Assignment- Labour Law 2

TOPIC- History of bonded labour and its prevalence in India

Contents
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 2
HISTORICAL PEONAGE .................................................................................................................................. 3
SOME INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS CONVENTIONS ............................................................................. 5
MARXIST PERSPECTIVE ON BONDED LABOUR .............................................................................................. 6
PREVALENCE OF BONDED LABOUR IN INDIA ................................................................................................ 6
INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................................... 6
PROTECTION AGAINST BONDED LABOUR GIVEN UNDER CONSTITUTION ................................... 7
ROLE OF STATE AND JUDICIARY FOR PROTECTION AGAINST BONDED LABOUR ................................. 8
ANALYSIS OF THE BONDED LABOUR SYSTEM (ABOLITION) ACT, 1976............................................... 10
Difficulties in its implementation ............................................................................................................... 10
PROTECTION PROVIDED IN THE BONDED LABOUR SYSTEM (ABOLITION) ACT, 1976 ....................... 11
STATISTICS : THE TRUTH NEVER REVEALED ........................................................................................ 11
OBSERVATION OF THE JUDICIARY....................................................................................................... 12
SUGGESTIONS ..................................................................................................................................... 14
CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................................................... 14
BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................................... 15

1
 I. Introduction

Prior to the early modern age, feudal and serfdom systems were the predominant political and
economic systems in Europe. These systems were based on the holding of all land in fief or fee,
and the resulting relation of lord to vassal, and was characterized by homage, legal and military
service of tenants, and forfeiture.1 Many historians have argued that this system was also
established in some Latin American countries, following European settlement.2

A modernization of the feudal system was "peonage"3, where debtors were bound in servitude to
their creditors until their debts were paid. Although peons are only obliged to a creditor
monetarily, it might be viewed that this relationship reduces personal autonomy.4

1
Serfdom, available at : https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Serfdom (last visited on 2 May 2023)
2
Serfdom: An overview, available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/serfdom (last visited on
3 May 2023)
3
History of Peonage, available at: https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/amendment-13/section-
1%E2%80%932/peonage ( Last visited on 3 may 2023)
4
Ibid.

2
 II. HISTORICAL PEONAGE

Peonage is a system where laborers are bound in servitude until their debts are paid in full.5

Those bound by such a system are known, in the US, as peons.6 Employers may extend credit to
laborers to buy from employer-owned stores at inflated prices. This method is a variation of the
truck system 7(or company store system), in which workers are exploited by agreeing to work for
an insufficient amount of goods and/or services. In these circumstances, peonage is a form of
unfree or restricted or constrained labour. Such systems have existed in many places at many
times throughout history.

III. GLOBAL PREVALENCE OF BONDED LABOUR IN HISTORY

 In Colonial America, some settlers used indentured service to obtain passage or an initial
settlement, then continued working independently after completing their bonded labor8.

 Such a system was often used in the southern United States after the American Civil War
where African-American and poor white farmers, known as sharecroppers, were often
extended credit to purchase seed and supplies from the owner of the land they farmed and
pay the owner in a share of the crop.9

 In Peru a peonage system existed from the 1500s until land reform in the 1950s. One
estate in Peru that existed from the late 1500s until it ended had up to 1,700 peons
employed and had a jail.10 Peons were expected to work a minimum of three days a week

5
Ibid.
6
Slavery V. Peonage, available at: https://www.pbs.org/tpt/slavery-by-another-
name/themes/peonage/#:~:text=Peonage%2C%20also%20called%20debt%20slavery,outlawed%20by%20Congres
s%20in%201867. ( last visited on 3 May 2023)
7
Truck System meaning, available at: https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/truck-system ( last
visited on 3 May 2023)
8
Supra Note. 3.
9
Amanda Brickell Bellows, “ ,American Slavery and Russian Serfdom in the Post-Emancipation Imagination”,p 34
(Chapel Hill, NC, 2020; online edn, North Carolina Scholarship Online, 20 May 2021), available at:
https://doi.org/10.5149/northcarolina/9781469655543.001.0001, (last visited on 7 May 2023).
10
Ibid.

