Relevance: GS-2: Welfare Schemes for Vulnerable Sections of the population by the Centre and States and the Performance of these Schemes

Key phrases: Minimum wages act 1948, Debt bondage, Code on wages

Why in news?

• New wage code leaves loopholes for debt bondage

Analysis:

What is bonded labour?

• It is a practice in which employers give high-interest loans to workers who work at low wages to pay off the debt.
• The Supreme Court of India has interpreted bonded labour as the payment of wages that are below the prevailing market wages and legal minimum wages.
• Bonded labour was historically associated with rural economies where peasants from economically disadvantaged communities were bound to work for the landlords.
• Bonded labour is found to exist in both rural and urban pockets in unorganized industries such as brick kilns, stone quarries, coal mining, agricultural labour, domestic servitude, circus, and sexual slavery.

Status of bonded labour in India

• India identified at least 135,000 bonded workers in its 2011 census, while the Walk Free Foundation put the number at 8 million in its 2018 Global Slavery Index
• Women and girls account for nearly three quarters (71 per cent) of all victims of modern slavery an ILO report-
• In India cases of contract violations and exploitation of Indian migrants living in the Gulf countries
• The low-income states such as Jharkhand, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, and Madhya Pradesh are more vulnerable to prevalence of bonded labour.

Reasons behind its prevalence

• Chronic Poverty and Inequality: Widespread chronic poverty and socio-economic inequality is the prime cause behind prevalence of bonded labour which often takes up an inter-generational form
• Landlessness: Having no property or possessions of their own to sell when money is needed can result in families relying on landlords
• Lack of access to formal credit: In the absence of formal credit, rural poor are forced to approach money lenders who then exploit illiterate rural poor
• Informal economy: More than 90% of India’s total workforce are engaged in the informal economy- withholding of wages, debt bondage, and physical and sexual abuse at the workplace are common
• Caste-based discrimination: Social stigmatisation and economic marginalisation of lower castes and Dalits have led to unequal power dynamics between marginalised and dominant groups
• Education: The prevailing educational infrastructure is highly unsuitable to children of economically deprived families who often fall into the trap of bonded labour

Efforts by government

• Article 21 guarantees a right to life and personal liberty. Also no person or authority can own a life of another human being. The practice of bonded labour violates all constitutionally mandated rights.
• Article 23 prohibits the practices like beggar, forced labour and human trafficking. The term beggar may mean labour or service provided by the person with less or no remuneration.
• The Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976: The objective of the Act is to provide for the abolition of bonded labour system
• Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970 is enacted to introduce better working conditions and minimize exploitation of contract labourers
• Interstate migrant workmen (regulation and employment conditions of service) Act, 1979 was enacted to regulate the working conditions of inter-state labourers in Indian labour law
• Ujjawala and Swadhar schemes initiated by the Ministry of Women and Child Development run shelter and rehabilitation services for rescued women
• Centrally Sponsored Plan Scheme for Rehabilitation of Bonded Labour: The scheme provides rehabilitation assistance to people affected by bonded labor

Judicial interventions

• Neerja Chaudhury v. State of Madhya Pradesh: The SC observed that that bonded labourers must be identified and released and on release, they must be suitably rehabilitated.
• People’s Union for Democratic Rights v. Union of India: The SC observed that where a person provides labour or service to another for remuneration which is less than minimum wage, the labour or service provided by him clearly falls within the scope and ambit of the word `forced labour’

Challenging in addressing the issue

• Poor Surveys: There has been no government-led nationwide survey since 1978, despite each district having been given ₹4.5 lakh for such surveys
• Under-reporting of cases: National Crime Records Bureau data show that not all cases are reported by the police. Between 2014 and 2016, they recorded just 1,338 victims, with 290 police cases filed
• Lack of awareness among workers: The bonded labourers are not aware of the legislation and report to the authorities only when it becomes overtly violent.
• Issues with rehabilitation: there are a range of practical challenges to the rescue and rehabilitation of bonded labourers including child labourers. These include failure to provide adequate reintegration services, a lack of human and financial resources

How do new Labour Codes promote bonded labour ?

• Allows deductions from wages for the recovery of “advances of whatever nature, and the interest due in respect thereof, or for adjustment of overpayment of wages
• It has done away with the cap of ‘not more than two months’ of a worker’s wages under the earlier Act of 1948, that an employer can give as advance
• It has legalised the charging of an interest rate by the employer on such advances, by adding the clause on interest, and with no details on what might be charged

Way ahead

• Concerted efforts must be made to create a database of bonded labourers by conducting periodic surveys.
• It is important to reduce the conditions that perpetuate bondage for example by providing decent work, education, access to formal credit and by removing possible elements of bondage and coercion in the worker-employer relationship
• Robust inter-state coordination mechanisms is required to address the issues of migrant Provisions should be made workplace improvements and linking them to social security schemes
• It is important to strengthen the role of the National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) as an independent government body to oversee and coordinate India’s response to all forms of modern slavery.
• Corporate Social Responsibility: Private companies can be encouraged to fund local initiatives and NGOs which are combatting forced and bonded labour and providing victim services, as part of the fulfilment of the CSR requirements

Source: The Hindu

Mains question:

Q. Outline the role of civil society in curbing the menace of bonded labour at grass root level. Will the increasing informalisation of work increase the latent form of bonded labour? (15 Marks, 250 Words).