The Legal Analyst ISSN: 2231-5594 Volume 1, 2011, pp.

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CHILD SERVITUDE IN INDIA: TRENDS AND CHALLENGES

Dr. Shashikant Pandey*
No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; Slavery and slave trade shall be prohibited in all their Forms. -Article 4 The Universal Declaration of Hu man Rights Abstract: Child Servitude is not a new phenomenon to our country. However, the worrying aspect is this that despite more than 60 years o f independence we have not been able to address this menace. Statistics vary from one organization to another, however, even Government agencies too have acknowledged that this problem exists in our country in varying form. The present paper is an attempt to locate the fac tors responsible for its prevalence, legal discrepancies as well as legal initiative of the Government etc. The paper concludes with the argument that poor execution of the existing rules along with indifferent attitude of the Govt. is largely responsible for its prevalence in our Country. Key Words: Labour, Child, Challenges.

Introduction: Bonded labour has been a part of most, if not all, human societies, and also a most ubiquitous institution, with, of course, variations in the scale and intensity of exploitation. It is most widely used method of enslaving people today also. A person becomes a bonded labourer when their labour is demanded as a means of repayment for a loan. In India, bonded labour has multiple forms. Bonded child labour is one of them. It is a negation of inalienable human rights, an affront to dignity, decency and worth of human existence, and anathema to civilized human conscience. There are millions of children whose labour can be considered forced, not only because they are too young to choose to work, but also because they are, in fact, actively coerced into working. The South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude estimates that there are approximately ten million child laborers in chronic bondage in India alone. The present paper attempts to reflect upon the age-old problem of bonded labour in India, especially child servitude, its underlying causes, legal-constitutional provisions and will try to analyze the reason for its prevalence despite comprehensive legal provisions. Bonded child labour is found primarily in informal, unregulated or illegal sectors of the economy. It is most common among the economically vulnerable and least educated members of society such as minority ethnic or religious groups or the lowest classes or castes. Children are especially vulnerable to exploitation because their lack of maturity makes them easy to deceive and ensures that they have little, if any, knowledge of their rights. 1 Definition: The term bonded labour is variously interpreted. Basically bonded labour is characterized by a creditor- debtor relationship between the employer and the employee which can then spill over to other members of the family, be of an indefinite duration and involve adverse contractual stipulations not justified by law or even by the prevailing state of the market. It is also defined as that form of forced labour wherein, people are made to work for long hours without weekly, seasonal or even annual breaks, for very little wages, much lower than the statutory minimum wages, and without the freedom to seek employment with someone else till they have cleared their debt. A bonded labourer forfeits freedom of any sort including of movement and employment and to sell at market value the product of ones labour. Bonded child labour refers to the phenomena of children working in conditions of servitude in order to pay-off a debt. The debt that binds them to their employer is incurred not by the children themselves, but
* Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, B. B. Ambedk ar (Central) Uni versity, Lucknow, INDIA.
1

For Details See: Report of United States. Department of Labour, iv Forced and Bonded Child Labour (http://www.dol.gov./ilab/media/reports/iclp/sweat-2/bonded.htm)

