National Human Rights Commission issues advisory to Centre and states on relief to bonded labour

Ravi S Singh

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 15

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has recommended to the Centre and states/UTs for delinking the relief package to the victim of bonded labour from the outcome of criminal proceedings to avoid delay.

In an advisory, the Commission pitched for de-hyphenating the two issues on justification that the victim has no control nor is associated in the trial.

The Commission has asked for implementation of its recommendations and the action taken report within 90 days.

As regards the prevalence of bonded labour, it said that the focus of the state- and district-level functionaries should not be limited to brick kilns alone but also in domains where bonded labour system has manifested itself in newer forms like in construction industry, shopping malls, call centres, massage parlours, etc.

“The newer forms of bonded labour need to be identified for providing relief to them as per the existing Act and scheme,” the Commission underlined in the advisory.

It  has asked the state governments and UTs to identify households in extreme vulnerable conditions so as to prevent any instance of bonded labour by providing them with free ration, health care and other social security cover to the vulnerable and the marginalised communities.

Also, the authorities concerned have been recommended to invoke the provisions of SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989), if a bonded labour belongs to those communities in addition to invoking the provisions the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act to give him relief.

The registration of informal workers on e-Shram portal has also been asked to be simplified besides the process of creation and recoupment of corpus funds thereof.