The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Friday issued notice to the State Government on the action taken to monitor rehabilitation of Odisha’s labourers released from three other States like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
Acting on a complaint by an NGO, the NHRC observed that 239 labourers, released from bondage and possessing release certificates, have not been rehabilitated by the State Government. “The rescued bonded labourers have not been even provided primary assistance for their survival which might lead them to go back to bondage,” the commission said in a statement. The panel also observed the village economy of the labourers had been deliberately destroyed by industrialisation and mechanisation of agriculture which led marginalised rural communities, comprising mostly SC and ST people, to sell off their sources of livelihood. Except Odisha, the commission issued notices to the district magistrates of many districts in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka calling upon them to submit a report within four weeks. The commission has decided to take up the issue at its camp sitting in Bhubaneswar in the third week of August.