3
 for their landlord and more if necessary to complete assigned work. Workers were paid a
symbolic 2 cents per year.11 Workers were unable to travel outside of their assigned lands
without permission and were not allowed to organize any independent community
activity.12

 Thousands of such laborers were sold into slavery during the West African slave trade
and ended their lives working as slaves on the plantations in the New World.13 For this
reason, Section 2 of the Slave Trade Act 184314 enacted by the British Parliament
declared "persons holded in servitude as pledges for debt" to "be slaves or persons
intended to be dealt with as slaves" for the purpose of the Slave Trade Act 1824 and the
Slavery Abolition Act 1833.15

 It continued to be very common in Africa and China, but was suppressed by the
authorities after the establishment of the People's Republic of China. It persists in rural
areas of India, Pakistan and Nepal.16

11
Ibid. At. 35
12
Ibid.
13
International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, United Nations,
available at: https://www.un.org/en/observances/decade-people-african-descent/slave-trade ( last visited on 2 May
2023)

14
Slave Trade Act 1843, s.2. available at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Vict/6-7/98/enacted ( last visited on
3 May 2023)
15
The Slave Trade - A historical Background, available at:
https://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/campaignforabolition/abolitionbackground/abolitionintro.html ( last visited
on 3 May 2023)

16
50 million people worldwide in modern slavery, (International Labour Organisation), available at:
https://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_855019/lang--en/index.htm ( last visited on 3 May
2023)

4
  In Niger, where the practice of slavery was outlawed in 2003, a study found that almost
8% of the population are still slaves. Descent-based slavery, where generations of the
same family are born into bondage, is traditionally practised by at least four of Niger’s
eight ethnic groups. The slave masters are mostly from the nomadic tribes — the Tuareg,
Fulani, Toubou and Arabs.17

 40 million people in India, most of them Dalits, are bonded workers, many working to
pay off debts that were incurred generations ago.18 There are no universally accepted
figures for the number of bonded child laborer in India.

IV. SOME INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS CONVENTIONS

The practice of bonded labour violates the following International Human Rights Conventions
whereas India is a party to all of them and such is legally bound to comply with their terms. They
are:

1. Convention on the Suppression of Slave Trade and Slavery, 1926;19

2. Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade and Institutions
and Practices Similar to Slavery Trade, 1956;20
3. Forced Labour Convention, 1930;21
4. Article 8 of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), 1966;22

17
Ibid.
18
Survey of begars, India, available at: https://pib.gov.in/Pressreleaseshare.aspx?PRID=1781351 ( last visited on 3
May 2023)
19
Slavery Convention, U.N, available at: https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/slavery-
conventionI ( last visited on 3 may)
20
Convention to Suppress the Slave Trade and Slavery (Slavery Convention),
http://humanrightscommitments.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Slavery-Convention.pdf. ( last visited on 3 may
2023)
21
Forced Labor Convention 1930, available at:
https://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:12100:0::NO::P12100_ILO_CODE:C029 ( last visited on
May 3 2023)

5
 5. Article 5 of the 1981 African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights states. 23

V. MARXIST PERSPECTIVE ON BONDED LABOUR

According to Marxist economists, debt bondage is characteristic of feudal economies, where

families are considered the responsible unit for financial relationships, and where heirs continue
to owe parents' debts upon their deaths.24 Fully capitalist economies are characterized by the
individual taking all responsibility, and such mechanisms as bankruptcy and inheritance taxes
reducing creditors' rights (while increasing the power of the state).25 Heirs are freed from the
creditor, but at the cost of a drastically increased power accruing to the state itself.

