Training on Bonded Labour Abolition Act, 1975 at CBCI Centre
CBCI Office for Labour organized a Training on Bonded Labour - Rescue, Relief and Rehabilitation at CBCI Centre, New Delhi on 15th September from 10 am to 6 pm. Fr. Jervis D’souza, Deputy Secretary General of CBCI inaugurated the training. Fr.Jaison Vadassery, Secretary CBCI Office for Labour welcomed the participants. 42 religious and their collaborators from different facilitation centres of CBCI Office Labour Delhi, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand attended the training program. Mr. Nirmal Gorana, a social activist from Human Rights Law Network (HRLN), Sr. Kalai Selvi FMM and Sr. Dhanam HC from AMRAT and Adv. Gaurav Tomar from Chetanalaya conducted the sessions. Bonded Labour System Abolition Act of 1976 entails the complete eradication of Bonded Labour from our country. Still we can find at every nook and corner Bonded Labourers.
The identification of a bonded labour is the following: the advance given for labour, forced labour forcing them to stay on for the back wages for the work done, wages given are nominal or paid less than the minimum wages, restriction to leave the present work and join other work and restrictions on movement from the place of work, those are sheer cases of Bonded Labour. Mr. Nirmal Gorana explained in detail the different steps to identify, rescue and rehabilitate the bonded labour. The responsibility of the civil society is to report the case of the bonded labour with evidence to the District Magistrate and to the vigilance committee set up by the District Magistrate to release the bonded labour and rehabilitate them. The vigilance committee formed in every district is a mandatory element in all the process of release of bonded labour. In order to broaden the base of working against the bonded labour the following programs will be organised in different states. In Delhi a public hearing and Adalat will be organised to settle the grievances of the bonded labourers who are released and waiting to get their rehabilitation realised by the District Administration. In Himachal Pradesh a convention of social security and protection will be organised among the taxi drivers. In Patna a workers’ convention on bonded labour, public hearing will be organised in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh and a legal consultancy will be organised in Delhi with the help of AMRAT. Two victims of bonded labour from Delhi shared their experience. The Training program came to an end at 6 p.m. with the vote of thanks expressed by Sr.Rani program manager, CBCI Office for Labour.