Critical Analysis on Bonded Labour System Analysis Act, 1976

Critical Analysis on Bonded Labour System (abolition) profess, 1976 SALIENT FEATURES OF THE BONDED LABOUR SYSTEM (ABOLITION) ACT, 1976 This Act provides for the abolition of the remains of bonded fag give away. It freed unilaterally all the bonded labourers from bondage with simultaneous liquidation of their debts. The Act does away with every obligation of a bonded labourer to repay each bonded debt it also dispenses with the forthcoming liability of repaying a bonded debt.The law provides that (a) no suit or other proceedings shall be instituted in some(prenominal) Civil Court for the recovery of whatsoever bonded debt (b) every attachment do in the lead the commencement of the Act for the recovery of any bonded debt shall domiciliate vacated and (c) such(prenominal) movable property shall be restored to the bonded labourer. The district and sub-divisional magistrates score been entrusted with certain duties/responsibilities towards implementation of statutory prov isions.Under Section-13 of the Act, Vigilance Committees are required to be moldd at the district and sub-divisional level for implementation of the provisions of the law. They are conglomerate bodies with bringatives from different cross sections of the society and clear a life of 2 years. Registers containing the names and addresses of all freed bonded labourers, their vacation, occupation and income, details of the benefits received are required to be maintained under the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Rules. The Act provides for imprisonment up to 3 years and fine up to Rs. 2000/- to whoever compels any person to render any bonded labour and whoever advances any bonded debt. An offence expand surveys in their States. The same information was submitted to the Supreme Court by the State Governments in the form of affidavits in 1997. ? champion ILO sick namely Prevention of Family debt instrument with Micro Finance proposal and Related Services is being implemented in t ierce States, namely Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.The objective of the project is to induce subsisting micro finance institutions to develop, test and offer savings and loan products, particularly tailor-made for vulnerable families at the attempt of getting into debt traps. The prime focus of the project is on preventing marginal families from falling into debt bondage and also to ensure sustainable reclamation of freed bonded labourers. Based on its experience, a model could be considered for replication or application in other parts of the Country. Liability to repay bonded debt to stand extinguished.On the commencement of this Act, every obligation of a bonded labourer to repay any bonded debt, or such part of any bonded debt as remains unsatisfied immediately before such commencement, shall be deemed to have been extinguished. After the commencement of this Act, no suit or other proceeding shall lie in any civil court or before any other authority for the recover y of any bonded debt or any part thereof. Every decree or order for the recovery of bonded debt, passed before the commencement of this Act and not fully satisfied before such commencement, shall be deemed, on such commencement, to have been fully satisfied.Every attachment made before the commencement of this Act, for the recovery of any bonded debt, shall, on such commencement, stand vacated and, where, in pursuance of such attachment, any movable property of the bonded labourer was seized and removed from his custody and kept in the custody of any court or other authority pending sale thereof, such movable property shall be restored, as soon as whitethorn be practicable after such commencement, to the possession of the bonded labourer. Property of bonded labourer to be freed from mortgage, etc.All property vested in a bonded labourer which was, immediately before the commencement of this Act under any mortgage, summon, lien or other encumbrances in connection with any bonded de bt shall, in so far as it is relatable to the bonded debt, stand freed and discharged from such mortgage, charge, lien or other encumbrances, and where any such property was, immediately before the commencement of this Act, in the possession of the mortgagee or the holder of the charge, lien or encumbrance, such property shall (except where it was subject to any other charge), on such commencement, be restored to the possession of the bonded labourer.If any delay is made in restoring any property, referred to in sub-section (1), to the possession of the bonded labourer, such labourer shall be entitled, on and from the date of such commencement, to recover from the mortgagee or holder of the lien, charge or encumbrance, such mesne profits as may be determined by the civil court of the lowest pecuniary jurisdiction at heart the local anaesthetic limits of whose jurisdiction such property is situated. Authorities who may be specified for implementing the provisions of this Act. The S tate Government may confer such powers and impose such duties on a District Magistrate as may be necessary to ensure that the provisions of this Act are properly carried out and the District Magistrate may specify the officer, subordinate to him, who shall exercise all or any of the powers, and perform all or any of the duties, so conferred or imposed and the local limits within which such powers or duties shall be carried out by the officer so specified.Vigilance Committees. Every State Government shall, by notification in the Official Gazette, constitute such number of Vigilance Committees in each district and each Sub-Division as it may think fit.Each Vigilance Committee, constituted for a district, shall consist of the following members, namely (a) the District Magistrate, or a person nominated by him, who shall be the Chairman (b) three persons belonging to the Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes and residing in the district, to be nominated by the District Magistrate (c) two social workers, resident in the district, to be nominated by the District Magistrate (d) not more than three persons to represent the official or non-official agencies in the district connected with rural development, to be nominated by the State Government (e) one person to represent the financial and credit institutions in the district, to be nominated by the District Magistrate. Act to have overriding effect. The provisions of this Act shall have effect and anything inconsistent therewith contained in any word-painting other than this Act, or in any performer having effect by virtue of any enactment other than this Act. Agreement, custom, etc. , to be void. On the