On May 1, as the world commemorates International Labour Day to honour the dignity of work and workers’ rights, the stories of millions in India trapped in bonded labour cast a dark shadow.
In a quiet corner of Shivpuri, Madhya Pradesh, Mukesh Adivasi, 35, lies on a weathered charpoy, his once-robust frame now frail, his spirit scarred by a traumatic past. In 2023, enticed by promises of work in Indore, Mukesh and his family were trafficked 1,400 kilometres to Karnataka, trapped as bonded labourers. Brutal violence on a sugarcane farm left him with a painful limp and profound exhaustion. “I blame my greed,” Mukesh mourns, recalling the ₹500 advance that he got and which ignited hope. Crammed into trucks, they endured a gruelling journey, only to face relentless toil — between 14 hours to 16 hours of work every day.
When Mukesh demanded payment, armed guards savagely beat him, which shattered his right leg. A failed escape attempt brought further cruelty. After weeks of torment, the police rescued Mukesh and others, but his physical and emotional scars remain.
In Puttur, Andhra Pradesh, K. Thenmozhi’s childhood dreams of a bright future collapsed at the age of 13. Financial hardship drove her family to a brick kiln in Bengaluru, where an advance of ₹2,000 bound them in servitude. Excruciating work that stretched over 12 to 14 hours under the scorching sun replaced school. The kiln owner’s brutality — beatings, verbal abuse and confinement — shattered their spirit. “I knew we were trapped,” Thenmozhi recalls. A social worker’s visit provoked the owner’s fury, but his subsequent flight offered them escape. Fleeing barefoot, Thenmozhi’s family left on a train, and reached their village.
The long wait for justice and freedom
The harrowing experiences of survivors such as Mukesh Adivasi and K. Thenmozhi, are among the lakhs of Indians ensnared in bonded labour, exposing the brutality of exploitation and underscoring the urgent need for systemic reforms to secure justice and freedom for all workers.
Bonded labour emerges from a web of interconnected factors. Immediate triggers, such as medical emergencies, religious ceremonies, dowries, food shortages, or the sudden loss of a job or a breadwinner, may force an impoverished worker to seek a loan or advance from an employer or labour agent. However, deeper systemic issues amplify this vulnerability: discrimination and social exclusion based on religion, ethnicity, or caste; widespread illiteracy and a lack of access to information; employer monopolies over local financial and labour markets; and the dominance of social elites. These elements transform a simple economic transaction between lender and borrower into a mechanism of social control and exploitation.
Policy and plan
India had abolished bonded labour in 1975. In 2016, the then Union Labour Minister, Bandaru Dattatreya, informed Parliament about the government’s plan to release and rehabilitate 1.84 crore bonded labourers across the country as part of a 15-year vision extending until 2030.
Interestingly, in December 2021, when parliamentarian Mohammed Jawed inquired about this target in Parliament, the government stated that 12,760 bonded labourers had been rescued and rehabilitated between 2016 and 2021.
The Minister of State for Labour and Employment revealed a harsh truth: of India’s estimated 1.84 crore bonded labourers, only 12,760 have been rescued and rehabilitated, leaving approximately 1.71 crore still trapped. To meet the 2030 target of eradicating bonded labour, around 11 lakh individuals would need to have been rescued annually since 2021. Given that only 12,000 bonded labourers were rescued between 2016 and 2021, expecting lakhs to be freed annually is overly optimistic.
In addition to bonded labour, crores of unorganised Indian workers, particularly migrants, endure forced labour in India, which closely resembles bonded labour. According to a National Sample Survey Organization of India report, the country’s total employment across the organised and unorganised sectors was approximately 47 crore. Of this, only 8 crore workers were in the organised sector, while the remaining 39 crore were in the unorganised sector.
The International Labour Organisation’s India Employment Report 2024 also states that low-quality jobs in the informal sector and informal employment are the dominant forms of work in India.
The ground reality
Unfortunately, unorganised workers, predominantly migrants in India’s informal sector, lack unionisation, depriving them of collective bargaining power. Without unionisation, unorganised workers face exploitative conditions, lack formal contracts, and risk arbitrary dismissal. In the 1940s, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar championed labour rights, mandating trade union recognition and collective bargaining, including the right to strike. However, the Labour Codes of 2019-20 have undermined Ambedkar’s legacy, eroding workers’ rights and prioritising profit over people, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation.
Since early 2022, investigations by this writer into forced labour across Indian industries have exposed a shameful reality: Indian industries thrive on the exploitation of forced labour, a blatant betrayal of India’s workers. Interviews with hundreds of workers — mostly migrants forced from their villages by climate change, crippling poverty, and a lack of job opportunities — lay bare a system rigged against them. These workers lack stable wages, facing meagre pay, precarious conditions, and the constant threat of dismissal. This exploitation, a deliberate assault on their dignity, is perpetuated by a system prioritising profit over people, ignoring modern-day slavery. India’s economy shamefully thrives on bonded and forced labour, profiting from its most vulnerable.
Rejimon Kuttappan is a forced labour investigator and the author of ‘Undocumented’ (2021)
Published – May 01, 2025 12:08 am IST