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by their parents. The creditors-cum-employers offer these loans to destitute parents in an effort to secure the labour of a child, which is always cheap, but even cheaper under a situation of bondage. There is no agreed or specific definition of child labour. ILO Convention 29 on Forced or Compulsory Labour 2 Defines forced child labour as All work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily.It also calls upon ratifying states to suppress the use of forced or compulsory labour in all its forms. The United Nations 1956 Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery3 defines slavery to include: debt bondage, serfdom and any practice whereby a person under 18 years of age is delivered by his parent/guardian, whether for reward or not, with a view to the exploitation of the young person or his labour. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child4 states that children must be protected from all forms of economic exploitation. This include performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the childs education, or to be harmful to the childs health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development. Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976 5 has given a very comprehensive definition of bonded labour which means the system of forced or partly forced labour under which a debtor enters... Or is presumed to have entered, into an agreement with the creditor. Three elements- an advance, low wages and compulsions- are at the core of all bonded labour. Factors behind Bonded Child Labour: Bonded labour is a product of poverty, social exclusion and the failure of government to act against the practice and its underlying causes. Those who are enslaved are hapless poor people with no assets other than themselves to sell their labours in times of extreme need. The system of bonded labour is closely linked to the broader socio-economic problems of surplus labour, unemployment/ underemployment, inequitable distribution of land and assets, low wages, distress migration, social customs etc. Apart from that, there are other significant factors, as pointed by Human Rights Watch in its report which are less highlighted. For example, Lack of alternative small-scale loans for the rural and urban poor and a lack of a concerted social welfare scheme to safeguard against hunger and illness; a noncompulsory and unequal educational system; the lack of employment opportunities and living wages for adults; corruption and indifference among government officials; and societal apathy.all lead to bondage. The system of bonded labour is an outcome of indebtedness and found among the economically, exploited, helpless and weaker sections of the society. The cycle of indebtedness which leads to bondage arises out of the glaring inequalities in the ownership of land- a primary income generating asset in the agrarian based economy of rural India. The failure of land reform across the subcontinent has left a huge population of desperately poor people who are often reduced to selling themselves into bondage to meet basic needs and social obligations such as marriage. In states like Bihar and Eastern U. P., millions of labourers belonging to scheduled caste are forced to work as sharecroppers- that too on a social custom based on oral contracts. In large parts of rural India, these landowners also perform the role of moneylenders giving out loans to agriculture labourers. 6 When they fail to repay the debt they mortgage their children to these money lenders. Poverty and social injustice provide a rich fodder for social marginalization and lead easily to human tragedy. One particular example among a plethora of others is that of bonded labour, especially debt bondage. Debt bondage labourers operate under a very peculiar employer-employee relationship devoid of freedom. The problem of debt bondage labour exists in many countries but sadly India seems to hold the worst record. This relationship, described by the UN as a practice similar to slavery, is characterized
2 3

ILO Convention 29 on Forced or Compulsory Labour The United Nations 1956 Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery 4 The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 5 Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976 6 Sudhanshu Bhandari, From Slavery to Debt Bondage: Two Centuries of Exploitation in India, Mainstream, August 1, 2009, Vol., XLVII, No. 33.

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by an obligation for a person to work under deplorable conditions for another individual to whom that person owes a debt. It has existed under different forms throughout Indian history and in different regions. The situation of bondage gets aggravated further when parents are forced to send their children to work as bonded labourer. Employers prefer children as they can be easily exploited. In India, Studies of labour relations have highlighted the link between caste and social structure and bondage, on the one hand and traditional feudal social relations and bonded labour on the other.7 Bonded and forced labour in India, whether traditional or modern thrive on bedrock of social hierarchy and discrimination of which the former untouchable castes and the tribal groups and women and children are the chief victims. Children are forced to work to repay the debt taken by their parents. Given the abject state of poverty of those who entered the arrangement and the social disabilities imposed on them by the order of caste hierarchy, very few could get out of the arrangement. Those who worked in such arrangements invariably came from the depressed caste groups and NSSO data also support this argument. As we are aware that the main source of income for the majority of Indians comes from agriculture. According to figures from the National Sample Survey (1999/2000 statistics), 16.4% of Dalits are able to be self-employed in this field (against 41% for other population groups). 51.4% of Dalits work as agricultural workers (against 19% for other groups). Looking at other economic activities besides agriculture, 61.4% of Dalits living in rural areas are day workers (against 23.5% for the others). In urban areas, the breakdown is a little different. 27.3% of Dalits are self-employed (against 35.5% for others), 37.6% receive a regular salary (against 46% for other people) and 26% are day labourers (against 7.4% for others).8 Thus more than half of rural Dalits gain their living as day agricultural workers. This population group is particularly vulnerable because the unemployment rate in rural areas was 46% for day labourers in 2000. It has been estimated that the average daily income for a daily agricultural worker was 174 .5 rupees for Dalits and 197.5 rupees for members of other communities. 9 What this means in reality is indicated in the statistics on poverty. In 1999, 46.20% of Dalit agricultural workers lived below the poverty level (compared to 39.4% for other sections of the population), similarly 30.11% of self-employed agricultural workers are Dalits (17. 97% for other groups), and 32.76% Dalits are self-employed in other fields compared to 21.06% for others. In total, 38.38% of Dalits and 23.23% of non Dalits lived below the poverty line in rural areas. These figures show that access to land is one of the major problems in rural areas: 65% of Dalits possess less than 0.5 acre of lands and 10 % of Dalits have no land at all. Individuals owning land are less likely to fall below the poverty line. 10 Inference can be easily drawn from the abovementioned statistics that since majority of those belonging to dalit community are bonded labour and therefore due to their poor financial condition they are forced to send their children to work as bonded labour and it lead to the continuation of vicious cycle of bondage. There is no denying the fact that poverty is the chief culprit for bondage but it is not the only cause as rightly pointed out by Human Rights Watch. 11 Lack of access to credit and of concerted social welfare scheme to address hunger and illness; inaccessibility, low quality and apathy amongst government officials; and historical, economical relationship based on the hierarchy of caste are other key elements responsible for the bonded labour. India, on the one hand, is aspiring to emerge as an economic superpower and on the other; it faces the challenge of liberating millions from the scourge of bondage which resulted from poverty, hunger and social exclusion. The phenomenon of bonded labour is a vicious circle where each factor is responsible for further subjugation and apathy of the bonded labourers. The first part of the chain forming the vicious circle is the survival capabilities of this system. It is a relic of colonial and feudal system which is still continuing.
7 8

