Bonded Labour Persists in India’s Agricultural Sector

Why in News?

Authorities rescued 32 alleged bonded labourers, including seven women, from a sugarcane field at Ganganadoddi village in Karnataka’s Chamarajanagar district. Thirty workers had reportedly been recruited from Tamil Nadu and one each from Andhra Pradesh and Bihar.

The workers were allegedly lured with promises of employment, paid little or no wages, prevented from interacting with outsiders and moved across farms in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Their injuries and prolonged confinement underline the intersection of bonded labour, unsafe migration and labour trafficking. 

What is Bonded Labour?

• Under the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976, bonded labour refers to forced work arising from a debt, advance, customary obligation, inherited liability or social relationship, often performed:
  • without wages or for nominal wages
  • without freedom to change employment
  • with restrictions on movement; or
  • under the loss of control over one’s labour or property.
• Bonded labour is therefore a form of forced labour linked to debt or obligation. Forced labour is a broader category and may exist even without a debt. E.g., Threats, confinement or extreme economic compulsion deprive a worker of genuine choice.

Constitutional and Legal Protection: 

• Article 21: Protects life and human dignity.
• Article 23: Prohibits trafficking, begar and similar forms of forced labour. It is enforceable against both the State and private individuals.
• Article 39(e): Directs the State to prevent abuse of workers’ health and strength.
• Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976: Abolishes bondage, extinguishes bonded debts and entrusts identification, release and rehabilitation primarily to State governments, District Magistrates and vigilance committees.
• Code on Wages, 2019: Effective from November 2025, extends minimum-wage protection to employees across sectors. 

Judicial Rulings: 

• In People’s Union for Democratic Rights v. Union of India (1982), the Supreme Court held that labour extracted for less than the statutory minimum wage could amount to forced labour under Article 23. 
• In Bandhua Mukti Morcha v. Union of India (1984), it placed a positive obligation on governments to identify, release and rehabilitate bonded workers. 

Rehabilitation Framework: 

Central Sector Scheme for Rehabilitation of Bonded Labourer: 

• Under the Scheme revised in 2022:
  • Immediate assistance of up to ₹30,000 may be provided after rescue
  • Rehabilitation assistance is ₹1 lakh for an adult male
  • ₹2 lakh for women, children and specified vulnerable categories; and
  • ₹3 lakh in cases of extreme deprivation, trafficking, sexual exploitation or disability.
• Non-cash support may include housing, land, healthcare, education, skills, livelihood assistance, PDS coverage and wage employment. 

India has ratified the ILO Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105), which aims at eliminating all forms of forced or compulsory labour.

Why does Bonded Labour Persist?

• Poverty and informal debt: Poor households often depend on employers or moneylenders for emergency loans. Wage advances are then manipulated into ever-growing debts, restricting workers’ freedom to leave.
• Caste and tribal marginalisation: SCs, STs and other socially excluded communities frequently lack land, assets and bargaining power, making them especially vulnerable to coercive labour relations.
• Distress migration: Migrants recruited through unregistered contractors are often deceived about wages and working conditions. Their unfamiliarity with the destination and language increases dependence on employers.
• Low legal awareness: Illiteracy and limited knowledge of minimum wages, freedom of movement and rehabilitation rights prevent workers from recognising and reporting exploitation.
• Absence of employment records: Oral contracts and cash payments allow employers to manipulate accounts, withhold wages and falsely inflate workers’ debts.
• Weak labour inspection: Bonded labour is concentrated in dispersed and informal workplaces such as farms, brick kilns, mines and plantations, which frequently remain outside effective regulatory supervision.
• Administrative and judicial delays: Delays in issuing release certificates, providing compensation and prosecuting employers weaken deterrence and may force survivors back into exploitative work.
• Non-portable welfare benefits: Migrant workers may lose access to rations, healthcare, housing and social security benefits outside their home State, increasing their dependence on contractors. 
• Gender and age vulnerabilities: Women and children face additional risks of sexual exploitation, unpaid domestic work, trafficking and denial of education, while such exploitation often remains hidden within family-based labour arrangements.

Women and children face compounded risks, including sexual exploitation, unpaid household work and denial of education.

Way Forward: 

• District administrations must conduct regular surveys in vulnerable sectors, register labour contractors and ensure the use of written multilingual employment contracts. 
• Interstate coordination should enable workers to receive release certificates and rehabilitation benefits without jurisdictional delays.
• A national digital portal should track workers from rescue to sustainable rehabilitation.
• Rehabilitation must combine compensation with housing, healthcare, counselling, skill development, MGNREGA work, a portable ration and social security benefits. 
• Investigations should target the entire chain (recruiters, contractors and principal employers), not merely the immediate supervisor.

Rescue is only the first step. Unless workers receive timely rehabilitation, secure livelihoods and access to institutional credit, poverty may push them back into bondage. 

Eliminating bonded labour is essential to realise constitutional dignity and achieve SDG Target 8.7, which calls for ending forced labour, modern slavery, human trafficking and child labour.