary sources to provide substance to
the research analysis. The researcher has also put down immense effort in order to understand
the terms and concepts related to the subject which enriched the study to a great extent. In
some cases, the researcher shall be bound to extract materials directly from the literary work
of certain authors which the researcher intend to adequately cite and notify in due course of
time. “Doctrinal research or traditional research involves analysis of case laws, arranging,
ordering and systematizing legal prepositions and study of legal institutions, but it does more
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– it creates law and its major tools through legal reasoning or rational deductions. In the
opinion of Boomin, this kind of research represents more a practical regulative ideal of how
the judicial process ought to be conceived by the judiciary than a theoretical analysis of its
actual structure and functioning”.

RESEARCH PROBLEM

1. What are the conditions of migrant bonded labourers in India?

2. What are the various social security schemes related to them?

HYPOTHESIS

1. There are a lot of social schemes related to migrant bonded labourers which are not
properly implemented.

SOURCES OF DATA:

The following sources of data have been used in the completion of this project:

 Secondary Sources: Articles, Books, Websites.

SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS:

Though this is an immense project and pages can be written over the topic, but due to
monetary and time concerns I could not deal with the topic in greater detail.
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Characteristics of the Bonded Labour System

Bonded labour in India is characterised by certain distinct and unique features:

i) It is an indicator of traditional social relations

A sketch of bonded labourers on the factor of caste indicates the system as a vestige of social
relations since the majority of the bonded labourers are either Dalits or Tribals as compared
to the members of the other social categories1. So in pursuance of any customary or social
obligation or by reason of being born in any particular caste or community, a person may
become a labour of service to the creditor for a specified or unspecified period of time, either
with or without wages or for nominal wages.

ii) Debt as a role player

The pivotal role player in bonded labour is played by debt as it facilitates the creditor/owner
to keep the debtors/workers in captivity. Since complete repayment of money borrowed to
meet daily (For the majority of rural population who earn a living through agriculture, finding
a regular employment (due to non payment of proper wages and drought) is impossible
leading to critical poverty thus, making them vulnerable to fall under the grip of the
controlling rural elite) or exceptional emergency expenses cannot always be materialized, the
debtor agrees to repay the debt through the labour of either himself or any of his family
members thus paving way for the enslavement to begin2. A deeper understanding of the socio
economic realities of the rural India depict that the control over land and all its produce lies
with the 5 elite upper caste leaving minimal for the dregs. A member of the lower caste
would have no alternative than working for the controlling elite (Malik) leaving it quite
natural for them to incur debts (Kamiauti).

When a person incurs a debt, he need not always end up being a bonded labourer, instead he
would mortgage the labour any or all of his family members in lieu of the incurred debt. Also
more than one member of the family could incur debts from the same creditor thus leading to

1 C. L. Katial, “Social Security in India,” India in 1951, India Information Services, 1952.

2
Dreze, Jean and Amartya Sen. 2002. “Democratic Practice and Social Inequality in India.” Journal of Asian and African
Studies 37(2): 6-37.
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the entire family working for him. This may run for generations together and become an
inherited family debt. Inevitably such a phenomenon leads to child labour or prostitution too.
For instance, the Chukri System of West Bengal where the woman of the family is forced
into illegal flesh trade in order to pay off the debts she incurred. She works without pay for a
year or for a more longer period without pay till the debt to the brothel owner (money given
to meet the expenses of food, apparel, make up amongst others), in other words remains
enslaved to her creditor.

iii) Livelihood

The primary effect of debt bondage is the complete inability of the worker to amass minimum
capital. Due to the unsettled debt his negotiating power is almost nonexistent and the
remuneration that he receives remains bare minimum which would lead him to be completely
ensnared in the vicious circle over a period of time3. Working times, freedom of movement as
well as work atmosphere and conditions would become extremely taxing leaving him and his
family completely hapless with no hope of freedom .
One would at the juncture understand that the distinction between bonded labour and forced
labour is inversely proportional to the debt amount and becomes blurred with the farcical
increase of the debt amount.