For a study of evolution of labour relations in India, see: Kumar (1965) and Patnaik (1983). National Sample Survey (1999/2000 Statistics) 9 Amaresh Dubey Note and statistical tables on social groups, (2003) prepared for DFID, Delhi 10 Ibid 11 Small Change: A Report by Human Rights Watch, 22 Jan. 2003

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This relic is deeply rooted in the social customs and traditions, treating it as a normal practice. This results in the creation of a hierarchical pattern of society forming unequal classes in terms of superiority and inferiority. The so- called higher classes then commit all sorts of atrocities upon the lower classes. It is psychologically crippling for them to know that they have been robbed of their freedom. The withdrawal of the state from social sectors, coupled with the privatization of resources and the lack of employment opportunities, has aggravated the situation. Indeed, the jobless growth of the past decade has increased the pressure on the poor to adopt livelihood strategies to earn for a living. The policies of structural adjustment, liberalization and globalization in India have resulted in jobless growth during the 1990s. Since 1995-96, the agricultural growth rate has been very low and industrial growth too has slowed down. It is the service sector and the unorganized manufacturing sector that have grown relatively rapidly. However, they have not been able to reverse the decline in employment levels in the farm sector and the organized industrial sector where mostly labourers are employed and therefore we hardly find any substantial change in their status. 12 Child servitude over the years: In human history, from the advent of advanced agrarian communities till the last quarter of nineteenth century, slavery has been part and parcel of most, if not all, human societies and a most ubiquitous institution, with, of course, variations in the scale and intensity of exploitation. 13 However in recent years, slavery is no longer prevalent in its old brutal form but its remnants can be seen in the form of bondage. As far as history of bonded labour in India is concerned it has had a long history and it has been there in one form or another. Studies have revealed how a system of intermediaries was used during the colonial period to recruit indentured labour. Since then, labour recruitment continues to be of an organized nature in a number of industries and both the pattern of recruitment and labour deployment is dominated by contractors.14 The practice of child servitude has been made illegal in India since British days when Children (Pledging of Labour) Act was enacted in 1933.Since independence; Government has passed various legislation to check the menace of bondage. Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 prohibits employment of children in hazardous industries. However, it does not ban it completely. Similarly, for children in servitude, Bonded Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1976 was enacted which covers all kinds of bondage. However, despite comprehensive arrangement made in this act, the problem remains which puts a big question mark on the commitment of the government. Debt bondage in India has its historic origin in the customary forced labour expected from the members of the socially discriminated dalits (S. Cs) and adivasis (S. Ts) communities by the caste landlords in the feudal society. However, the practice not only continued after independence but multiplied as a result of increase in poverty, reinforcement of social (caste) discrimination and displacement of the poor from the land and forest based livelihood by the very process of development planning, liberalization and globalization. So while India shines in some quarters for its economic achievements and high growth rate its poorest languishes in abject poverty. They continue to fall victim to the traditional form of debt bondage in other sectors of economy like: brick- kilns, textile, construction, plantations and domestic work etc.The bonded children and their parents have virtually no bargaining power as their very survival is at stake and moreover even if some contract takes place because of the unequal status it is always exploited by the moneylenders to their advantage. With the passage of time there has been a marked change in the nature and incidence of bonded labour in India as a result of various factors, including the impact of social change and social movements, economic modernization and state intervention. 15 While these processes have impacted positively on the low status of labour in traditional agriculture and in some other sectors like family bondage the incidence of bonded
12 13