I. PREVALENCE OF BONDED LABOUR IN INDIA

II. INTRODUCTION

22
ICCPR, art. 8. available at:
https://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:12100:0::NO::P12100_ILO_CODE:C029 (last visited on
3 May 2023)
23
African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights states 1981, art. 5. available at: https://ihl-
databases.icrc.org/fr/customary-ihl/v2/rule94
24
Historical Background of Bonded Labour, India, available: https://www.lawteacher.net/free-law-essays/human-
rights/bonded-labour-in-india.php (last visited on 3 may 2023)
25
Ibid.

6
Bonded labour is widely prevalent in many regions in India.26 The main feature of the system is
that the debtor pledges his person or that a member of his family for a loan and is released on the
repayment of the debt.

Bonded labour is referred to by different names in different regions. The Elayaperumal

Committee mentions the following:Gothi in Orissa; Machindari in Madya Pradesh; Sagri in
Rajasthan; Vet Begar and Salbandi in Maharastha; Jana, Manihi or Ijhari in Jammu and Kashmir;
Jeetha in Mysore; Vetti in Tamil Nadu; Kamiya or Kuthiya in Chattisgarh.27

In the beginning of the twentieth century the system combined the elements of exploitation,
patronage and protection at least in some regions.28But with increasing trend towards the money-
economy and changes in the types of use to which agricultural land is put, the element of
patronage disappeared and that of exploitation persisted.29

III. PROTECTION AGAINST BONDED LABOUR GIVEN UNDER

CONSTITUTION

The Constitution of India provides for the following provisions against the bonded labour:
 Preamble: The Constitution of India guarantees all citizen social, economic and political
justice, freedom of thought and expression, equality of status and opportunity and
fraternity assuring dignity of the individual;30
 Article 14, 15 and 16: These articles guarantee equality and equal treatment;31
 Article 19(1) (g): The article guarantees freedom of trade and profession;32
 Article 21: The article guarantees right to life and liberty;33

26
SUPRA NOTE. 17.
27
James, P. A., & G. Sreenivas Reddy,” Commissioner for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Economic and
Political Weekly”, p14. (1949). available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4367742 (last visited on 3 may 2023)

28
SUPRA NOTE. 17
29
Ibid.
30
The Constitution of India. Preamble.
31
ibid. Art.14,15,16
32
The constitution of India, art.19(1)(g)
33
Ibid. Art. 21

7
  Article 23: Prohibition of traffic in human beings and forced labour - Traffic in human
beings and begar and other similar forms of forced labour are prohibited, and any
contravention of this provision shall be an offence punishable in accordance with law.
Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from imposing compulsory service for
public purposes, and in imposing such service the State shall not make any discrimination
on grounds only on religion, race, caste or class or any of them.34
 Article 24: The article prohibits the employment of children whether as bonded labour or
otherwise. Together, Article 23 and Article 24 are place under the heading “Right against
Exploitation”, one of India’s constitutionally proclaimed fundamental rights.35
 Directive Principles: Moreover, the Directive Principles directs the State to strive to
secure, inter alia: (a) Just and human conditions of work (Article 42); (b) Educational and
economic interest of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe and other weaker section
of the society (Article 46).36
 Under Article 42. Provision for just and humane conditions of work and maternity relief
- The State shall make provision for securing just and humane conditions of work and for
maternity relief.37
 Under Article 43. Living wage, etc. for workers - The State shall endeavour to secure,
by suitable legislation or economic organization or in any other way, to all workers,
agricultural, industrial or otherwise, work and living wage, conditions of work ensuring a
decent standard of life and full enjoyment of leisure and social and cultural opportunities
and, in particular the State shall endeavour to promote cottage industrial on an individual
or co-operative basis in rural areas.38

IV. ROLE OF STATE AND JUDICIARY FOR PROTECTION AGAINST

BONDED LABOUR

In order to give effect to the constitutional prohibition of bonded labour as specified under
Article 23 of Indian Constitution39, Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act was passed in 1976.
The Act was intended to free all bonded laborer, cancel their debts, establish rehabilitative