3 International Standard Classification of Occupations, ISCO-08 (Geneva). 2012

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Fact Summary
The plight of migrant bonded labourers from the State of Tamil Nadu, who were being
subjected to exploitation in the State of Madhya Pradesh, was originally brought to the notice
of the Supreme Court (SC) through this petition. Later the scope of the petition was expanded
so as to cover the problems relating to the bonded labourers in all States and Union
Territories in the country. The SC vide Order dated 11-5-1997 asked the National Human
Rights Commission (NHRC) to take over the monitoring of the implementation of the
directions of the SC and that of the provisions of the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act,
1976 (the Act). An Action-taken-Report filed by the NHRC was considered by the Court.

After going through the detailed report of the Expert Group, responses to it by the
Government and that of the Amicus Curiae, and the various Affidavits on record, the SC
arrived at the conclusion that the major issue that is to be solved is the aspects relating to
rehabilitation of bonded labourers. Once the bonded labourers are identified and released,
they have to be rehabilitated forthwith. The SC stated that it was a reality that the
rehabilitation and related aspects of bonded labourers was not given adequate consideration
till now.

Considering the vitality of rehabilitation issue in the endeavour to abolish bonded labour the
SC issued inter alia the following directions to all States and Union Territories:

 - Submit their status report in the form prescribed by NHRC every six months.
 - Constitute Vigilance Committees at the District and Sub-Divisional levels in
accordance with Section 13 of the Bonded Labour Act, within a period of six months
the date of the order.
 - Make proper arrangements for rehabilitating released bonded labourers on land-
based basis or non-land basis or skilled/craft based basis depending upon the choice
of bonded labour and his/her inclination and past experience. Philanthropic
organizations or NGOs may be identified with proven track record and good
reputation with basic facilities for such rehabilitation.
 - Sensitize the District Magistrate and other statutory authorities/committees in
respect of their duties under the Bonded Labour Act.
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Initiatives of the National Human Rights Commission

The Supreme Court in the Writ Petition (No. 3922/1985) – Public Union for Civil Liberties
Vs State of Tamil Nadu & Others – requested the NHRC in 1997 to get involved in the
monitoring of the implementation of the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 19764.
Since then, the NHRC has been focusing on States where bonded labour is prevalent. During
2011, it took stock of the situation and the following charter of activities have been taken up
by the Commission on the issue of Bonded Labour:

1. Constitution of Core Group on Bonded Labour: A Core

Group on Bonded Labour has been constituted by the Commission who will advise in
chalking out and suggesting strategies to the State/Central Government for elimination of
bonded labour in the country. The last meeting of the Core Group took place on
10/1/2012.
2. Organized a National Level Seminar: The Commission organized a National level
Seminar on elimination of bonded labour system on 30/9/2011 at IIC, New Delhi. The
Officers from State Government/UTs participated in the seminar.
3. Workshops conducted in Bonded Labour prone States: The Commission altogether has
organized five Workshops on Elimination of Bonded and Child Labour system. These have
been organized in collaboration with the State Governments to sensitize District Magistrates,
Sub Divisional Magistrates, SSPs and officers from the Labour Department. These
Workshops were held at Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
4. NHRC team to carry out surprise visits to bonded labour prone areas: Teams have
been constituted in NHRC to carry out surprise visits to bonded labour prone areas. The team
consists of officers from the Investigation and Law Divisions of the Commission5.
Recently, one team conducted a surprise visit in Ghaziabad, Bhagpat, Meerut and
Bulandshahar Districts of Uttar Pradesh. Due to off season at brick-kilns, no workers were
found.
5. Development of an instructional manual on Bonded Labour: As of now, the
Commission has brought out a booklet under the Know Your rights series on Bonded Labour
which is being disseminated to all concerned.

4
Breman, Jan. 2007. Labour Bondage in West India: From Past to Present. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
5
Ibid
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6. Revised format for Monitoring of Bonded Labour in States:

A new format has been devised for compiling bi-annually status from States/UTs regarding
identification, release and rehabilitation of bonded labourers. However, almost all the
States/UTs are sending the information in old format only. This issue is being taken up with
the Chief Secretaries of the State Governments to send the information as per the revised
format.

