India’s Bonded Labour Crisis: A National Shame
India’s Shame — The Trap of Bonded Labour
Context: As the world observes International Labour Day on May 1, honouring workers’ rights and the dignity of labour, India faces a stark contradiction.
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- Behind its growing economy lies a grim reality — millions of Indians remain trapped in bonded and forced labour, victims of a system that thrives on their exploitation.
Trapped in Modern-Day Slavery: The Story of Mukesh and Thenmozhi
- Mukesh: In Shivpuri, Madhya Pradesh, Mukesh Adivasi, 35, lies debilitated on a charpoy, bearing the scars of his ordeal as a bonded labourer in Karnataka.
- Lured by promises of work in Indore in 2023, Mukesh and his family were trafficked over 1,400 kilometres to toil on a sugarcane farm.
- A mere ₹500 advance sealed their fate. What followed was 14 to 16 hours of gruelling daily labour under armed supervision, culminating in brutal violence when Mukesh demanded wages.
- A savage beating left him with a shattered leg, and only a police rescue ended their captivity. However, the physical and emotional trauma remain.
- Thenmozhi: In Puttur, Andhra Pradesh, Thenmozhi, now 17, recounts how her childhood was stolen at 13.
- Her family, mired in debt, accepted ₹2,000 from a labour agent and began working in a brick kiln in Bengaluru, enduring up to 14 hours of manual labour daily under oppressive heat.
- The kiln owner’s abuse, threats, and confinement erased any semblance of freedom.
- A social worker’s visit triggered the owner’s escape, allowing Thenmozhi and her family to flee barefoot by train — but the scars of bondage persist.
- Not Isolated: These are not isolated cases. They represent just a fraction of the 1.84 crore estimated bonded labourers in India — a number that highlights the scale of modern slavery in the country.
Bonded Labour in India: A Systemic Crisis
- Bonded labour in India is driven by a toxic mix of poverty, social exclusion, and systemic failures.
- While immediate crises such as medical expenses, job loss, or dowry demands may force workers into debt, deeper issues like caste-based discrimination, illiteracy, and exploitative employer dominance ensure that these debts turn into generational servitude.
- Employers frequently manipulate financial dependencies into mechanisms of social control.
- Despite the abolition of bonded labour in 1975, and a renewed national plan in 2016 to rescue and rehabilitate 1.84 crore workers by 2030, progress remains dismal.
- As of 2021, just 12,760 bonded labourers had been rescued, leaving over 1.71 crore still in bondage.
- To meet the 2030 goal, over 11 lakh rescues are needed each year — a figure far beyond current capacity, making the target increasingly implausible.
Constitutional and Legal Provisions
Article 23: Prohibition of Traffic in Human Beings and Forced Labour.
- Article 23(1): Prohibits trafficking in human beings, begar (forced, unpaid labour), and other similar forms of forced labour. Any violation is an offence punishable by law.
- Article 23(2): Allows the State to impose compulsory service for public purposes (such as military or social service), provided that no discrimination is made on grounds of religion, race, caste, or class.
Article 24: Prohibits the employment of children below the age of 14 years in any factory, mine, or other hazardous employment.
Directive Principles (Articles 39, 42, 43, 46): Direct the State to ensure humane working conditions, adequate livelihood, and protection of weaker sections, reinforcing the constitutional intent to eradicate bonded labour.
Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976: Enacted to give effect to Article 23, this Act abolishes the bonded labour system in all its forms. All existing bonded labourers are freed and discharged from any obligation to render bonded labour, and any bonded debts are cancelled.
Minimum Wages Act, 1948: Ensures payment of minimum wages; payment below this is considered forced labour.
Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979: Regulates the working conditions of migrant workers, who are particularly vulnerable to bonded labour.
Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970: Regulates the employment of contract labour to prevent exploitation.
India’s Unorganised Workers: Vulnerable and Voiceless
- Beyond bonded labourers, an estimated 39 crore unorganised sector workers, including millions of migrant workers, face exploitative conditions akin to forced labour.
- According to the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) and the ILO’s India Employment Report 2024, informal and precarious jobs dominate India’s labour market.
- These workers lack union representation, formal contracts, legal protections, or avenues for redress.
- Their vulnerability is exacerbated by weak implementation of labour laws and the recent dilution of workers’ rights through the 2019–20 Labour Codes, which have undermined decades of struggle for labour justice led by pioneers like Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.
Investigations Reveal a Harsh Truth
- Indian industries are silently dependent on forced labour, particularly that of migrants displaced by climate change, economic hardship, and lack of rural opportunities.
- Interviews with hundreds of such workers reveal stories of exploitation, unpaid wages, unsafe working conditions, and the constant fear of dismissal.
- These workers are not just underpaid — they are systematically dehumanised in pursuit of profit.
- This isn’t just an economic failure — it’s a moral crisis.
- India’s economic growth, in many sectors, is being built on the back of modern slavery.