commencement of this Act, any custom or tradition or any contract, agreement or other instrument (whether entered into or executed before or after the commencement of this Act), by virtue of which any person, or any member of the family or dependant of such person, is required to do any work or render any service a s a bonded labourer, shall be void and inoperative. CONSTRAINTS Bonded Labour System is a dynamic problem it can occur and reoccur at any point of time in any industry or occupation. Once the bonded labourers are place and released, in case they are not immediately rehabilitated, they become even worse off as compared to the situation when they were bonded and were at least able to drop dead by getting two square meals. Contrary to the traditional perception that bonded labour is confined to the agricultural sector alone, it can also occur and reoccur in any form of economic activity such as, agriculture, brick-kiln, stone quarries, carpet weaving, pisciculture, etc. , CONSTITUTIONAL AND LEGAL PROVISIONS The Constitution of India guarantees to all its citizens- justice, social, economic and political, immunity of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship, equity of status and opportunity and fraternity, dignity of individual and unity of the Nation. Under Article 23 of th e ConstitutionTraffic in human beings and beggar and other standardised forms of forced labour are prohibited and any contravention of this provision shall be an offence punishable in accordance with law. Bonded Labour System (Abolition) formula was promulgated. Which was later on replaced by the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976. CENTRALLY SPONSORED PLAN SCHEME FOR REHABILITATION OF BONDED LABOURIn order to assist the State Governments in their task of rehabilitation of released bonded labourers, the Ministry of Labour launched a Centrally Sponsored Scheme since May, 1978 for rehabilitation of bonded labourers. Under this Scheme rehabilitation assistance of Rs. 20,000/- per freed bonded labour is provided, which is shared by the Central and State Governments on 5050 basis in the case of the Seven North Eastern States, 100% central assistance if they express their inability to provide their share. The Scheme also provide for financing of the following activities. Rs. 2. 00 lakh per sensitive district can be provided to concerned state government to conduct survey for appellative of bonded labour once in three years. Central assistance of Rs. 10. 00 lakhs every year can be sanctioned to every tate government to undertake consciousness generation activities relating to bonded labour system. Rs. 5. 00 lakh per year can be sanctioned to every state government to study impact of existing land-debt related issues bear on bonded labourers and the impact of poverty alleviation programmes and financial assistance provided by various Government sources so far. Besides above the States Governments have also been advised to conflate/ dovetail the Centrally Sponsored Scheme for rehabilitation of bonded labour with other ongoing poverty alleviation schemes such as Swaran Jayanti Gram Swa Rojgar Yojana (SJGSRY), Special Component see for Supreme Court, Tribal Sub-Plan etc.Accordingly, the rehabilitation package provided by the concerned Stated Governments for the freed bonded labourers includes the following major components (i) Allotment of house-site and agricultural land (ii) Land development (iii) training of low cost dwelling units (iv) Animal husbandry, dairy, poultry, piggery etc. (v) Training for acquiring new skills developing existing skills (vi) Wage employment, enforcement of minimum wages etc. (vii) Collection and processing of minor forest products (viii) Supply of essential commodities under targeted public distribution system (ix) Education for children and (x) Protection of civil rights.INTERNATIONAL LABOUR establishment AND FORCED/ BONDED LABOUR There are two ILO Conventions, Convention No. 29 concerning Forced or Compulsory labour (1930) and Convention No. cv concerning Abolition of Forced Labour (1957). Government of India has ratified both the Conventions. Before the 89th Session of the International Labour Conference (June 2001) the Director General of ILO submitted a spheric report on Stopping Forced La bour. This report contained references regarding incidences of bonded labour in India on the basis of survey conducted by the Gandhi Peace Foundation and subject field Labour Institute and also the estimates of some other NGOs.The Gandhi Peace Foundation and the National Labour Institute conducted a survey in 1978-79, which had estimated the number of bonded labour as 2. 6 million. This survey was based on a random sample drawn from a total of 4,50,199 villages in the ten selected States. Finally, deoxyguanosine monophosphate villages from out of the 4,50,000 villages were selected. Every 450th villages in the census list of villages of each State starting with a random number was selected for the survey. The findings of the survey in respect of the above 1000 villages were multiplied by 450 to find out the total number of bonded labourers in ten States. Since the methodology adopted by the Gandhi Peace Foundation was not scientific the Government have not accepted their estimates .The need for having authentic data on number of bonded labourers in India was emphasized. It was urged that comprehensive and authoritative survey might be conducted in this regard. From the Government side, it was stated that the Government has strong will and intent to abolish and totally banish the bonded labour system from every nook and ceding back of the country. It was indicated that the Government of Indias estimates of bonded labour, as also reported in the following pages, were based on the information submitted by the concerned State Governments after conducting detailed surveys in their States. The same information was submitted to the Supreme Court by the State Governments in the form of affidavits in 1997. One ILO project namely Prevention of Family Indebtedness with Micro Finance Scheme and Related Services is being implemented in three States, namely Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The objective of the project is to induce existing micro finance institut ions to develop, test and offer savings and loan products, particularly tailor-made for vulnerable families at the risk of getting into debt traps. The prime focus of the project is on preventing marginal families from falling into debt bondage and also to ensure sustainable rehabilitation of freed bonded labourers. Based on its experience, a model could be considered for replication orapplication in other parts of the Country.