7. Review existing schemes of the Central and State Governments on Bonded Labour:
The Commission has taken up the issue with the Ministry of Labour and Employment. It has
conveyed that they have adopted an integrated convergence based approach to prevent
bonded labour with the help of ILO6. Recently, Justice Shri B.C. Patel held a meeting with
the Director General in the Ministry of Labour & Employment to discuss increase in the
rehabilitation grant under the centrally sponsored scheme.

8. Recommendation to State Government for organizing orientation training

programme in each bonded labour prone district: The Commission has written to all the
Chief Secretaries of the State Government /UTs for organizing orientation training
programmes for DMs/DSMs/SSPs and also for the field functionaries of labour law
enforcement.

9. Recommending States to constitute a State Level Monitoring and Coordination

Committees under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary with Secretaries to Government of
various departments as Members. The committee will also convene meetings to take stock of
bonded labour situation in their States and will apprise the Commission every six months.

6
International Labour Organization. 2005. A Global Alliance Against Forced Labour. In International Labour Conference
93rd Session. Geneva: ILO. http://www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/relm/ilc/ilc93/pdf/rep-i-b.pdf.
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Bonded Labour in India

Bonded labour, which is characterized by a long-term relationship between employer and

employee, is usually solidified through a loan, and is embedded intricately in India’s socio-
economic culture—a culture that is a product of class relations, a colonial history, and
persistent poverty among many citizens7. Also known as debt bondage, bonded labour is a
specific form of forced labour in which compulsion into servitude is derived from debt.
Categorized and examined in the scholarly literature as a type of forced labour, bonded
labour entails constraints on the conditions and duration of work by an individual. Not all
bonded labour is forced, but most forced labour practices, whether they involve children or
adults, are of a bonded nature. Bonded labour is most prevalent in rural areas where the
agricultural industry relies on contracted, often migrant labourers. However, urban areas also
provide fertile ground for long-term bondage.

Characterized by a creditor-debtor relationship that a labourer often passes on to his

family members, bonded labour is typically of an indefinite duration and involves illegal
contractual stipulations. Contracts deny an individual the basic right to choose his or her
employer, or to negotiate the terms of his or her contract. Bonded labour contracts are not
purely economic; in India, they are reinforced by custom or coercion in many sectors such as
the agricultural, silk, mining, match production, and brick kiln industries, among others.

Researchers of bonded labour in India seek to understand its long-standing practices

through an examination of contemporary forms of labour coercion, their origins and
relationships to poverty and inequality, and implications for policymaking8. Child labour,
agricultural debt bondage, and bonded migrant labour are persistent forms of modern slavery
that fall under the Indian constitutional definition of forced labour. While child labour and
bonded labour in India are typically addressed separately in the literature, many researchers

7 Bardhan, Pranab K. 1983. “Labor-Tying in a Poor Agrarian Economy: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis.” The
Quarterly Journal of Economics 98(3): 501-514.
8 http://www.ituc-csi.org/IMG/pdf/India_report_final.pdf
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focus on the causes and consequences of pervasive child labour in the world’s largest
democracy.

Child labourers face major health and physical risks: they work long hours and are
required to perform tasks for which they are physically and developmentally unprepared.
Child labour is deeply entrenched as a common practice in many sectors and states, due in
part to India’s economic emphasis on exports in recent years9. According to a current
estimate, a quarter of Indian children ages six to fourteen—roughly two hundred million
children—are working, and a third of the remaining seventy-five percent are bonded
labourers. The largest single employer of children in India is the agricultural sector where an
estimated twenty-five million children are employed; and the second largest employer of
Indian children is the service sector where children work in hotels and as household maids.
An additional five million Indian children are employed in other labour-intensive industries.

9
Majumdar, Manabi. 2001. “Child Labour as a Human Security Problem: Evidence from India.” Oxford Development
Studies 29(3): 279-304.
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Origins and Causes of India’s Bonded Labour Problem

Bonded labour stems from a variety of causes, which are highly debated in the literature:
an ingrained legacy of caste-based discrimination, vast poverty and inequality, an inadequate
education system, unjust social relations, and the government’s unwillingness to alter the
status quo all exemplify a few such causes10. Additionally, India’s colonial background and
caste system have made it difficult to delineate the history of labourers’ “unfreedom,” as
termed by several authors, and to understand legal and actual differentiations between slavery
under British rule and debt bondage and child labour today.

