Part 3: Fundamental Rights - A 23 & 24

Presented by: Aaditya Mishra

Collection: Unique and Innovative approach to understanding the Indian Constitution

About me: Graduation from NIT, Bhopal- 2015

Wrote Mains, 2015 Follow me: https://unacademy.in/

user/AadityaMishra

Pdf of this lesson is available at ISSUU.COM (link in the description

below)

RIGHT AGAINST EXPLOITATION A 23 & 24

A 23 & 24 23. (1) 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. (2) 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 of religion, race, caste or class or any of them. 24. No child below the age of fourteen years shall be employed to work in any factory or mine or engaged in any other hazardous employment.

A23 Prohibits

trafficking in human beings

begar (involunatry work w/o payment and also includes case of grossly inadequate payments)

other similar forms of forced labour - takes away the choices of alternatives, less than minimum wages, ( PT : which of the acts would help in fulfilling the ©nal obligations under A 23 - Min Wages Act etc.)

Envisages legislation for the enforcement of the ©nal provision => Bonded Labour System (Abolition ) Act, 1976

Exceptions in form of compulsory services for public purposes — but has to be only through a LAW not executive order.

A 24 Prohibits employment of children < 14 in

any factory

mine

hazardous occupation

℗ has made laws for this A 24 - Child Labour Prohibition & Regulation Act, 1986; Employ of Children Act, 1938; Factories Act, 1948; Mines Act, 1952; Motor Transport Workers Act, 1961; Beedi & Cigar Cond of Employment Act, 1966.

MAINS: BONDED LABOUR RELATED

BONDED LABOUR

Factors, causes, laws and changing nature of bonded labour in contemporary India.

Present Status, changes in legal, administrative and ethical framework.

bonded labour issues

Present Status of Bonded Labour in India

No country wide survey to enable an authentic assessment, NSSO’s survey should be complemented by STATE SPECIFIC SURVEYS => though MoL&E has identified 13 states and BonLab prone districts but SC’s judgements in Bandhua Mukti Morcha, ASIAD show prevalence of Bon Lab in all states.

high incidence in agri sector because of the agrarian crisis + lack of formal credit facilities + lack of awareness + caste and feudal hierarchies + local politician - caste nexus + lag btw Release and Rehab + no focus on prosecution of offenders + not following proper procedures by DM’s (taking statements in homes of landlords + Vigilance comm either not created or non functioning or not enough repress of NGO’s + interstate labour mobility leading to increased competition + high cost of health services or dowry and social pressures.

New forms of Bon Lab => bonded labour was earlier confined to the agricultural sector, a large number of workers have been forced to work now in coffee plantations, fast-food chains, carpet-making units, brick kilns, quarries and in beedi-making units.

In its new form, owners of factories of plantations pay an advance to labourers and ask them to work for months, without a break or daily wages. In many instances of workers borrowing between Rs. 30,000 to Rs. 1 lakh in the form of “advance” and ending up working with one landlord or factory owner, foregoing his or her liberty to change jobs. In some instances, they are also physically confined to the premises.

Let’s Sum Up • Characteristics of the practice have changed over the years

• Expensive weddings, medical expenses, acute poverty, lack of job opportunities major reasons for bondage

• Most prevalent among Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes, with people of all age groups in the net

• District, taluk administration often indifferent to issue; in denial mode

• Inordinate delay in disposing of petitions related to bonded labour

• Periodic survey not being conducted

• Vigilance committees not active

• No instances of initiating criminal proceedings against those involved

• Rehabilitation in many places not satisfactory.

i. Identification of bonded labour-prone Districts and industries and occupations employing bonded labourers. ( state and district level surveys,NHRC and get NGO’s like Jeevika, bandhua mukti morcha involved in this)

ii. Review the existing laws relating to bonded labour in India and their enforcement. ( extinguishment of any liability including debt, physical protection by state govt, protection from eviction, get them enrolled in BPL lists and benefits of AAY, NFSA etc., punishment for DM’s for wilfully neglecting cases which were brought to notice, minimum punishment to be increased to act as deterrent, cognisable and non bailable offences, action provided for training of DM’s etc. )

Responsibility on Sarpanch and Members of GP’s, Zila Panchayat etc. for id, rehab and relief of BL iii. Training on legal aspects and enforcement of the Bonded Labour Act for

different target groups such as (i) the officers of Revenue, Labour and Police Department (ii) Advocates and lawyers who handle bonded labour cases and (iii) Public prosecutors, etc.

iv. Seminars and workshops at District and State Levels for bringing together the Government officials and NGOs for a better understanding of their role and responsibilities in a collaborative effort.

v. Study the various Poverty Alleviation Programmes in operation with a view to ensuring their effective implementation in the rehabilitation of bonded labourers.

