Narendra Kalet (45) and four other members of his family who were in debt bondage in a brick kiln in Andhra Pradesh had never thought after being rescued by local administration that they would have to again re-migrate for survival.
Narendra, a Dalit and landless wage earner of Sargul village of Muribahal block in Bolangir district, was trapped in debt bondage due to lack of employment and acute food insecurity. He and his entire family migrated to work in a brick kiln in Medak district in Andhra Pradesh in 2009.
After working there for few months, the brick kiln owner started abusing and exploiting them. He was giving low wage for weekly food expenses and forcing them to work for long hours. If they refused he would abuse them verbally, beat them up and sometimes poured chili powder in their eyes. They were in such conditions till the administration rescued them in 2012.
When they returned, they did not have a house to live in. The villagers provided them a hut to live. The Block Development Officer (BDO) of Muribahal after meeting with Narendra assured to provide MGNREGA work, a house through Indira Awas Yojana scheme and linked to receive monthly ration through the PDS. But due to delay of Government rehabilitation assistance, unavailability of wage employment at source village and drought situation, Narendra and his family again re-migrated for their survival.
His is not the only case; there are a number of migrant bonded labourers in Odisha, who are forced to re-migrate and languish in odd situation for years, only due to delay in rehabilitation assistance and unavailability of wage employment in their areas.
In Odisha, the issue of bonded labourers among brick kiln migrants came to forefront with the release of 522 labourers by the administration of Tamil Nadu during 2011. These large numbers of inter-state migrant workers were legally rescued and released under the Bonded labour Abolition Act of 1976. The age-old practice of bonded labour has been abolished, but a number of migrant workers are still in captive and working in miserable conditions in various brick kiln worksites. The Ministry of labour and Employment database of bonded labourers as on March 3, 2015 portrays Odisha as the second State with highest number of bonded labourers after Karnataka.
The Ministry of labour and Employment, Government of India’s survey report says Odisha has reported identification and release of 50,441 bonded labourers between 2009 and 2015 and a total of 47, 313 have been rehabilitated till 2015. On contrary to this, a report presented by Government of Odisha in the State Assembly in 2016 indicates only 2,895 bonded labourers legally released and out of them only 708 have been rehabilitated. But, the database of civil society organisations, Aide et Action and International Justice Mission (IJM), working for the rights of migrants and bonded labourers reveals there are 3,000 migrant labourers of Odisha who have been released from different worksites as per Bonded labour Abolition Act and they are still struggling for rehabilitation.
The Bonded labour System (Abolition) Act 1976 section 10 of the Act says that the economic conditions of the released bonded labour families should be protected by the Government at their native place through convergence of Government social security schemes and promoting their sustainable livelihood. “Hundreds of rescued bonded labourers are still waiting to get their rehabilitation assistance of `20,000 through Central Sector Scheme for rehabilitation. Even Dialu Nial whose right hand was chopped off by traffickers is still waiting for rehabilitation assistance of `20,000,” said Prabhat Kumar Tandi, representative, IJM, Kalahandi.
He also adds, Dialu Nial though received `9. 75 lakh but this financial assistance is from other Government schemes and organisations. “lack of wage employment, crop failure, non-repayment of loans force the rescued migrant bonded labourers again to opt for re-migration and work in that bondage situation,” expressed Umi Daniel, regional head, Aide et Action.
Stating some figures of wage employment of MGNREGA in the State, he said, “In 2016 while a total number of 63,97, 733 received job cards, out of them only 41 per cent (26,35444) job card holders received wage employment. Among them, only 35,000 job card holders completed 100 days of work, which reflects how MGNREGA failed in checking distress migration of the poor and marginalised”.
Another problem of distress migration is they do not get work when they actually need of it, especially during monsoon. Besides, delay in wage payment and no work in agriculture field add up to their trouble.
“During monsoon (June, July, August), the poor and marginalized need work whereas here any construction work starts after November when most of them have already migrated to other States,” said Dillip Das, from the Antadoya , an NGO working for the rights of migrants and bonded labourers.
On the other hand, the new Central Sector Scheme (CSS) for Rehabilitation of Bonded labourer-2016 enhanced the rehabilitation assistance for released bonded labourers from `20,000 to `1 lakh for men, `2 lakh for women and children and `3 lakh for special categories of victims of sex trafficking and those rescued from exploitation by placement agencies. The release of full rehabilitation money, however, is linked to conviction of offenders through District Magistrate led summery trials, details of which are to be given by district officials for claims for reimbursement from the Central Government. For these reasons, the implementation of the new CSS rehabilitation scheme has been weak across States. The scheme has not been notified in the State and Corpus funds for new rehabilitation scheme are not available in the districts. “While hundreds of bonded labourers are still waiting to get rehabilitation assistance of `20,000, how long will it take to provide them such higher amountIJ” asks Anuja Nayak of IJM expressing concern over its implementation challenges.
In December 2013, for landless labourers Nilambar Majhi and Dialu Nial, there was no option other than working as bonded labour. They along with other 12 labourers of their village paid by a trafficker agreed to work. But later they found themselves trapped in slavery.
When both tried to escape, their right hands were chopped off by the traffickers. After three years of trial last year, eight men got life imprisonment. While Nilamber died three months before the judgement, Dialu though happy over the punishment of traffickers, still waits to get his rehabilitation assistance, land patta and a house through IAY scheme.
“Due to poverty, we are migrating to other places. Many a time, we are abused and harassed by the employers over wage and other issues. If there will be a safe working environment at worksite, labourers will not fall prey to such situation,” says Dialu who now struggles to eke out with his lone hand.