There are many cultural reasons for the persistence of child labour in India. An
expectation that children should contribute to the socioeconomic survival of the family and
community, as well as the existence of large families, land scarcity, and inadequate
enforcement of labour laws are contributing factors to this problem. In urban areas, following
the migration of families to overpopulated cities, the disintegration of such families due to
alcoholism and unemployment often results in a proliferation of children living on the street,
becoming labourers, and entering into prostitution.

Legal Restrictions and Enforcement

The domestic legal treatment of individual labour rights, which are clearly articulated but
seldom enforced, reflects India’s blurry history with slavery. Article 23 of the 1949
Constitution of India outlaws both the trafficking of human beings and forced labour, but the
legislation defining and banning bonded labour was only approved by Parliament in 1976.
The Bonded Labour System Abolition Act of 1976 stipulates that the monitoring of labour
violations and their enforcement are responsibilities of state governments. The Indian
government has demonstrated a severe lack of will to implement this ban on bonded labour.
Such pervasive non-enforcement may be attributed to several factors, including government
apathy, caste bias, corruption, a lack of accountability, and inadequate enforcement
personnel.

The Supreme Court of India has interpreted bonded labour as the payment of wages that
are below the prevailing market wage or the legal minimum wage. As a response to
complaints of human rights violations, the Court relies on Public Interest Law (PIL) whereby
citizens are able to petition India’s courts if they believe their rights, or the rights of their

10 Khan, Ali. 2001. “The Dignity of Labor.” Columbia Human Rights Law Review 32(2): 289-382.
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fellow citizens, are being denied. The Supreme Court’s two major examinations of child
labour in 1991 and 1997 resulted in PIL rulings that emphasized the role of poverty, and
promoted children’s education11. However, the Court refused to ban child labour outright,
citing its role as a judicial and not a legislative body.

The Indian government has not yet actively linked economic development to human
rights violations at work. A recent government measure to raise the minimum wage for
children exemplifies a lagging commitment to the eradication of child labour in particular, by
essentially legitimizing children’s work obligations and conditions. Nevertheless, the
decision of the Supreme Court to establish a rehabilitation and welfare program for working
children, in addition to the efforts of the National Human Rights Commission, have been
instrumental in sensitizing policymakers to the serious problem of child labour12.

11
http://jlsr.thelawbrigade.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Indranali-Sen.pdf

12
Pandhe, M.K., ed. 1979. Child Labour in India: Indian Institute for Regional Development Studies.
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Analysis: Forced Labour and Policy Options

Interpretations of bonded child labour as an ingrained consequence of poverty, an

impediment to genuine democracy and development, and a caste-based practice reinforced by
deep-seated biases, inform the range of policy recommendations. The challenge of effective
policy design echoes the paradox of India’s steady rise as an economic and technological
powerhouse, despite the persistence of poverty and underdevelopment. Development and
human rights-minded analyses of child labour as an economic phenomenon dominate the
literature concerned with policy solutions13. Economic-based research on bonded labour in
India centres on the links between fertility, poverty, and access to education, while bearing in
mind the policy options available to the government.

The struggle emerges in the debate—which receives limited official policy attention—
over whether to enforce the ban on child labour, attempt to curb it, or maintain the status quo.
Economists attribute the persistence of bonded labour and child labour to a variety of factors:
long-standing caste-based discrimination, inequality, a lack of educational opportunities, high
fertility levels among poor Indians—overall, to poverty as a self-reinforcing cycle. Others
challenge the position that child labour will be eradicated after poverty has been eliminated.
As labour—the engine of the country’s increasing technological sophistication and growth—
drives India toward a more equitable future, the state may gradually move away from its
traditional roots and move in the direction of ensuring human rights protections for all
citizens.

