The Bonded Labour Act: Abolition and Extinguishment

In one line

The Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976 abolishes the system, frees every bonded labourer, extinguishes the debt, frees the mortgaged property, bars eviction from the homestead and forbids a creditor to accept payment.

Sections 1 to 3

Section 1: short title, extent to the whole of India, and commencement, the Act having been brought into force with retrospective effect from the date of the Ordinance it replaced.

Section 2 contains the definitions, of which the important ones are bonded labour, bonded debt, bonded labourer, the bonded labour system, nominal wages and family. [Labour: the Unorganised Worker and the Bonded Labourer] sets out the definition of the system in full.

Section 3: the Act shall have overriding effect, so its provisions have effect notwithstanding anything inconsistent contained in any enactment other than this Act, or in any instrument having effect by virtue of any enactment other than this Act.

Section 3 matters because bondage is usually created by an instrument, an agreement, a bond or a customary obligation, and the overriding effect is what disposes of it without further inquiry.

Section 4: abolition

4(1): on the commencement of the Act the bonded labour system shall stand abolished and every bonded labourer shall stand freed and discharged from any obligation to render any bonded labour.

4(2): after the commencement, no person shall make any advance under, or in pursuance of, the bonded labour system, or compel any person to render any bonded labour or other form of forced labour.

Three features of section 4 are worth stating.

It operates by force of the statute, not by an order. No application, no adjudication and no certificate is required for a labourer to be free; the freedom is conferred by the section itself on the date of commencement.

It abolishes the system and frees the person in the same sentence, which is why the Act is described as abolishing rather than regulating.

And 4(2) is prospective and creates the conduct the offences punish. Sections 16, 17 and 18 punish exactly what 4(2) forbids.

Section 5: agreements and customs void

On the commencement, any custom or tradition or any contract, agreement or other instrument, whether entered into before or after the commencement, by virtue of which a person or a member of their family or dependant is required to do work or render service as a bonded labourer, shall be void and inoperative.

Section 5 is the companion of section 3. Section 3 gives the Act overriding effect; section 5 destroys the instrument itself, and it expressly reaches custom or tradition as well as a written contract, which is essential because much bondage rests on no document at all.