Solutions

1. Most fundamental and the single most important imperative for successfully dealing with the question of bonded labour is an honest desire on the part of the political leaders of the country. This, the Group believes, is singularly lacking. The absence of focus on issues relating to the abolition of the bonded labour system is really the absence of political will or a lack of desire on the part of the political leadership in various States. This lack of political will disguises itself in the minds of the bureaucracy as problems of definition in the bonded labour law. The absence of political will and political commitment to the abolition of the bonded labour system has led to the bureaucracy blandly denying the very existence of the bonded labour system in certain States like Karnataka, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. Solution => make CM squarely and personally responsible for implementation of BLA, instead of Chief secretaries ask CM’s to file affidavit of compliance of SC’s order.

Just for Reading

It has been observed that over the period the programme of release and rehabilitation is improving. The gap between release and rehabilitation has been significantly reduced. Still there is scope to make the programme more efficient and effective to have better impact on the livelihoods of the released and rehabilitated bonded labourers.

Actions to be taken by Government of India

• Present rehabilitation amount is Rs. 20,000 per rehabilitated bonded labourer, which is not sufficient for facilitating income generating activities to provide income on sustainable basis at least at par with wages available for wage labourers. Many officials with whom the discussions were held in this regards felt that the amount should at least be raised to Rs. 50,000 per rehabilitated bonded labourer.

• A monitoring mechanism may be designed at the Central level in the Ministry of Labour and Employment to ensure that the gap between identification and rehabilitation of bonded labourers should not be more than two months. For this, the cases of incidence of the bonded labour should be reported to the Ministry as soon bonded labourers are identified in the states and it should monitor rehabilitation by asking for bi-annual reports rather than annual reports with specific information on the reasons for delays in rehabilitation, if any. Simultaneously, the Central grant for rehabilitation under Centrally Sponsored Scheme should be released timely.

• Rehabilitation package was designed decades back and after that only the rehabilitation amount has been enhanced but not much thinking has gone into designing a sustainable livelihood package for the rehabilitation. Ministry of Labour and Employment or the Planning Commission should commission a study or form a task force to design a rehabilitation package in close participation with various stakeholders specially the released bonded labourers and their family members.

• Ministry of Labour and Employment should ask State Governments to converge bonded labour rehabilitation with various other Central and State Government welfare schemes meant for the poor as part of the package.

• It was observed that all the rehabilitated bonded labourers do not have ration cards/Below Poverty Line (BPL) cards. There should be a directive to the states that Below Poverty Line cards and ration card to access Public Distribution System should be issued within a month of the release as a rule as part of the rehabilitation package. Also state governments should ensure availability of ration on a regular basis at PDS shops.

Actions to be taken by State Governments

• Gap between identification and rehabilitation of bonded labourers should not be more than two months.

• Vigilance and Monitoring Committees as per section 13 of the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976 should be constituted in all the districts and sub-divisions and meetings should be held regularly. Actions on the minutes of the meeting of Vigilance and Monitoring Committees should be taken in both letter and spirit. The agencies concerned for implementation of these decisions should be asked to submit action taken report within 15 days.

• In all cases rehabilitation package should be designed in consultation with the released bonded labourers and their choice of assets must be considered and provision should be made for related training and facilities.

• A strong linkage should be established with the rehabilitated bonded labourers and various developmental agencies, which are implementing different poverty alleviation schemes/programmes like NREGA, IAY, SGSY, SGRY etc. so that the rehabilitated bonded labourers become economically independent in order to avoid relapse into bondage for any of their family members in future.

Guidelines circulated by the Ministry of Labour and Employment, and the State Governments on Identification, Release and Rehabilitation of Bonded Labourers should be strictly followed. There should be uniformity in identification, release and rehabilitation of bonded labourers in all cases and in all districts.

• Massive awareness campaign should be organised regularly in all the districts of the state especially in rural areas about the evils of bonded labour system.

• Orientation/sensitisation workshops in consultation with the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India should be organised at sub-division level to discuss the issues relating to identification, release and rehabilitation of bonded labourers with the officials concerned with these issues at ground level and NGOs working for the cause of bonded labourers.

• There should be planned efforts to build capacity of the released bonded labourers in the activities chosen by them and linkage should be developed with various welfare and developmental activities at sub-division and district level so that they may access the benefits from various poverty alleviation programmes.

Mains: Child Labour and Recent Proposed Amendments

Self Read : Links in the Description below

Few Links - find @ Pdf on ISSUU

http://www.prsindia.org/uploads/media/Child%20Labour/Bill%20Summary%20--%20Child%20Labour%20_Prohibition_%20amendment%20Bill,%202012.pdf

http://www.prsindia.org/uploads/media/Child%20Labour/2015%20Amendments%20to%20the%20Child%20Labour%20Bill.pdf

http://indianexpress.com/article/explained/why-activists-are-worried-about-proposed-changes-to-indias-child-labour-law/

http://www.du.edu/korbel/hrhw/researchdigest/slavery/india.pdf

Updates

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Next set of Videos we would cover=> A 25 TO A 28.

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