Frontline, Volume 21 Issue 14, June-03-16, 2004. Ravi S. Srivastava, , M igration and the Labour M arket in India, The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, vol. 41, no. 4, (1998) at 583-617. 14 Ibid 15 Devesh Kapur (et al.), Rethinking Inequality: Dalits in Uttar Pradesh in the M arket Reform Era, Economic and Political Weekly, August 28, 2010,vol. XLV No. 35

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labour still remains high in some segments of unorganized industry, the informal sector and in the relatively modern segments of agriculture in some areas. Migrant children appear particularly vulnerable to bonded labour exploitation today. However, recruitment systems where labour contractor and intermediaries lure ill informed parents of poor children from their home communities with advance payments and false promises of better payment and decent work has declined considerably. While the impact of legislation and state action against bonded child labour has been limited, the social relation of production on the ground has undergone many changes. The opening up of labour markets, the increasing linkages with towns and the growing political consciousness have made it difficult for employers to bind labour for generations. In some instances, employers, in order to circumvent the law, have found other ways of subjugating labour, especially child labour. In modern times, bonded labour thrives on the labour of migrants, women and children. Migratory labour is less able to assert rights and entitlements and is more vulnerable to predatory capitalism. 16 Though change has taken place in the nature of bonded labour system but it still prevails in some form or the other, the consequences of which are beyond imagination. It not only affects the concerned individual but his entire family. More and more childrens are being hired by emerging middle- class to work as domestic help and in some cases it turns into worst kind of bondage. Government has recently banned it by passing an ant in this regard but this practice continues as poor parents are not in a position to feed their children. The fundamental human right to live in freedom and dignity gets violated as the person who suffers with bondage is physically and mentally enslaved by his master. They never get opportunity to express themselves freely. With the onset of globalization and industrialization, the pattern of bondage has changed but bondage as a means of exploitations remains. Still, there are people today who work to repay paltry amounts borrowed two or three generations ago, which threaten to undermine the very basics of the Indian state and the constitution. According to the reports of Human Rights Watch, most governments promises remain unfulfilled. States are still rarely freeing and rehabilitating bonded labourers, and the central government, with the exception of the NHRC, is acquiescing to states inaction. Many governments efforts never reached beyond high- profile industries like carpets and beedis and are now stalled. According to Joseph Gathia, Director of the centre of concern for child labour, We are now in a state of purgatory. We have to put in more effort or we will recede. 17 Magnitude of Bonded Child Labour in India: The statistics problem is as acute in the bonded labour context as it is in the child labour context. Official statistics about the extent of bonded child labour in India is hardly reliable as government statistics vary completely from other organization with regard to magnitude of bonded labour. Human Rights watch in one of its study pointed out that approximately 15 million children are working as bonded labourers in India. However, it has not cited the source of information. However, the estimate by different agencies ranging from the human rights commission to the frontal organization leading to liberate the bonded labourers in the country varies from 40 million to 365 million including bonded childrens. The official accounts for the incidence of bonded labour dont quite reveal the magnitude of the problem, but independent surveys by reputed agencies place the total number of people mired in different forms of bonded labour at tens of millions. Magnitude of child labour is difficult to ascertain in India, because neither the state nor the central government comes out with clear cut statistics as it seems it is of low priority subject for the government. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), which has been directed by the Supreme Court to monitor the overall implementation of Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976 has identified 190 districts in 17 states as bonded labour prone areas. It has clearly observed that most of the state governments tend to ignore or refuse the existence of Bonded Labour in their states although gory incidents of poor people being trapped into bondage are reported regularly in the media. For example, in Punjab, where the State government has till quite recently denied the existence of bonded labour, the
