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Unit 2: Major Segments of Indian Society

Bastar district in Madhya Pradesh as ‘Kabadis’ in Hyderabad as ‘Bhagela’, in Rajasthan as ‘Saggris’ Notes
in Bihar as ‘Kamias’ or ‘Kamiantis’, in Orissa as ‘Gothees’, in Tamil Nadu as ‘Pandiyals’, in Kerala as
‘Adiyas’, ‘Paniyas’, and ‘Kattu-naikens’, and in Uttar Pradesh as ‘Koltas’.
Causes of Bonded Labour
Though the main causes of origin, growth and perpetuation of bonded labour system are economic,
the social and religious factors too support the custom. The economic causes include: extreme
poverty of people, inability to find work for livelihood, inadequate size of the landholdings to
support family, lack of alternative small-scale loans for the rural and urban poor, natural calamities
like drought, floods etc., destruction of men and animals, absence of rains, drying away of wells,
meagre income from forest produce, and inflation and constant rising prices. The social factors
include: high expenses on occasions like marriage, death, feast, birth of a child, etc., leading to
heavy debts, caste-based discrimination, lack ol concrete social welfare schemes to safeguard
against hunger and illness, non-compulsory and unequal educational system, and indifference
and corruption among government officials. Sometimes, exploitation by some persons in a village
also compels people to migrate to some other place and seek not only employment on the employer’s
conditions but also get protection from influential persons. Illiteracy, ignorance, immaturity and
lack of skill and professional training sustain such beliefs. Broadly speaking, it may be maintained
that bondage originates mainly from economic and social pressures (Sharma, 1990:52).

Religious arguments are used to convince the people of low castes that religion enjoins
upon them to serve people of high castes.

The Legislation
The pernicious and inhuman, callous, reprehensible practice of bonded labour existed in many
states in India. After independence, it could not be allowed to continue to blight national life any
longer.
However, no serious effort was made to give effect to this Article and stamp out the shocking
practice of bonded labour. The Forced Labour (Abolition) Convention adopted by the International
Labour Organisation (ILO) in 1919 was ratified by India only in November 1954. Some states in
India had also enacted laws for abolishing bonded labour. For example, the Bihar Kamianti Act
was passed in 1920, the Madras Agency Debt Bondage Regulation in 1940, Kabadi System Regulation
in Bastar in Madhya Pradesh in 1943, Hyderabad Bhagela Agreement Regulation in 1943, Orissa
Debt Bonded Abolition Regulation in 1948, Rajasthan Sagri System Abolition Act in 1961 (which
was amended in 1975), and Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, Kerala in 1975. It was specifically
laid down in most of these regulations (like those of Madras, Orissa, Bihar, and Hyderabad) that
the agreement between the creditor and the debtor entered into after the commencement of the
regulation was to be wholly void if (a) the full terms of the agreement were not expressed in
writing and a copy there of was not filed with the designated authority, (b) the expressed and
implied period of labour exceeded one year, (c) the interest provided for was not simple interest
over one year, and (d) the interest exceeded 6.25 per cent per annum. But it was after the
announcement of the 20-point programme on July 1, 1975 that the legislative excercise at the
national level began with some amount of seriousness and urgency. The ordinance was enacted in
October 1975 which was later replaced by the Act passed in February 1976, called the Bonded
Labour System (Abolition) Act. All the state laws became inoperative after the enactment of the
Act by the union government in 1976.
The Act implies: (i) identification of bonded labourers; (ii) release of bonded labourers; (iii) action
against offenders, i.e., creditors who had forced agreement upon the debtors; (iv) holding of
regular meetings of vigilance committees at the district and tehsil level; (v) maintenance of the
prescribed registers; and (vi) conferring of judicial powers to executive magistrates. The Act also

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