RELEASE AND REHABILITATION OF BONDED LABOUR

The identification and release of bonded labourers in Thane district took the shape of a mass movement in the early 1980s. Hundreds of tribals and those from oppressed castes came forward to fight for their freedom. Vidhayak Sansad created a grassroots people’s organization, the Shramajeevi Sanghatana, to organize bonded labourers and campaign for their rights under the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act.

When Vidhayak Sansad and Shramajeevi Sanghatana started this campaign for freedom, bonded labourers were unaware of their rights. The Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act had been passed in 1976 but Maharashtra had made no attempts to implement it. No identification and release procedure had been set down, and powers had not been delegated to the Executive Magistrates at the block level, as had been envisioned by the Act.

Tribals and dalits who were at the lowest rung of Indian society were largely the victims of this system, which was taken as a normal fact of life in the villages. The employers of bonded labour were the rich landlords belonging to the upper castes. They had the political leverage in the village, district and often the state. Thus, no government wanted to alienate this powerful vote bank by trying to implement a Central law in the favour of untouchables, who in any case were too oppressed to voice strong opposition.

Shramajeevi Sanghatana challenged this power structure using non-violent means. The Sanghatana released bonded labourers by organizing them and instilling in them the courage to say ‘no’ to this inhuman system. In many villages the tribals and Sanghatana activists had to face severe social boycotts, physical assaults, and attempts on their lives by the landlords. The masters tried to use their access to police, bureaucracy and political parties to suppress the movement. But the resolve of the bonded labourers remained firm throughout these repressions.

ATTACK BY BONDED LABOUR EMPLOYERS

In 1988, while the Annual General Body Meeting of Shramajeevi Sanghatana was in progress at village Kudus of Wada Block, hundreds of henchmen armed with swords, stones and sticks. They closed in from all sides throwing stones, brandishing swords, and shouting that they wanted to kill Vivek Pandit. Initially it was impossible for the police to control or push back the advancing mob and ultimately the vicious mob was controlled only when the police bodyguard of Mr. Pandit fired in the air. The bodyguard and twenty members of the organization were seriously injured, but there was no counter-attack or violent reaction from the members of the Sanghatana.

There are innumerable such instances of “creative suffering” that instilled confidence and self-worth in the bonded labourers and built the strength of the organization. The process of organizing and the victories contributed to the psychological rehabilitation of the bonded labourers. Shramajeevi Sanghatana can proudly claim that not a single person released from bondage ever went back into the system of bonded labour. In the area where the organization works people work as free labourers and are paid the statutory minimum and equal wages.

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE BONDED LABOUR SYSTEM (ABOLITION) ACT, 1976
Once the organization learned of the existence of the law against bonded labour it demanded that it be implemented in letter and spirit. The first time that a concerned Executive Magistrate helped in release of bonded labour, he could do it only under the 20 Point Programme for Rural Development declared at that time by the Central Government. He was not otherwise empowered to prosecute this form of exploitation. The Sanghatana was instrumental in pushing for the delegation of relevant powers by the state government to the district administration and the Executive Magistrate at the block level.
According to the law, employing bonded labour is a cognizable offence, but the police had refused to register cases. Through skillful organizing, each and every case the Sanghatana encountered was registered against the employers. This in itself was deterrence. Men and women registered offences individually instead of the common practice of the eldest man speaking as the head of the family.

FIRST CONVICTION OF A BONDED LABOUR EMPLOYER IN THE COUNTRY
The insistence on registration of offences by Shramajeevi Sanghatana led to the first conviction of a bonded labour keeper in the state. In all cases the Sanghatana insisted on the arrest of the employer, who were remanded to police and/or judicial custody and had to procure bail.

LANDMARK HIGH COURT DECISION
Some cases brought by Shramjeevi Sanghatana were dismissed because Magistrates decided that activists like Vivek and Vidyullata Pandit did not have the locus standi to register the offences, as they were not bonded labourers themselves. The organization approached the High Court of Bombay and achieved a landmark judgment by which the Act itself was read down, and the powers of trial were transferred from the Court of the Executive Magistrate to the Court of the Judicial Magistrate First Class.

VARIOUS CATEGORIES OF BONDED LABOUR
Shramajeevi Sanghatana has identified and released bonded labourers in various industries, the maximum number being in agriculture. The others include bonded tribal fishermen, brick kiln labourers, and cane plantation workers. The organization also successfully dealt with different forms of bonded labour. In Thane district it was largely debt bondage where the family had to pay off a debt incurred usually for marriage or illness, and generation after generation remained bonded to the same landowning family as the debt was never paid off.

Mr. Vivek Pandit, as a member of the District Vigilance Committee, released and rehabilitated a bonded child labourer in 1997 who was tortured by his employer and made to work without wages. This is the only instance of a bonded child labourer being freed in Maharashtra.

