Release and rehabilitation of bonded labour

The National Campaign Committee for the Eradication of Bonded Labour (NCCEBL), in collaboration with Socio-Legal Information Centre, is an umbrella organisation comprised of activists, human rights groups, trade union leaders, students and several voluntary organisations who all share the same goal — eradicating bonded labour in all its forms. Bonded labour is any labour or service rendered under the bonded labour system, and is illegal in all of its forms. The Bonded Labour System (abolition) Act 1976 provides definitions as to what bonded labour is according to the law. A bonded labourer is a labourer who incurs or has presumed to have incurred a bonded debt. A bonded debt is an advance obtained/presumed to have been obtained by a bonded labourer under or in pursuance of the bonded labour system restrictions in employment and movement, working on nominal or no wages and beggar work. The organisation started with a network of emails to the chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission on the eve of international day for the abolition of slavery notifying the chairperson of the organisation’s first successful rescue of 146 labourers from a brick kiln industry in Mirjapur, Uttar Pradesh. The same email expressed concern about the lack of support from the Mirzapur district administration. This interaction identified the necessity to drastically increase working towards the abolition of bonded labour, and expand the organisation to reach out to everyone still subject to bonded labour systems.