34
Ibid. Art. 23
35
Ibid. Art. 24
36
Ibid. Art. 42, 46
37
Ibid. Art. 42
38
Ibid. Art.43
39
Supra Note. 32

8
measures and punish offenders through imprisonment and fines.40 Implementation of the Act is
the responsibility of the State Government.41

Apart from the implementation of the Bonded Labour (Abolition) Act, the response of the
judiciary has been positive, but disappointment comes when it is seen that till date there has not
been a single case of conviction. Some of the major case laws related to the issue of bonded
labour are:

1) Dharambir v State 42(1979), where the Supreme Court held that prisoners are entitled to
fair wages while doing work in the jails. The court held that free labour by prisoners is
violative of Article 23 of the Constitution.
2) PUDR v UOI43 (1982), where the Supreme Court held that giving wages below the limits
set by the Minimum Wages Act would amount to forced labour.
3) Bandhua Mukti Morcha v UOI 44(1984), where the Supreme Court issued directions for
the release and rehabilitation of bonded labourers engaged in the mining operations.
45
4) Neerja Chaudhary v State of M.P (1984), wherethe Supreme Court expressed anguish
over the indifference of the government towards the rehabilitation of released bonded
labourers.
46
5) Shankar Mukherjee v UOI (1990), where the Supreme Court held that the Contract
Labour Act, 1970 is a welfare legislation that must be interpreted liberally in favour of
the labourers. The court further held that the system of contract labour is just another
form of bonded labour and it should be abolished due to its baneful effect.
6) PUCL v State of TN47 (2004) , where the Supreme Court appreciated the role of NGOs in
the prevention of bonded labour and their emancipation. The court further observed that
the approach of judiciary should be benevolent towards bonded labourers.

40
S.N Mishra, Labour and Industrial laws, p. 678 ( Central Law Publication, Allahabad, 27 th ed.)
41
Ibid.
42
1979 AIR 1595
43
1982 AIR 1473
44
1984 AIR 802
45
AIR 1984 SC 1099
46
1990 AIR 532
47
Writ Petition (Civil) No. 3922 of 1985

9
 V. ANALYSIS OF THE BONDED LABOUR SYSTEM (ABOLITION)
ACT, 1976

The open objectives of the Act are Identification, Release and Rehabilitation of Bonded
Labourers. Let us analyse some of the silent features of the Act:

Firstly, it is about the awareness of the need for machinery relating to its implementation.
Secondly, the Act envisages the Constitution of Vigillance Communities at the district and sub-
divisioned level, to advise the District Magistrate and to ensure the implementation of the
provision of the Act.48 Thirdly, Section 16 to 19 of the Act deals with the Penal Sanctions
which are, if enforced properly, sufficient to have the requisite effect.49

Difficulties in its implementation

The real problem lies in the implementation aspects. The failure in the implementation of the Act
may arise because of a variety of factors chide among them, namely:

1. Lack of Awareness: The need to create awareness of socio-economic legislation or to

publicize it is hardly realized.
2. Lack of Administrative and Political Will: Not infrequently, the administrators who
implement the programmers are drawn from the dominant castes whose interests are
adversely affected by the legislation.50
3. Lack of Facilities for Legal Aid and Advice: Often, illiteracy, lack of communication,
remoteness from urban centers and poverty inhibits the weaker section from taking
advantage of the legal process available to them.
4. Social and Economic Dependence: The law should take account of the social and
economic background of the issue.
5. Lack of Measures to Make Concerned Official Countable for Their in Action or
Misdeeds: In Neeraja Chaudhary v. State of M.P.51 (1982), most of the released bonded
labourer had not been rehabilitated even after six months of their release.

48
G.B Pai, Labour Law in India, p 244 (Butterworths India, VOL1, 2001)
49
Ibid.
50
P.L Malik,” Labour law 1", P 412(Eastern Book COMPANY, Lucknow)
51
SUPRA NOTE 43.

