Abstract
Premchander, Poddar, and Uguccioni explore the practice of giving advances to rural migrants in exchange for their work in brick production, far from their homes, for over six months per year. By examining exploitative labour practices, including the inability for labourers to leave their jobs and poor working conditions, the authors examine why the Indian government does not prosecute employers under bonded labour laws. Engaging with issues of agency and contractor ‘chains’, they draw attention to the factors that have produced ‘neo-bondage’, which is difficult to recognize and act against, even by non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The authors explain the need to improve workers’ livelihoods and recommend facilitating access to official social protection schemes, using modern technology to help workers escape these cycles of exploitation, and investing in their skill development and financial inclusion.
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Notes
- 1.
Devin Finn, ‘Bonded Labour in India’, Duke University Research Digest, July 2017, http://www.du.edu/korbel/hrhw/researchdigest/slavery/india.pdf
- 2.
United Nations (UN) Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, ‘Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery, Adopted by a Conference of Plenipotentiaries convened by Economic and Social Council resolution 608 (XXI) of 30 April 1956, and done at Geneva on 7 September 1956’, http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/SupplementaryConventionAbolitionOfSlavery.aspx
- 3.
International Labour Organization (ILO), ‘C029 – Forced Labour Convention, 1930, (No. 29)’, (Geneva: 14th ILC Session, 28 June 1930), http://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:12100:0::NO::P12100_ILO_CODE:C029
- 4.
See http://www.Alliance87.org for more information about this project.
- 5.
This case is formally titled ‘People’s Union for Democratic Rights and other Vs. Union of India and others’, 18 September 1982, https://indiankanoon.org/doc/496663/
- 6.
Government of India, ‘Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976’.
- 7.
‘People’s Union for Democratic Rights and other Vs. Union of India and others’, 18 September 1982, https://indiankanoon.org/doc/496663/
- 8.
‘People’s Union for Democratic Rights and other Vs. Union of India and others’, 18 September 1982, https://indiankanoon.org/doc/496663/
- 9.
For instance, firing the bricks is more skill intensive and accords greater compensation than brick moulding.
- 10.
Smita Premchander, Report of the Independent Joint Evaluation of the Reduced Vulnerability to Bonded Labour Project (Delhi: International Labour Organization, 2013.)
- 11.
Sindhu Menon, ‘Brick Kiln Workers in India: Migrating into Bondage’ LABOUR File 9, no: 1–2 (January–April 2014).
- 12.
Sudhir Katiyar, Vulnerability Assessment of Brick Kiln Workers in Five Districts of West Uttar Pradesh (New Delhi: International Labour Organization, 2012).
- 13.
V.K. Murthy, Occupational Health and Safety Study of Brick Industry in Kathmandu Valley. (Dhulikhel, Nepal: Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Kathmandu University, 2007).
- 14.
G.G. Ray, Ergonomics Study in a Brick Kiln: Time Requirement and Energy Expenditure for Different Operations in Brick Making (Mumbai: Indian Institute of Technology, 2014).
- 15.
S. Jain, M. Nicolls, and R. Maconick, Joint Final Evaluation: Preventing and Eliminating Child Labour in Identified Hazardous Sectors Project (Geneva: IPEC-ILO, 2009).
- 16.
Mohammed Iqbal, ‘“Shocking figures” of child labour discovered at Bhilwara brick kilns’, The Hindu, 10 February 2013.
- 17.
Katiyar, Vulnerability Assessment of Brick Kiln Workers.
- 18.
‘Child labour rampant in kilns’, Times of India, 25 November 2006.
- 19.
Nepal and Bangladesh also face the issue of forced labour in brick kilns. Additionally, they face weaker legal protections than in India.
- 20.
Jan Breman, ‘On Labour Bondage, Old and New’, The Indian Journal of Labour Economics 51, no. 1 (2008): 83–90.
- 21.
P. Sainath, ‘Census findings point to decade of rural distress’, The Hindu, 25 September 2011.
- 22.
Rameez Abbas and Divya Varma, ‘Internal Labor Migration in India Raises Integration Challenges for Migrants’, Migrant Policy Institute, 3 March 2014, https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/internal-labor-migration-india-raises-integration-challenges-migrants, date accessed 6 November 2017.
- 23.
K.N. Prasad, Poverty Inequality and Unemployment in India (New Delhi: Concept Publishing, 1993).
- 24.
P. Deshingkar, Migration, Remote Rural Areas and Poverty in India (UK: Chronic Poverty Research Centre, ODI, 2010).
- 25.
S. Premchander, V. Prameela, S. Banu, K.G. Meenakshi, H. Manjunath, and T Prema, ‘The Socio-Economic Status of Migrant Construction Workers in Bangalore and Intervention Plan to Improve their Livelihoods’, Journal of the National Institute of Urban Affairs 34, no. 1 (2015): 112–33.
- 26.
‘Agriculture, value added (% of GDP)’, World Bank , 2017, https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NV.AGR.TOTL.ZS?locations=IN, date accessed 17 January 2018.
- 27.