IMPLEMENTATION OF SOCIAL JUSTICE LEGISLATION
While Shramajeevi Sanghatana did campaign for access to the rehabilitation package of the government for released bonded labourers, the organization did not stop at that. They saw the implementation of other social justice legislation, especially land reforms, as part of the rehabilitation process, e.g. retrieval of alienated tribal land, registration of tenancy, distribution of excess land under the Ceiling Act, regularization of encroachments. In many cases the bonded labourer had lost his land to the landlord by coercion or fraud. Ironically, sometimes the family was bonded to their own land. The organization has retrieved and restored land worth millions to the bonded labourers and tribals.

The Sanghatana has also organized around the payment of statutory minimum wages and equal wages for men and women. At one point the campaigns for minimum wages and release from bonded labour were either simultaneous or the first closely followed the latter. There is an example in Gaurapur village of Wada block where the children of released bonded labourers organized for payment of minimum wages to their parents even before their parents did. At present in all villages where the organization is working, labourers are paid not only minimum but fair or living wages.

REHABILITATION OF BONDED LABOURERS
As the movement against bonded labour gained momentum in the district, Vidhayak Sansad began to focus its activities towards rehabilitation of bonded labourers. It helped to register and run co-operative societies of released bonded labourers. Five fishermen’s co-operatives and one truck society were registered, which still exist. There were other attempts like brick kiln, dairy, and poultry co-operatives that have since closed.

Vidhayak Sansad has an extremely successful agriculture project headed by a released bonded labourer, Keshav Nankar, who has organized freed bonded labourers into agriculture co-operative. Under the able guidance of Mrs. Vidyullata Pandit, Mr. Nankar has worked to bring technical inputs and knowledge about the market to his community. Convincing the tribals to not only grow a single crop of paddy, but also experiment with cash crops, double cropping and new methods of agriculture, have been among his contributions to changing the lives of former bonded labourers.

USE OF BUDGET ANALYSIS IN CAMPAIGN FOR REHABILITATION
In 1998 Vidhayak Sansad was able to expose the government’s negligence once again by analysing the Performance Budget of the Revenue Department. The department noted in the Performance Budget that since there were no bonded labourers left to be rehabilitated in the state, they were not making provision for this in the budget beyond Rs.100, 000. The Sanghatana proved that this information was completely baseless when it not only produced its own statistics but even presented the bonded labourers yet awaiting government rehabilitation before the media.

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
Vidhayak Sansad has also played an extremely important role in developing leaders from among the community of former bonded labourers. Today there are not only freed bonded labourers in leadership positions within the organization, but in the larger community. Both women and men have been elected to Gram Panchayats (self-governance institutions at the village level). It is a matter of great pride that those who were considered at the periphery of the village society are in decision-making bodies.

Vidhayak Sansad has developed a special participatory learning programme, which benefits even those who are illiterate or barely literate. The programme covers topics like police, land, exploitation, and government schemes. It is aimed at building up knowledge and skills about the various issues of public concern and how to address them. Thus, public speaking, debating and communication skills are discussed with the people. This learning is linked with practical action. The participants are encouraged to visit a police station and government offices, to discuss the work and the problems faced, to measure their own land, to procure a relevant extract of the record of land rights, etc.

These learning camps have helped people understand the structure and functioning of governance systems and have built their confidence. Previously, those who were afraid of the police now fearlessly register offences at the station. In many villages the people have themselves organized against corruption in police stations, primary health centres, fair price shops, the forest department, and others. They have recovered the money that was extracted by public servants from poor villagers.

AUCTIONING OF TRIBAL WOMEN
One of the other slavery-like practices that the organization has completely eradicated in the area where it works is the auctioning of women. This heinous practice was prevalent in the tribal community called ‘M-Thakurs’ in Shahapur block of Thane district. A tribal woman suspected of infidelity by her husband or in-laws was presented before the caste-panchayat (community elders) and was tortured in public till she uttered the name of the person she was allegedly having an affair with—or rather, the crowd of men forced her to utter the name they wanted to hear. Then a date was fixed and announced for her auction. On the appointed day men from nearby villages gathered and the woman was brought before them. She was stripped and paraded naked, made to walk on hot surfaces and worse while the crowd jeered. Sometimes the woman fainted because of the torture. Then she was auctioned off to the oldest man for a sum of money.

A 19-year old tribal activist, Dashrath Valvi, brought this practice to the notice of the organization in 1994. He was from another block and had just begun working in Shahapur. He took great risk to his life and after many trials finally succeeded in helping a woman who had been auctioned to reach the office of the organization in Vasai block. Thus the existence of an inhuman practice in one of the most progressive states in the country was exposed.

The organization decided that it was not possible that such auctions were taking place without the knowledge of the local police station, and therefore presented the woman before the District Superintendent of Police along with her statement in an affidavit. When the district police did not respond the issue was raised on the floor of the State Legislative Council. When the local police misguided the government, the Opposition members challenged the State Minister for Home for Breach of Privilege. Vivek Pandit had not only briefed the Opposition ministers on the issue, he even presented the tribal women before the Home Minister. Thereafter, the Minister assured the House that action would be taken against the culprits. Immediately, the tribal men and the local officials who were involved in the auction were arrested. Since then there has not been a single incidence of auctioning of women in the areas where the organization is working.

John Burhens
President
Unitarian Universalist Association, Boston,USA.