10
VI. PROTECTION PROVIDED IN THE BONDED LABOUR SYSTEM
(ABOLITION) ACT, 1976
On commencement of this Act, the bonded labour system shall stand abolished and every
bonded labourer shall stand freed and discharged free from any obligation to render bonded
labour.52Any custom, agreement or other instrument by virtue of which a person is required to
render any service as bonded labour shall be void. Liability to repay bonded debt shall be
deemed to have been extinguished.53 Property of the bonded labourer to be freed from mortgage
etc.54

VII. STATISTICS : THE TRUTH NEVER REVEALED

Official statistics reflecting enforcement of the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act are
equally difficult to obtain. Statistics regarding application of the Bonded Labour System
(Abolition) Act to children are nonexistent. Indeed, at least some government officials
interviewed by Human Rights Watch appeared to be laboring under the conviction that the
Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act does not apply to children, an interpretation that has no
basis in the law itself nor in Supreme Court cases interpreting the law.55

As of March 1993, the latest date for which official figures are available, state governments had
reported the identification and release of a total of 251,424 bonded laborers. 56This number
indicates all bonded laborers identified and released since the Bonded Labour System
(Abolition) Act was passed in 1976. Of this number, 227,404 were reported to have been
rehabilitated. If this number includes any rehabilitated bonded child laborers, that fact has not
been reported.57

52
Ibid.
53
Ibid. At 422.
54
Ibid.
55
Elena Samonova, Human Rights Through the Eyes of Bonded Labourers in India, JOURNAL of MODERN
SLAVERY (Volume 7, Issue 2, 2022)
56
Acharya, Arun Kumar; Naranjo, Diego López (2019), "Practices of Bonded Labour in India: Forms of
Exploitation and Human Rights Violations", The SAGE Handbook of Human Trafficking and Modern Day
Slavery,P. 126-127 (SAGE Publications Ltd,)
57
Bonded labour in India — A myth or reality?, India, available at: https://i-probono.com/articles/bonded-labour-in-
india-a-myth-or-reality/ (last visited on 5 may 2023)

11
 State governments' statistics grossly under-report the current incidence of bonded labor. As
mentioned, the Supreme Court has been examining the incidence of bonded labor in thirteen
states. These thirteen states, chosen by the court for investigation because of their reputation for
high rates of debt bondage, all claimed in affidavits to the court that there was little or no bonded
labor within their jurisdictions.58 The court, skeptical of these claims, appointed teams of
investigators to study the issue in each state.

When districts and states do report on statistics regarding the identification and rehabilitation of
bonded laborers, these numbers are frequently unreliable. The team investigating bonded labor in
Tamil Nadu, for example, found that statutory registers relating to bonded labour were not
maintained in many districts."59Simple neglect or lack of resources is not the only or even the
primary reason for lack of accurate statistics. According to the investigative team, "Details
provided by the state government and the district administration do not tally in most districts and
even appear fabricated."60

VIII. OBSERVATION OF THE JUDICIARY

A Supreme Court lawyer closely connected to bonded labor litigation corroborated the unreliable
nature of the district collectors' reports, saying there is "no mechanism to ascertain the collectors'
veracity." According to this advocate and others familiar with the issue, corruption in application
of the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act and dispersal of act- related rehabilitation funds is

58
Force And Compulsion At The Instance Of Accused Must Be Established To Attract Offence U/Sec 16 Bonded
Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976 : Supreme Court, available at:
https://www.livelaw.in/top-stories/supreme-court-bonded-labour-system-abolition-act-force-and-compulsion-
selvakumar-vs-manjula-2022-livelaw-sc-786-209990 (last visited on 5 May 2023)
59
Bonded Labour In India: An Analysis, INDIA, available at: https://www.mondaq.com/india/employee-rights-
labour-relations/882222/bonded-labour-in-india-an-analysis ( last visited on 5th May 2023)

60
Prevalence of Bonded Labour in India, India, available at: https://blog.forumias.com/prevalence-of-bonded-
labour-in-india/ ( last visited on 5th may 2023)

