India's efforts to rescue bonded labourers undone by delayed rehabilitation

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17-06-2025

Manoj Kumar Anant and his wife Shakuntala Bai were rescued from bonded labour at a brick kiln in Uttar Pradesh's Kushinagar in 2022. He had told IndiaSpend in September 2023 that he was waiting for rehabilitation assistance under the Central Sector Scheme for Rehabilitation of Bonded Labour, 2021.
Two years later Manoj is still waiting for the full rehabilitation assistance, he said, while bedridden in a hospital bed, his left arm paralysed after an accident in March this year.
'The first few weeks after a rescue are critical for released bonded labourers so that they do not slip into rebondage,' said Tina Kuriakose Jacob, senior research fellow, International Institute of Migration and Development. 'The Ministry of Labour's 2016 Rehabilitation Scheme for Bonded Labourers explicitly mentioned financial and non-financial support, so that they do not fall in bondage again.'
Manoj's case is not unique. IndiaSpend travelled to Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh and found that 10 others – all from the Scheduled Caste Satnami community in the state – who were rescued with Manoj and his wife from the same brick kiln in 2022 were waiting for assistance. They each received Rs 30,000, which is supposed to be an immediate cash assistance, only after two years, and none of them have been rehabilitated as per the central sector scheme, under which cash allocations were revised in 2021.
In addition to the immediate cash assistance, the scheme says they should receive a bonded labour release certificate, and between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 3 lakh based on the level of exploitation, age and gender for their rehabilitation. The scheme also entitles labourers to non-financial rehabilitation, including allotment of a house-site, low cost dwelling units, wage employment, animal husbandry etc.
While the certificates, which are issued by the District Magistrate or Sub-Divisional Magistrate, were given to the 11 survivors in March 2022, Rs 30,000 as immediate assistance was transferred only around July 2024.
'I am more than Rs 1 lakh in debt due to the treatment and related requirements,' said Manoj. He has spent Rs 25,000 in a week since his hospital admission in Bilaspur, although some of the treatment is covered under the Ayushman Bharat health insurance scheme. 'I do not have a ration card and no money has come through since we received Rs 30,000.'
Officials in the Bilaspur labour department told IndiaSpend that the remaining amount can be provided only after conviction of the accused because the full rehabilitation amount is linked to conviction according to the rehabilitation scheme. This, experts say, is one of the reasons why the rehabilitation of bonded labourers is held up.
India is reported to have at least 11 million people in modern slavery, highest in the world, according to Walk Free's Global Slavery Index 2023. Bonded labour, a form of modern slavery, has been illegal for nearly five decades in India, since the enactment of the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976.
IndiaSpend had reported that the Union government would, at the current rate, miss its objective of rescuing and rehabilitating 18.4 million bonded labourers by 2030, by 98%. According to February 2025 data from the government, 297,038 bonded labourers have been rescued since 1978, with an expenditure of Rs 106.3 crore.
'Caught and locked up'
In the morning heat, as road dust and noise from the traffic swirled around, the men and women who were rescued with Manoj congregated in the yard of one of the worker's homes, in the Satnami colony in Silpahari, 10 km from Bilaspur's collectorate.
Jyothi Manhar, 28, was concerned about the rehabilitation amount. Jyothi, who has studied till class 9, was one of eight relatives rescued and provided release certificates with Manoj. She, like several others, has built a small home with loans, on land that her family does not own. Many of the workers' houses are unplastered, without basic facilities such as running water.
Before the incident in Kushinagar, the survivors and their families had worked in different parts of Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. They would get about Rs 600-Rs 700 for every 1,000 bricks made, which would be paid at the end of six months of work.
On a weekly basis a family – that is a husband and wife – would be given around Rs 1,500 for their daily needs. This amount would be adjusted against the six-month pay at the end of their stint. In the Kushinagar brick kiln, there were around 20 people, who had migrated with young children.
Despite the government promising ration card portability which would help interstate and intrastate migrant workers access food, many are unable to use their cards at their work destinations.
According to a December 2024 report by the Centre for Labour Research and Action on 1,012 seasonal migrant brick worker households in Rajasthan and Gujarat, 71% of respondents were aware of the scheme, but only 50% attempted to use it, and among them, just 59% successfully accessed rations. Often the children of seasonal migrant brick kiln workers do not attend school.
While unpaid wages have always been a concern at kilns, the experience in Kushinagar had terrified the workers.