Indrajit Roy, ‘Disenfranchised Citizens, Unfree Labour: India’s Internal Circular Migrants’, Boom, 12 October 2017, https://www.boomlive.in/disenfranchised-citizens-unfree-labour-indias-internal-circular-migrants/
- 28.
Premchander, Report of the Independent Joint Evaluation, 2013.
- 29.
Jain, Nicolls, and Maconick, Joint Final Evaluation, 2009.
- 30.
ILO, ‘C029 – Forced Labour Convention’, 28 June 1930.
- 31.
ILO, ‘C105 – Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105)’ (Geneva: 40th ILC Session, 25 June 1957), http://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:12100:0::NO::P12100_ILO_CODE:C105
- 32.
ILO, ‘C182 – Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 82)’ (Geneva: 87th ILC Session, 17 June 1999), http://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:12100:0::NO::P12100_ILO_CODE:C182
- 33.
ILO, ‘C100 – Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No.100)’ (Geneva: 34th ILC Session, 29 June 1951), http://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:12100:0::NO::P12100_ILO_CODE:C100
- 34.
See T. Sengupta and G. Vijay, A Survey of Migration from Western Orissa to Telangana, report submitted to S.R. Sankaran, Chair (Rural Labour), National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD), Hyderabad, 2015; J. Gupta, ‘Informal Labour in Brick Kilns Need for Regulation’, Economic and Political Weekly 38, no. 31 (2003): 3282–92.
- 35.
S. Ghosh, ‘Fragmented Labour and Elusive Solidarity: The Brickfields of Bengal’ (paper presented at the Third Critical Studies Conference, Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group, 2009).
- 36.
Constitution of India, Articles 23, 39, and 42.
- 37.
Government of India, ‘Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976’.
- 38.
1 INR = 0.015 USD, using conversion rates as of 6 November 2017.
- 39.
Anti-Slavery International, ‘Slavery in India’s Brick Kilns & the Payment System’, 2017, http://www.antislavery.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Slavery-In-Indias-Brick-Kilns-The-Payment-System.pdf
- 40.
N.A.J. John, Migrant Labour in the Brick Kilns of punjab (Delhi: Centre for Education and Communication (CEC), 1998).
- 41.
Provident funds refer to a retirement benefit scheme available to all salaried employees.
- 42.
Premchander, Report of the Independent Joint Evaluation, 2013.
- 43.
Jain, Nicolls, Maconick, Joint Final Evaluation, 2009.
- 44.
Smita Premchander, Urs Bloesch, Bhushan Tuladhar, and D. Raghunandan, ‘Evaluation Report of the External Review of Clean Building Technologies for Nepal, VSBK-CESEF project 2008–2011’, submitted to the Swiss Agency of Development Cooperation, Berne, 2011.
- 45.
The convergence approach requires coordination and pooling of resources between the government (central, state, and district levels), trade unions, and employer’s organizations in a way that migrant workers and their families can take the benefit of these schemes at both their home locations and the destination points. See Premchander, Report of the Independent Joint Evaluation, 2013.
Bibliography
Breman, Jan. “On Labour Bondage, Old and New.” The Indian Journal of Labour Economics 51, n. 1 (2008): 83–90.
Deshingkar, Priya. Migration, Remote Rural Areas and Poverty in India. United Kingdom: Chronic Poverty Research Centre, ODI, 2010.
Ghosh, Swati. “Fragmented Labour and Elusive Solidarity: The Brickfields of Bengal.” Paper presented at the Third Critical Studies Conference, Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group, 2009.
Gupta, Jayoti. “Informal Labour in Brick Kilns Need for Regulation.” Economic and Political Weekly 38, no. 31 (August 2003): 3282–92.
Katiyar, Sudhir. Vulnerability Assessment of Brick Kiln Workers in Five Districts of West Uttar Pradesh. New Delhi: International Labour Organization, 2012.
Murthy, V.K. Occupational Health and Safety Study of Brick Industry in Kathmandu Valley. Dhulikhel, Nepal: Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Kathmandu University, 2007.
Premchander, Smita, Urs Bloesch, Bhushan Tuladhar, and D. Raghunandan. “Evaluation Report of the External Review of Clean Building Technologies for Nepal, VSBK-CESEF project 2008–2011.” Submitted to the Swiss Agency of Development Cooperation, Berne, 2011.
Premchander, Smita. Report of the Independent Joint Evaluation of the Reduced Vulnerability to Bonded Labour Project. New Delhi: International Labour Organization, 2013.
Roy, Indrajit. “Disenfranchised Citizens, Unfree Labour: India’s Internal Circular Migrants.” Boom, October 12, 2017. https://www.boomlive.in/disenfranchised-citizens-unfree-labour-indias-internal-circular-migrants/.
Sengupta, T., and G. Vijay. A Survey of Migration from Western Orissa to Telangana. Report submitted to S.R. Sankaran, Chair (Rural Labour), National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD), Hyderabad, 2015.
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Premchander, S., Poddar, S., Uguccioni, L. (2019). Indebted to Work: Bondage in Brick Kilns. In: Campbell, G., Stanziani, A. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Bondage and Human Rights in Africa and Asia. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95957-0_19
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