Some analysts argue that poverty alleviation is the government’s most promising
approach to the eradication of bonded child labour, given the self-perpetuating patterns of
illiteracy, inferior or nonexistent education, and children’s prevalent work participation.
Welfare programs and the provision of incentives for families not to send their children to
work are components of suggested strategies to fight child labour. Other researchers disagree
with the notion that the link between poverty and child labour is inevitable; their approach
highlights the “human security” approach to economic and social development, in which case
ensuring the rights of the child is a social and state responsibility.

The case for compulsory primary education, made prolifically by Myron Weiner,
suggests that change must come from within the Indian legal framework, and must be

13Kanbargi, Ramesh and P.M. Kulkarni. 1991. “Child Work, Schooling and Fertility in Rural Karnataka, India.” In Child
Labour in the Indian Subcontinent: Dimensions and Implications, edited by R. Kanbargi. Delhi: Sage Publications India.
 P a g e | 17

supported by official attitudes, in order to overcome profound class divisions and to achieve
the government’s broader free-market goals. Efforts to make primary education compulsory
would require an interpretation of education as not only a constitutional principle, but also as
a fundamental right enforced by the state. This perspective views education as the main
alternative to lifelong labour for all Indians, and as a building block in the construction of a
diverse, educated human resource base capable of supporting a more open and competitive
economy.

Exploitation of children working in dangerous conditions not only results in constraints

on a child’s health and development, but also solidifies his or her fate as an unskilled, low-
paid worker. A greater focus on female education would precipitate a decline in both
fertility—seen as a self-reinforcing cause and effect of child labour—and in children’s work
participation.

The debate amongst analysts of the economics of forced labour, particularly of bonded
working children, revolves around whether work can be eradicated completely—or whether
current labour conditions in India are acceptable given the economic demands of
underdevelopment14. The suggestion has also been posited that “learn and earn” policies,
which combine work and school, may be feasible. For the most part, the government fails to
enforce extant laws. Whether child labour should and can be completely outlawed and the
ban enforced, or whether the economic system in India can realistically allow for all children
to attend school, have remained at the crux of the debate for some time.

14 http://ncib.in/pdf/ncib_pdf/Labour%20Act.pdf
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The Reality

The Bonded Labour Abolition Act, 1976is undoubtedly a very comprehensive law as it
provides for freedom of bonded labourers, re empower them and at the same time provides
for prosecution of offenders. As much promising and effective the Act appears to be, the
reality does not shine bright. On a general note, this celebrated legislation has created a
framework for elimination of bonded labour, but the Supreme Court of India (Bandhua
Mukti Morcha v Union of India, 1984, Neerja Chaudhary v State of Madhya Pradesh, 1984,
P. Sivaswamy v State of Andhra Pradesh, 1988, T. Chakkalackal v State of Bihar and Ors,
1993, People’s Union for Civil Liberties and Ors v State of Tamil Nadu and Ors
1994(interim order),2004 & 2013 and the National Human Rights Commission (National
Human Rights Commission, Annual Report 1999 – 2000) have time and again stated clearly
that the implementation of this legislation by the States has been unsuccessful.

1. Non recognition of newer forms of bonded labour

The Bonded Labour Abolition Act 1976 including its amendment in 1985 stills covers the
traditional forms of bonded labour existing in the feudal agricultural system of India thus
remaining far from reality15. India now has evolved “neo-bondage” mechanisms which have
been devised so as to remain outside the ambit of the Act. Neo bondage mechanism or
attached labour has stark differences as compared to traditional bondage mechanisms such as
its time bound nature and absence of coercion. The attached labour system is based on a
contract that is concluded through a mutual intermediary. It provides mutual benefit of the
employer and the labourer unlike the bonded labour which was focused only on benefit of the
employer. Moreover, it is time bound and the labourer is free to work elsewhere after giving
due priority to his present employer and the wages are at par with the prevalent wages for the
same category of work in the area. There is wage advance which ensures income security and
is not considered as a debt as the labourer is not ready to work until he is paid an advance.
Thus in these cases neither party treats the labour done as bonded and remains complacent
with the conditions.