Their ordeal began when the woman contractor – a relative of the labourers – fled with around Rs 5 lakh given by the brick kiln owner for labour payments in late 2021. The 11 of them had started work after Diwali, which is usually the practice, and worked for nearly two months into the winter, when the incident happened, the workers said. The owner was unconcerned that the contractor had cheated them of their wages, and said that the workers would now continue at the rate of about Rs 300 for 1,000 bricks, which was less than half the agreed wage.
'We tried to run away, but we were caught and locked up,' said Jyothi, who occasionally broke into Chhattisgarhi as she recalled their days in captivity. She had started working in brick kilns after her marriage to Binod Kumar, who was part of the group.
The survivors said that nearly 20 of them, along with their children, were locked up in a room for about two weeks and allowed out in the morning to work or to go to the field to defecate. The women workers said that the watchmen would follow the women when they went to the field to defecate to ensure that they would not run away. It was humiliating, they said.
'We are scared to go outside the state and work in brick kilns again,' said Jyothi. 'They wanted to make sure that we did not run away and took our phones. We ate and had to urinate in the same locked room,' said Jyothi.
Her sister-in-law, Ishwari Bai, was pregnant and had delivered her daughter in Kushinagar only a few weeks before the ordeal began. Ishwari, who has never attended school and had traveled with her parents to brick kilns since she was a child, said that the owner and his nephew were verbally abusive and even threatened to hit the women. 'I delivered in December and was given Rs 4,000 for medicine. It was a terrible experience,' said Ishwari Bai, whose daughter still does not have a birth certificate.
'In Chhattisgarh at least we know people. The entire system is theirs [employers'] in UP,' said Amrit Bai, Ishwari's mother-in-law, one of the others rescued.
After two weeks, they were allowed to go back to their own rooms, but were kept under close supervision and paid reduced wages. Manoj, whose finger was broken during the violence by the owner, managed to hide a small mobile phone which he used to contact nonprofits and officials, following which they were rescued nearly a month into their captivity. They did not receive any wages for the work at the brick kiln.
In all, 'we were given Rs 25,000 [by the DM/district officials] to get train tickets, food etc, and return to Bilaspur,' said Manoj. This amount was money that was taken from the brick kiln owner, Anil Singh, and not the 'immediate relief' which, as we said, was credited more than two years later. IndiaSpend had reported that the survivors, since their return, had made multiple visits to district officials to obtain their rehabilitation entitlements
According to the Bilaspur labour department, release certificates of 11 workers – seven women and four men – have been filed. The rest of the money will be transferred only after the case ends with a conviction. Manoj claimed that he was informed by a social activist over a year ago that the abuser had been convicted. IndiaSpend has not been able to confirm this independently and the Bilaspur labour department says they do not have information about it.
IndiaSpend has written and followed up with Kushinagar district collector's office on the status of the case and related information, including immediate cash assistance delays, and have copied the Uttar Pradesh labour department and chief secretary in the email. We will update the story when we receive a response.
'Delays happen because there is no conviction for a case,' said Jyothi Sharma, assistant labour commissioner in Bilaspur. 'We do reach out about cases with the concerned district for updates. We have sent four or five reminders to Kushinagar since 2022,' she claimed.
Between 2000 and 2023, there have been more than 2,200 bonded labourers reported in Bilaspur district, according to information shared by the labour department. In seven years to 2023, 27 cases including 402 workers in bondage were reported in which there have been only two convictions.
The central sector scheme provides Rs 4.5 lakh for a survey to identify bonded labourers in sensitive districts every three years and up to five evaluatory studies a year for the eradication of bonded labour. While a study was conducted three years ago, no bonded labourers were identified in Bilaspur, said the labour department.
Nikhil and Nihal Dheeraj, minors at that time, were part of the group that had gone to the Kushinagar brick kiln, with an older brother and mother, Mamta. While their eldest brother Kunal was issued a release certificate, Nikhil and Nihal were not.
'I was also working with adults making around 400 bricks a day,' said 17-year-old Nikhil who has not completed class 10. While other friends are studying, he works. He plans to start working in nearby coal plants and factories on a daily wage of around Rs 300-350 like the others in the group. 'Studying is an additional expense. I can contribute to the family if I work.' He said that no one from the administration spoke to him when they were rescued.
'There is no mention of age in the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976. They [officials] confuse them with child labour when they are bonded,' said Nirmal Gorana, the convener of the National Campaign Committee for Eradication of Bonded Labour, a national-level network for identification, rescue and rehabilitation of trafficked bonded labourers. 'If children are involved various provisions get invoked which means more work for the labour department.'
