BENGALURU: An official of the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR) department has flagged concerns of under-reporting of bonded labour, as figures from individual districts indicate its existence in only 10 districts in Karnataka.
Krishnappa, Nodal Officer, Bonded Labour, RDPR, was speaking at a panel discussion on ‘The changing facets of modern-day slavery and bonded labour’ on Friday. He said as per a survey conducted in 30 districts in 2013-14, 20 of districts were reported to be free of bonded labour. He said the figures were clear indications of under-reporting of bonded labour, with its actual prevalence believed to be much higher.
The NGO International Justice Mission, one of the organisers of the event, has helped rescue 1,454 bonded labourers from 2012 until now in just three districts — Bengaluru Rural, Bengaluru Urban and Ramanagara, with 119 of them in 2019 alone.
Also present at the event were former bonded labourers Bannayya and Roopa. The couple were made to work in a brick kiln under inhuman conditions and repeated physical abuse by the owner. The owner even kidnapped Roopa and her infant when she escaped from the kiln, but was they were rescued after three days in November, 2015.
Speaking at the event, urban activist Kathyayini Chamaraj said Karnataka should follow the example of other states, where bonded labour came under the purview of the Labour Department, rather than the Revenue department.
Sonikutty George, a child protection specialist from UNICEF, said exploitation of labour had become very normal. “The changing facet of bonded labour is use of newer technology, as a result of which a strong network exists, but is not very visible,” he said. Shantanu Dutta of IJM said digitisation of economy had, in fact, made it more challenging to trace the money handled by traffickers.
“There is a theory that if banks can be persuaded to not accept money that they suspect is from such transactions, the financial muscle power of the kingpins would reduce. Instances where traffickers have used bitcoin, a cryptocurrency, have also been discovered in the US, so we need to evolve too,” he said.