Ravi S. Srivastava and Sasikumar, An Overview of M igration, its Impacts and Key Issues, paper no. 2, (2003) migration and development and pro-poor policy choices in Asia, London: DFID. 17 Human Rights Watch interview with Joseph Gathia, Director, Centre of Concern for Child Labour, New Delhi, April 1, 2002
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NHRC has assiduously been pursuing complaints regarding bonded labour in agriculture, brick kilns and other sectors, and has upheld these complaints in a few cases. This is suggestive of the chasm between civil society organizations and government on the issue of bonded labour, which has so far not been bridged despite the efforts of the Supreme Court and the NHRC. 18 ibid. Recently Supreme Court took exception to the failure of states and U. Ts. for their failure to respond to NHRCs suggestions on eradication of bonded and child labour. 19 (Government is not willing to accept that bondage exists. Every year the Central Government publishes very poor results concerning the identification of bonded labourers without really making an issue of it. The states of the Union seem to play a complicit role and the relations between the federal government and the states are a kind of win-win situations where the central government occasionally reminds the state governments of their obligations to carry out enquiries creating the illusion of fulfilling its responsibilities and the state governments send back low figures which do not embarrass the federal government. 20 This has also been pointed out by Justice Bhagwati We cannot understand why the administration should be ashamed to admit the existence of bonded labour. It is not the existence of bonded labour which shames the administration but rather its inability to provide for and take all the necessary measures to ensure that it is eradicated by quickly identifying the bonded labourers in order to free them and rehabilitating them in a lasting manner.21 Legal-Constitutional Measures: Bonded labour or forced labour violates the fundamental rights guaranteed to all citizens by the Indian constitution. Various provisions have been made in the constitution in this regard. Article 21 22 of the Indian Constitution guarantees the right to life and liberty and Article 23 23 of the constitution prohibits the traffic in human beings and beggar and other similar forms of forced labour or slavery. Article 24 24 of the Indian Constitution states that no child below 14 shall be employed in any factory or mine or engaged in any hazardous employment. Under Article 4225 of the constitution there is a provision for securing just and humane conditions of work and maternity relief. Under Article 43 26 of the Indian constitution the state shall make provision for living wage, suitable condition of work and ensure a decent standard of life. According to the Supreme Court, it is the responsibility of the state to identify, release and suitably rehabilitate its bonded labourers as required by the Indian Constitution. The court concluded that without rehabilitation, freed bonded children will relapse into bondage once again. What use are identification and release to bonded labourers if after attaining their so-called freedom from bondage to a master they are consigned to a life of another bondage, namely bondage to hunger and starvation where they have nothing to hope for, not even anything to die for. There are four processes under the Bonded Labour Act: Identification of bonded labour cases, Release of identified bonded labourers, Prosecution of offenders, Rehabilitation of released bonded labourers. The object of the act is to provide for the abolition of the bonded labour system with a view to prevent the economic and physical exploitation of the weaker sections of the people and for the matters connected therewith and incidental thereto. The 1976 Act also lays down the monitoring, enforcement and implementation modalities, which rest mainly with the state governments The ambit of bonded labour prohibited by the 1976 Act has been clarified by the Supreme Court in a number of judgments, including the Asiad Workers Case (1982) and the Bandhua Mukti Morcha Case (1984). The Courts have clarified that the 1976 Act is derived from Article 23(1) of the Constitution whose ambit is much wider than
18 19