15Weiner, Myron. 1996. “Child Labour in India: Putting Compulsory Primary Education on the Political Agenda.”
Economic and Political Weekly.
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2. Non availability of definitive figure of bonded labourers

The main impediments to the successful implementation of the legislation are then on
availability of definitive figure of bonded labourers and non co-operation on the part of State
Governments. It is quite shocking to realize that most of the states in India have absolutely
denied the existence of bonded labour within its jurisdiction .The necessary consequence of
this is the non - conducting of periodic surveys. This has made it impossible to arrive at a
definitive figure and thus understand the magnitude of the situation. The first alternative
national level survey was carried out by the Gandhi Peace Foundation in association with the
V.V.Giri National Institute in 1978-79 and has been criticized for the non scientific
methodology adopted as a result of which its findings were not acceptable to the
Government. The states which acknowledged the presence of bonded labour showed initial
enthusiasm in identification of bonded labourers which, slowed down over a period of time
and the net result is that the available figure relates to one time effort only.

3. Judicial Intervention
Despite the intervention by judiciary the State governments have exhibited a severe absence
of will in complying with the requirements of the Act. The Supreme Court had entrusted the
National Human Rights Commission the responsibility to monitor the implementation of the
Act vide order dated 11.05.1997 in pursuance of which an Expert Group was constituted by
the NHRC which submitted the Action Taken Report to the Supreme Court on 06.06.2001.
Following this, the apex court in (PUCL v State of Tamil Nadu and Ors 2004) gave express
direction that all states and union territories should submit the NHRC prescribed status report
on bonded labour within six months. The submitted reports by States were hardly
unsatisfactory and had to be returned for clarification and additional information. The
National Human Rights Commission has time and again clarified that the approach of the
states towards implementation of the legislation remains hardly satisfactory. It clearly states
that despite financial assistance of an amount of two lacs per district every three years to
conduct surveys, it has been done only in few selected areas of states which have actually
conducted the survey. Moreover there have been cases where the reported cases of bonded
labour have been dropped by the district state officials without proper reasons (Public Union
for Civil Liberties and Ors v State of Tamil Nadu and Ors 2013).
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Conclusion

Over the last few decades the entire world has been open to globalization and liberalization
and become economically empowered. India as an emerging global power also paces forward
in its economic growth in the hope of gaining recognition amongst the global powerful. In
this journey, it is still facing stumbling blocks in the social and economic problems such as
bonded labour which the authorities choose to cover rather than tackle. The much acclaimed
transformation that the country has made has failed to promote changes in this matter.
Bonded labour has sustained all these changes undergone by the country because of its
hierarchical division of the social system coupled with persistent poverty which has
consciously or unconsciously made the people of India remain attuned to this evil without
questioning it. In addition to this, the shameful active or passive connivance of the
implementing authorities and the Governments has led to the failure of the legislation enacted
to address the problem.
Thus it may safely be said the short term dream of eradicating the evil of bonded labour is
indeed distant. India as an emerging global power must not be forgetful of the fact that as
long as the most vulnerable population is permitted to be severely and fiercely exploited
economically; she will be deficient of the moral authority to act on the global front.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books Referred

 Saharay H.K. (Dr.), Textbook on Labour and Industrial Law, 5th Edition 2011,
Universal Law Publishing Co. Ltd.
 Misra Surya Narayan, Labour and Industrial Laws, 24th Edition 2008, Central Law
Publications
 Goswami V.G. (Dr.), Labour and Industrial Laws, 8th edition 2004, Central Law
Agency.
 The Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970’; Universal Law
Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, 2011.
 Pai GB, Labour Law in India, Volume-I, Butterworths India
 Pai GB, Labour Law in India, Volume-II, Butterworths India
 Padhi P.K., Labour and Industrial Laws, 2nd Edition, PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd.

Websites

 http://www.legalserviceindia.com/article/l12-A-Study-of-Contract-Labour-
(Regulation-and-Abolition)-Act,-1970.html
 http://jlsr.thelawbrigade.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Indranali-Sen.pdf
 http://aioe.in/html/IndustrialRelations.pdf
 http://ncib.in/pdf/ncib_pdf/Labour%20Act.pdf