What Is Bonded Labour?

 

Bonded Labour is the most prevalent form of forced labour, where a person pledges his services as security for the repayment of a debt or other obligation.
The terms of repayment are not clearly or reasonably stated, which leaves the debtor at the mercy of the lender, who now exacts his payment by making them work for a lifetime – in deplorable conditions – with little or no wages.

Where Does Bonded Labour Exist?

 

Being an invisible crime today, it goes unnoticed, unless further probing is done. Bonded Labour exists in rural and urban unorganized and informal sector, across the length and breadth of the country. Based on global estimates of modern slavery by the ILO in 2016, there are 4 crore people trapped in slavery, of which 2.5 crores are in forced labour.

Individuals, families or sometimes whole communities are trapped in this cycle. They have either been deceived or coerced in the bonded labour system.

  • Agarbhatti factories
  • Agricultural farms & plantations
  • Anklet making factory
  • Auto ancillary units
  • Bag making factory
  • Bakery
  • Beedi factories
  • Bhindi making factory
  • Blue metals/crushers
  • Bore-well digging
  • Brick kilns
  • Bulb making factory
  • Cable (Digging)
  • Canal construction
  • Cardboard making factory
  • Casuarina farm
  • Cattle grazing
  • Charcoal Unit
  • Coffee Plantation.
  • Construction sites
  • Consultancy Services
  • Cotton Mill
  • Dairy Farm
  • Dhaabas
  • Domestic/house labour
  • Egg Tray factory
  • Embroidery unit
  • Eucalyptus farm
  • Firecracker Factory
  • Fish farming
  • Flower Garden
  • Fly ash brick making unit
  • Food Processing Unit
  • Footwear factory
  • Garment Factory
  • Goat rearing
  • Hollow blocks (concrete)
  • Horticulture Unit
  • Mango grove
  • Marble, Granite factories
  • Mat making unit
  • Murukku unit
  • Music Band
  • Paani Puri making unit
  • Plastic Factory
  • Poultry Farm
  • Power Loom
  • Prawn hatchery
  • Restaurants & Eateries
  • Rice Mill
  • Road works
  • Rock Quarries
  • Rose farm
  • Salt works
  • Sheep Grazing
  • Silk breeding farms
  • Spare parts manufacturing
  • Spinning Mill

This violates their fundament rights as mentioned in Article 23(1) Part III of the Indian Constitution, which states, “Traffic in human beings and forced labour such as beggar are prohibited and any contravention of the provision, shall be an offence, punishable by law.”