12
common.61"A collector may receive 100,000 rupees for rehabilitation efforts but disperse only
10,000 of it. Embezzlement is difficult to track, but we all know it happens. For example, a
bonded labourer comes in, puts his thumb print on the document saying he will receive 6,250
rupees, but receives only 3,000 rupees."62

Corruption and neglect are not the only reasons for bad statistics regarding bonded labor.
Another is passivity on the part of enforcing officials, who too often take no affirmative steps to
discover and root out debt bondage in their districts. Whether this is due to simple apathy or to a
misunderstanding on their part of their official duties, the effect is disastrous for bonded laborers,
who are left in their state of enslavement indefinitely. Up to 1988, there were 7,000 prosecutions
under the Bonded Labour (Abolition) Act throughout India, of which 700 resulted in convictions.
It is certain that prosecution under the act is rare.63 In Tamil Nadu, the first prosecutions under
the twenty-year-old act occurred in 1995, when eight beedi employers were arrested by the North
Arcot District Collector. The case, which drew headlines in the regional press, was depicted as a
boldbuttough"measure.64

I. HINDRANCES: The problem of Bonded Labour System is not a problem in or by itself.

It is a part of the larger issue of welfare of the nation as a whole. Besides the several
failures of implementation of the Act, the Report from Human Right Watch Asia (1996)
finds that there are also some obstacles to enforce the Act65, namely: Apathy; Caste and
Class Bias; Obstruction; Corruption;Lack of Accountability; Lack of Adequate
Enforcement Staff.66

61
BOOK ON BONDED LABOUR (NHRC), available at:
https://nhrc.nic.in/sites/default/files/Hand_Book_Bonded_Labour_08022019.pdf (last visited on 6th May)
62
Ibid.
63
Bonded labour: Tamil Nadu saw zero conviction in three years, India, available at:
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/bonded-labour-tn-saw-zero-conviction-in-
3yrs/articleshow/70612918.cms ( last visited on 6May 2023)

64
Ibid.
65
Hindrances in convictions, available at: https://www.hrw.org/asia/india ( last visited on 6th May 2023)
66
Ibid.

13
IX. SUGGESTIONS

The problem of bonded labour is dynamic in nature and it can reoccur at any point of time. Thus,
the bonded labourers must be rehabilitated as soon as possible after their release. If this is not
done, then it is a remedy worse than the malady because these labourers will die of starvation.
Thus, before releasing the bonded labourers sound rehabilitative planning is inevitable. The
following measures can be adopted in this regard:

1) Public awareness and education is must,

2) Productive and income generating schemes must be formulated in advance otherwise
they will again fall back upon the system of bonded labour after their release,
3) These schemes should be chosen after duly consulting the concerned labourers and NGOs
involved in their emancipation and rehabilitation,
4) The government should work on a priority basis in areas vulnerable for the system of
bonded labour and for the rehabilitation of already releases labourers,
5) An effective and speedier grievance redressal machinery should be established for proper
disposal of cases pertaining to bonded labour,
6) A humanitarian training programme should be formulated for persons dealing with
bonded labourers,
7) There should be a system of summary disposal of cases under various laws dealing with
the evil of bonded labour,
8) There should be a strict enforcement of the welfare and labour legislations,
9) There should be more stringent penal laws for effectively dealing with the menace of
bonded labour etc.

X. CONCLUSION

14
Bonded labour must be attacked from many fronts. Enforcement of the law is essential, but it is
not enough. The elimination of current debt bondage and the prevention of new or renewed
bondage, therefore, require a combination of concerted government action and extensive
community involvement.

Bonded labour is a vast, pernicious, and longstanding social evil and the tenacity of the Bonded
Labour System must be attacked with similar tenacity. Anything less than total commitment is
certain to fail.

