Meagre fines for employers of bonded labour

Chennai: While the Centre proposed last week to raise government aid for rescued bonded labourers from Rs 20,000 to Rs 3 lakh, the fine for offenders remains Rs 2,000. The Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976, has not been touched ever since leading to several accused getting away with small fines and barely any trial in court.

Besides the fine, those accused of hiring bonded labourers could face imprisonment up to two years, “The key word here is ‘up to’, while the accused are likely to be imprisoned for two years, very rarely do they spend more than a day in custody and that day is usually spent in court,” said David Sundarsingh, an advocate, who has been fighting bonded labour cases for over four years.

Advocates defending the perpetrators advise them to confess to the crime and pay the money upfront as it is a small sum. Sundarsingh pointed out to several factors that resulted in such poor punishment. “Poor infrastructure, less efforts  by police to collect hard evidence and documents and the general assumption by those in judicial power than bonded labour is a common practice are among the reasons.”

Kural Amuthan, director of research, International Justice Mission, said the police fail to identify forced labour as a “criminal offence”.

“ In 2013, the government amended Section 370 IPC and also included forced labour as a case of human trafficking. However, most police stations see bonded labour cases as simply a labour issue. The victim and the employer are brought together and more often than not the victim is too afraid to speak up against the employer.”