After the State constituted committees at the district-level, a large number of bonded labourers have been rescued.
The bonded labourers’ vigilance committee intensified its drive against the social ill and since January this year, a total of 690 bonded labourers and child labourers have been rescued in the State, particularly in northern districts. Of them, 292 were rescued from Tiruvallur, 83 from Kancheepuram, 61 from Vellore and 96 from Erode, Tirupur and Coimbatore districts.
Most of the bonded labourers were rescued based on information and evidence provided by the Adivasi Solidarity Council (ASC), a non-government organisation based in Veeranguppam in Vellore.
The NGO had conducted a survey in more than 200 villages in 14 districts in TN between August and November last year. It identified over 5,000 bonded labourers, said the survey report submitted to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).The survey stated that while nearly 75 per cent of the bonded labourers were living in pathetic conditions, 20 per cent of them were controlled by agents. Almost 22 per cent of them worked in cotton mills as well as weaving and garment units. “We conducted the survey in villages in 12 districts in TN where the bonded labourer system is on. The survey report was sent to the NHRC, TN government and all collectors in December 2012,” said executive director of ASC, K Krishnan.
Based on the survey, the NHRC recommended that the TN government take necessary action. The director of Adi Dravidar Welfare Department sent an official communication on July 2 this year to all the collectors, instructing them to constitute a district-level and sub-divisional-level bonded labourers’ vigilance committee. Such committee had been constituted in almost all the districts in the State.
The government machinery had rescued and rehabilitated a total of 4,095 bonded labourers in the last ten years from 2003, as per a response to an RTI Act query. “The number of rescued bonded labourers in the last seven months is a clear indication of the growing awareness about the ill-practice,” he added.
Fearing action under the Bonded Labourer System (Abolition) Act 1976, owners of several brick kilns, cotton mills and garment units’ owners released over 542 bonded labourers, Krishnan claimed further.