XI. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary sources

1. The Constitution of India

2. Slave Trade Act 1843,
3. Convention on the Suppression of Slave Trade and Slavery, 1926
4. Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade and Institutions
and Practices Similar to Slavery Trade, 1956
5. Forced Labour Convention, 1930
6. Article 8 of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), 1966
7. Article 5 of the 1981 African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights states

REPORTS

1. 50 million people worldwide in modern slavery, (International Labour Organisation),

available at: https://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-
ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_855019/lang--en/index.htm
2. Survey of begars, India, available at:
https://pib.gov.in/Pressreleaseshare.aspx?PRID=1781351

15
 3. Bonded labour in India — A myth or reality?, India, available at: https://i-
probono.com/articles/bonded-labour-in-india-a-myth-or-reality/
4. Bonded Labour In India: An Analysis, INDIA, available at:
https://www.mondaq.com/india/employee-rights-labour-relations/882222/bonded-labour-
in-india-an-analysis
5. Prevalence of Bonded Labour in India, India, available at:
https://blog.forumias.com/prevalence-of-bonded-labour-in-india/
6. BOOK ON BONDED LABOUR (NHRC), available at:
https://nhrc.nic.in/sites/default/files/Hand_Book_Bonded_Labour_08022019.pdf

SECONDARY SOURCES

Book referred

1. S.N Mishra, Labour and Industrial laws, p. 678 ( Central Law Publication, Allahabad,
27th ed.) .
2. B Pai, Labour Law in India, p 244 (Butterworths India, VOL1, 2001)
3. P.L Malik,” Labour law 1", P 412(Eastern Book COMPANY, Lucknow)

JOURNALS REFERRED
1. Amanda Brickell Bellows, “ ,American Slavery and Russian Serfdom in the Post-
Emancipation Imagination”,p 34 (Chapel Hill, NC, 2020; online edn, North Carolina
Scholarship Online, 20 May 2021), available at:
https://doi.org/10.5149/northcarolina/9781469655543.001.0001
2. James, P. A., & G. Sreenivas Reddy,” Commissioner for Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes. Economic and Political Weekly”, p14. (1949). available at:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/4367742
3. Acharya, Arun Kumar; Naranjo, Diego López (2019), "Practices of Bonded Labour in
India: Forms of Exploitation and Human Rights Violations", The SAGE Handbook of
Human Trafficking and Modern Day Slavery,P. 126-127 (SAGE Publications Ltd,)

16
 4. Elena Samonova, Human Rights Through the Eyes of Bonded Labourers in India,
JOURNAL of MODERN SLAVERY (Volume 7, Issue 2, 2022)

INTERNET SOURCES
1. Serfdom: An overview, available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-
sciences/serfdom
2. Serfdom, available at : https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Serfdom
3. History of Peonage, available at: https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-
conan/amendment-13/section-1%E2%80%932/peonage
4. Truck System meaning, available at:
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/truck-system
5. International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave
Trade, United Nations, available at: https://www.un.org/en/observances/decade-people-
african-descent/slave-trade
6. Slavery Convention, U.N, available at: https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-
mechanisms/instruments/slavery-conventionI
7. Convention to Suppress the Slave Trade and Slavery (Slavery Convention),
http://humanrightscommitments.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Slavery-Convention.pdf
8. Forced Labor Convention 1930, available at:
https://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:12100:0::NO::P12100_ILO_C
ODE:C029
9. Historical Background of Bonded Labour, India, available:
https://www.lawteacher.net/free-law-essays/human-rights/bonded-labour-in-india.php
10. Bonded labour in India — A myth or reality?, India, available at: https://i-
probono.com/articles/bonded-labour-in-india-a-myth-or-reality/
11. Force And Compulsion At The Instance Of Accused Must Be Established To Attract
Offence U/Sec 16 Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976 : Supreme Court,
available at:
https://www.livelaw.in/top-stories/supreme-court-bonded-labour-system-abolition-act-
force-and-compulsion-selvakumar-vs-manjula-2022-livelaw-sc-786-209990
12. Hindrances in convictions, available at: https://www.hrw.org/asia/india
13. Bonded labour: Tamil Nadu saw zero conviction in three years, India, available at:
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/bonded-labour-tn-saw-zero-conviction-
in-3yrs/articleshow/70612918.cms

17