More than four decades earlier, in 1982, the labour ministry had issued a blueprint with 15 components for the rehabilitation of bonded labourers, which included enforcement of minimum wages, dwelling units, psychological rehabilitation, skill training, allotment of housing sites and agricultural land, health, medical care and sanitation, education of children etc. The total subsidy per released bonded labourer at the time was Rs 4,000 and Rs 25 lakh was the outlay by the Planning Commission for 1980-'85 period.
Rehabilitation process
The Standard Operating Procedure for Identification and Rescue of Bonded Labourer and Prosecution states that the summary trial in bonded labour cases should commence within 24 hours of the rescue or identification, even if an FIR is not filed. The case should be completed within three months. While the initial bonded labour enquiry by the district authorities is an assessment to know if there is bondage, the summary trial finds evidence to convict the accused employer.
Once the release certificates are issued by the district or sub-divisional magistrate, it is assumed that there is an offense of bondage and the burden of proof to prove otherwise falls on the accused employer.
The eradication of bonded labour has three aspects – rescue, prosecution and rehabilitation, said David Sundar Singh, panel advocate at the Madras High Court Legal Services Committee, who has worked on multiple bonded labour cases in Tamil Nadu. 'The rehabilitation rests with the central sector scheme, although labour issues like bondage crimes are under the state's purview. The scheme is only a guiding document,' he said.
But the implementation of summary trials varies by state.
According to Section 21 of the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, states may confer, on an executive magistrate, the powers of a judicial magistrate of the first class or of the second class for the trial of offences. This means that district executive heads may be allowed to deal with a judicial function that they may not be trained to perform. It also contravenes Article 50 of the Constitution that ensures the separation of judiciary from the executive functions.
Jacob of the International Institute of Migration and Development said that although the labour ministry's scheme and the SOP mention that the district magistrate can conduct summary trials, there is a need to know the conclusion of such trials, and if district magistrates are trained to conduct it.
The process of summary trial is not without concerns, highlighted by D Murugesan, former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court, in a 2018 National Human Rights Commission handbook on bonded labour.
'It is the only Legislation where an Executive Magistrate has been empowered with the powers of a Judicial Magistrate First Class to hold the Summary Trial but the country has seen very few Summary Trials conducted by the District Magistrates or their subordinate officers since they are not aware of the procedure to conduct the Summary Trial,' wrote Murugesan.
The Madras High Court had struck down the clause saying that revenue divisional officers in the state will not have the powers of a judicial magistrate to conduct trial under the Act.
Presently, the Union government-supported rehabilitation scheme says that in cases where the summary trial has not been concluded, but the district magistrate or sub-divisional magistrate has arrived at a prima facie finding and proof of bondage, the proposal for cash assistance shall not be stopped for want of details of conviction. But, final disbursement of cash assistance is to be made after proof of bondage and other legal consequences as per the judicial process.
'Rescued bonded labourers, particularly inter-state workers, usually do not know if they have won the case…The full compensation is given only after conviction. Rehabilitation has been linked to it, which is a problem,' said Gorana. 'But the DM has discretion when it comes to compensation,' and can approve an amount higher than the immediate cash assistance of Rs 30,000.
Linking rehabilitation to conviction, said Singh of the Madras High Court Legal Services Committee, 'is a violation because if there is an acquittal, the prosecution has failed. The victims cannot be punished for it.'
The problem of linking of conviction creating rehabilitation delays has been highlighted by the National Human Rights Commission too. A 2021 advisory said that efforts should be made to 'delink dependency' of rehabilitation on conviction in criminal cases. 'Once bonded labour is freed, he should be compensated and rehabilitated,' said the advisory.
There has to be an emphasis on training and sensitising district administration, said Jacob, and there should be improvements in reporting, fund utilisation and transparency. 'The states are required to send the release certificates to the Union government to receive reimbursement of funds used for rehabilitation of bonded labourers, but we do not know how many are able to do that manually when there are no digital platforms,' she added.
According to the March 2025 Lok Sabha Standing Committee On Labour, Textiles And Skill Development report, the labour ministry said that the status of the summary trial or conviction is available with them from states 'only at the time of the submissions of their proposal for availing final rehabilitation assistance.' If there are only a few convictions, which are required for final proposals to be sent to the Union governments, it is unlikely that there is collated information or data on conclusion of summary trials.
In the case of Manoj and others, there has been no information on the conviction, said assistant labour commissioner, Sharma. 'When the employer or in this case the brick kiln owner is convicted by the court and we receive formal intimation, then we [will] send a proposal to the Union government [under the scheme], and the appropriate amount is transferred.'
