With May Day right round the corner, a workshop on policy and data
was organised by Antodaya and Action Group on Bonded Labour. It was held at the
Presidency Hotel in Bhubaneshwar on April 26, 2017.
The panel consisted of Dillip Das, Chairman of Antodaya, Umi
Daniel, Regional Head – Migration, Aide-et-Action and AnujaNaik, International
Justice Mission.
Mr Das introduced the concept of distress migration and bonded labour
and the challenges faced by those working on the issue. Bonded labour survivor
Dialu shared his experience, talking about the abuse that he faced in 2013,
including how his right hand was chopped off by traffickers.
“The grievance redressal mechanism of NREGA has failed in Odisha
as there is no ombudsman in 24 districts for the last five years. This is
affecting the employment opportunities leading to distress migration,” said Mr
Das. He added, “The rehabilitation of identified bonded labour in the state of Odisha
is not yet addressed despite the direction of the NHRC.”
It is extremely important that the Trafficking of Persons
(Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2016, that was supposed to be
introduced in Parliament in the winter session, is passed in Parliament so that
there are systems in place to safeguard migration and prevent labour
trafficking. The Bill includes critical aspects of time bound and effective
procedures for identification, rehabilitation and repatriation of victims and
prosecution of offenders.
It was also stressed that the new rehabilitation scheme for bonded
labourers that came into effect in May 2016 needs to implement effectively. There
are certain gaps in the scheme that require effective and strongly monitored
implementation. Linking of rehabilitation money to the prosecution of the
offender will put the victim in a very vulnerable position. Therefore, there is
a need to delink these components, create corpus funds and more.
She added that the rehabilitation scheme for bonded labourers that
came into effect in May 2016 needs to implement effectively.
Mr Daniel stressed on the need for rehabilitation. ‘The number of migrants is increasing and so
this is vulnerability. The system needs to be a bit more proactive in providing
them more support on the issue of rehabilitation. Bonded labourers are really
suffering, as they are not getting the rehabilitation money due to them within
the stipulated time period. There should be more livelihood options provided to
the labourers during the lean period, which is when most of the distress
migration occurs,” he said.