Ravi S. Srivastava, Bonded Labour in India: Its Incidence and Pattern. (Geneva: ILO Office 2005) at 3 Child Labour: States no response to NHRC report irks sc, http:/www. Zeenews.com/news 639863.ht ml 20 Frederic Robin, Between M odernism and Archaism: The bonded Labour Situation in India (2005) Universit Paris I - La Sorbonne, 21 Justice Bhagwati in Bandhua Mukti Morcha v. Union of India and others 22 Article 21, Constitution of India 23 Article 23, Constitution of India 24 Article 24, Constitution of India 25 Article 42, Constitution of India 26 Article 43, Constitution of India

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Article 4 of the UDHR, since the Article strikes at forced labour in whatever form it may manifest itself, because it is violative of human dignity and is contrary to basic human values (Supreme Court judgment in the Asiad case).27 Statistics on bonded and child labour provided by the ministry of labour vary widely across the states, demonstrating the governments failure to collect accurate data and its gross underrepresentation of the problem. 28 Going by the circumstances in which the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act was formulated and enacted, it is clear that the formulators of the law wanted to specifically address the traditional form of bondage. The definition of bonded labour in the act itself is tailor- made to address the growing problem of debt bondage in the agricultural sector. The act fails to address the newer form of bondage, for example, the migrant laborer. 29 Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, has uniformly defined a child as someone who has not attended the age of 14 years. Although, it is a detailed act but it prohibits children from working in certain hazardous industries however it does not prohibit child labour per se. However, the paradox of this act is that in government run training centre children can be seen mastering the art of weaving as it is not harmful if it is going on under government auspices. However, there are glaring loopholes in the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act which allows manufacturers to escape application of the law quite easily. First, those workshops "wherein any process is carried on by the occupier with the aid of his family..." lie outside this act [The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, Sec. 3]. The vast majority of child labor takes place in agriculture and cottage industries in the informal sector. Often, the employer does have one of his own children or a niece or nephew working alongside the rest of the children, and this is enough to take his shop out of the purview of the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act. It gives tacit government approval to the use of child labour when the child is a relative of the family, under conditions that would otherwise be illegal. Another lacuna of the act is that work and conditions ordinarily deemed harmful to children are considered non-harmful so long as they take place under the auspices of an official government program. The best examples of this are carpet weaving training centers. Carpet weaving is a hazardous and therefore prohibited industry under the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act where thousands of children are enrolled in this industry, not only with government approval, but with government facilitation and encouragement. These exceptions are clear violations Article 24 of the Indian Constitution, which states that "no child below 14 shall be employed in any factory or mine or engaged in any hazardous employment." 30 In the end, it can be said that when it comes to child labour, the Indian government has an impressive number of protective laws, government decrees and orders, national policies and projects and reports and recommendations. Unfortunately, the laws are rarely enforced and the recommendations are rarely carried out. The abovementioned constitutional and legal mechanism has been able to address this problem to a greater extent but not been able to completely wipe out this problem and therefore it still persists. Major Obstacles: Despite existence of plethora of legal- constitutional measures, the problem of bonded child labour still persists in our country which is largely due to callous and indifferent attitude of the state and centre government. Many times, State governments hide the fact and hardly accept that bonded child labour prevails in their state. It has been observed that in practice, such issues are on the low priority list of the government. Human Rights Watch has cited from various sources that prosecution record is no match to violation record. Fine is very nominal and none have been imprisoned till date under Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation Act), 1986. Similarly, Supreme Court has been examining the under27 28

Ravi S. Srivastava, Bonded Labour in India: Its Incidence and Pattern. (Geneva: ILO Office 2005) at 3 Small Change: A Report by Human Rights Watch, 22 Jan. 2003 29 R. S. Gautam & Gopal Iyer, Analysing the effectiveness of the programmes for the eradication of the bonded labour system in U. P. Working Paper iii (Dec. 2005) 30 Sanat M ohanty, Indian Laws Against Child Labour, Feb. 15,2006 http://www.thesouthasian.org/

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reporting of bonded labour in thirteen states because of their reputation for high level of bondage. Corruption is also visible in rehabilitation. In some cases it has been observed that some of those who were rehabilitated were not bonded labourers. Bonded Labour System (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 made a provision of appointing vigilance committee, but in is hardly functional in any district. These are just few glaring discrepancies with our enforcement mechanism. Unless regular follow- up measures along with accountability and check in corrupt practices is ensured, it is difficult to check this menace. The most tragic part of bonded child labour is that apart from coming from poor background, they hardly have any effective channel to communicate their grievances and therefore their condition is still pathetic. Concluding Observation: Bonded child labour is a serious violation of human rights. It is slavery in the form of bonded labour. It also shows the utter failure of political leadership to address this grave human rights violation in a comprehensive and sustained manner. Such failure goes against the basic spirit of the constitution. Any economy, tolerating such widespread abuses at its heart must be an issue of concern for the international community, particularly as India is emerging as a major player in the global market. Concerted governmental effort along with effective community involvement is required to address this problem. The focus should be divided equally between liberating and rehabilitating bonded children and prosecuting employers of bonded labourers. Governments should revitalize the system of local Vigilance Committees and Governments must ensure that appropriate rehabilitation packages are made immediately available to ex-bonded labourers to ensure access to a sustainable livelihood, land, shelter, markets and services, and education. Rehabilitation support should also include the provision of education and vocational training to children of liberated bonded labourers and children of the current bonded labourers to ensure that the children do not fall into bondage. Education should be recognized as a fundamental strategy to help children to keep away from exploitative work including bonded labour. Various provisions to address the problem of child bondage, has to a certain extent yielded result. In many industries, employers have started avoiding engaging child labourers. However, its effectiveness varies from sector to sector. Somewhere it is more effective than others. The need of the hour is that a wholehearted effort is required on the part of the government and it should also involve civil society groups working in these areas. The problem is an age-old problem and only through sustained effort this problem can be addressed.