IndiaSpend spoke to Alankrita Upadhyay, the labour commissioner in Kushinagar. She said that she would check the status of the case. We will update the story when we receive more information.
Not enough data
When IndiaSpend reported on the rate of rescue and rehabilitation of bonded laborers in October 2023, the government had said that it had released 315,302 people since 1978 and 94% (296,305) of them were rehabilitated.
According to the March 2025 Standing Committee report, since 1978, 297,038 bonded labourers have been rescued. The difference in the numbers (18,264) could be because of the difference in the use of 'rescued' and 'rehabilitated', an official from the labour ministry who did not want to be identified said, without giving more details.
One of the reasons for rescuing bonded labourers at a rate slower than what is needed to rescue 18.4 million bonded labourers by 2030, was that the Union government said that scheme was demand-driven and that the target cannot be fixed. As in previous years, the ministry reiterated in the 2025 report that the scheme is 'demand driven in nature where funds are provided to the States/UTs on receipt of financial demand from them'.
As on January 31, 2025, only 6% of the budgeted Rs 6 crore for the rehabilitation scheme has been used and 246 labourers had been rehabilitated in 2024-'25. They were all reported from Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu, with the latter reporting 196 rehabilitated bonded labourers.
But based on the labour and employment ministry's 2024-'25 annual report, between April and December 2024, the scheme had only three beneficiaries who were given Rs 60,000 in all.
Similarly the 2022-'23 annual report showed that between April and November 2022, there were no beneficiaries, which contradicted the Lok Sabha Standing Committee report which shows that 673 bonded laborers were rehabilitated during that financial year.
According to the 2025 standing committee report, the proposals from the states/UTs for the 246 bonded labourers for the financial year of 2024-'25 were related to the payment of immediate cash assistance only. It also said that conviction and summary trial information had not been provided by Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan. For immediate cash assistance of Rs 30,000 released for 246 labourers, the total should be Rs 73.8 lakh versus the Rs 35 lakh that the report mentions.
An official in the labour ministry, who did not want to be identified, clarified that the states send proposals from different years together including those before 2021 scheme revisions, which means that the immediate cash assistance would be Rs 20,000 instead of Rs 30,000. The data are recorded for the year of fund disbursement. It was for the same reason that the data in the annual report differs and that rehabilitation and rescue as a nomenclature were being used interchangeably. As per ministry's data on June 2, they had expended Rs 67.4 lakh in 2024-'25.
While the standing committee found the ' persistent decrease ' in bonded labour in the three years to 2024-'25 'encouraging', it was concerned about the existence of the problem despite its abolition.
It urged states to tackle bonded labour through stricter penalties and punishment, fast-tack courts, and improved awareness among workers. It also underscored the need to provide better rehabilitation through secure rehabilitation homes/centres, counseling and emotional support, immediate medical assistance, free legal aid, and provide rescued children access to formal education and financial support.
In 2020, 2,837 victims were reported under the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act in the National Crime Record Bureau data. Of these, 43% were members of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
While in the next year the number of victims fell to 667, by 2022, it had increased 140% to 1,600 victims where 86% were SC/ST. More than three in four of all victims were reported in Uttar Pradesh. The Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act data in the National Crime Records Bureau NCRB are much higher than reported by the Parliament committee with respect to rehabilitation.
Bonded labour is reported by both the labour and home ministries depending on the case and basis of reporting, said Jacob. 'The DM can do a summary trial if it is a BLSA complaint, without an FIR. If an FIR is filed by the police, it is reported by NCRB. There is no clarity or reporting on summary trials in BLSA,' she said.
There was initially a labour ministry proposal to create a National Portal on Bonded Labour. But, according to the December 2024 Parliament standing committee report, the ministry subsequently said the portal will be a comprehensive, unified portal for Child Labour, Bonded Labour and Women Labour, and that it should be functional in a year.
The same report also noted the high unspent balance in the rehabilitation scheme due to 'non-receipt of documents and utilisation certificates.' The Committee asked the ministry to 'strengthen their monitoring and coordination mechanism for optimal utilisation of funds and reduce surrender of allocated funds to the minimum extent possible.'
IndiaSpend has written to the labour ministry for comments on delays in rehabilitation, unspent funds, data gaps and monitoring of the scheme. We will update the story when we receive a response.
Meanwhile, Manoj, who is worried about the rising hospitalisation cost, demands he be given the full rehabilitation amount, land, a Below Poverty Line ration card.