Anti-Slavery International

English

DigitalCommons@ILR

 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion      
  and Protection of Human Rights 
February 2001 
 
 
Discrimination on the Basis of Work and Descent 
 
THE ENSLAVEMENT OF DALIT AND INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES IN 
INDIA, NEPAL AND PAKISTAN THROUGH DEBT BONDAGE 
 
 
Summary:  This paper describes the gross and continuing violation of the rights of 
millions of people in India, Pakistan and Nepal1, who are trapped in debt bondage and 
forced to work to repay loans.  Their designation as persons belonging outside the 
Hindu caste system is a major determining factor of their enslavement.  Evidence 
from all three countries shows that the vast majority (80%-98%) of bonded labourers 
are from communities designated as “untouchable”, to whom certain occupations are 
assigned, or from indigenous communities.  In the same way that caste status is 
inherited, so debts are passed on to the succeeding generations.   It is recommended 
that the United Nations take steps to inform the Governments of India, Pakistan and 
Nepal that this form of racism and discrimination is no longer tolerable. 
 
Debt bondage and the law 
 
Debt bondage is prohibited under the United Nations Supplementary Convention on 
Slavery, the Slave Trade and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery (1956).   It 
is also forbidden under the International Labour Organisation’s Convention 29 (1930) 
on Forced Labour.   
 
A) India.  Article 23 of the Indian Constitution forbids the use of forced labour, 
and bonded labour is specifically outlawed under both the 1976 Bonded 
Labour System (Abolition) Act and the 1989 Scheduled Castes and the 
Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.  Administrative mechanisms 
for the identification, release and rehabilitation of bonded labourers exist 
                                                 
1 At the time of writing it is not known how many, if any persons from Dalit and Indigenous 
communities are in debt bondage in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.  Uncorroborated reports have suggested 
that people from “hill tribes” in Bangladesh are working to pay off debts. 
 2 
throughout the country in the form of “Vigilance Committees”.  In reality, the 
absence of a political will to take a firm position on debt bondage at national  
and state levels means that these Committees exist largely on paper.  India has 
ratified the ILO Convention 29 on Forced Labour. 
 
B) Pakistan.  Debt bondage is prohibited by the Bonded Labour System 
(Abolition) Act, 1992 and the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Rules, 1995.  
Here too, Vigilance Committees are said to exist for the purpose of overseeing 
the release and rehabilitation of bonded labourers.  Pakistan has also ratified 
ILO Convention 29. 
 
C) Nepal.  Article 20 of the 199I Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal prohibits 
forced labour as does the country’s civil code – the Muluku Ain.  In July 2000 
the Government announced that it would introduce a specific law against 
bonded labour, and draft legislation was drawn up in November 2000.  No 
date has been set for presentation of the legislation to Parliament (February 
2001).  In 1999 Nepal indicated its intention to ratify the ILO Convention 29.  
 
While the introduction of domestic legislation is a prerequisite for tackling bonded 
labour, it has not been sufficient in itself to ensure that it is effectively eliminated.  
There are a number of reasons for this.  Firstly, those who keep and control bonded 
labourers – landlords, factory owners, hotel and restaurant owners, quarry owners, etc. 
- are able to bribe officials to ensure that cases are not investigated, or do nor reach 
the courts.  Secondly, intimidation, threats and actual violence are used to prevent 
bonded labourers or non-governmental organizations seeking their release through the 
law.   Thirdly, because they are from Dalit (untouchable) and lowest caste groups, 
bonded labourers are subjected to discrimination and gross violation of many of their 
human rights.  
 
Bonded labourers are one step away from destitution.  Working for their master is 
their only means of ensuring some food for themselves and their families every day, 
and of securing shelter, often in the form of a mud and straw hut.   Access to a pool of 
dependent and permanently available labour suits the landlords and employers of 
bonded labourers;  although they begrudge the loans, the reality is that the labour 
obtained in this way is exceptionally cheap, docile and dependent.   
 
Bonded Labour in South Asia: the statistics debate 
 
While it is widely accepted that debt bondage exists in India, Nepal and Pakistan, 
there continues to be considerable controversy regarding the number of people 
actually held in bondage.  It should be noted here that most official statistics cover 
male bonded labourers only.  However, it is commonly found – in agriculture, brick 
kilns and quarries, that other family members are also working to pay off loans from 
landlords and employers, but are not included in statistics. 
 
In India, estimates vary between Human Rights Watch’s estimate in 1999 of 40 
million bonded labourers, and figures provided to the International Labour 
Organisation in June 1998 in response to questions raised by the ILO’s Committee of 
Experts in June 1998 (copy attached).   In responding to the Committee’s repeated 
 3 
request for a comprehensive survey, a representative of the Government of India 
stated that 251,000 bonded labourers had been identified , of whom approximately  
 
/…… 
231,000 had been rehabilitated.    
 
The Indian Government’s official figures grossly underestimate the scale of the 
problem.  The 1978-79 survey, which was carried out jointly by the Gandhi Peace 
Foundation and the National Labour Institute, estimated that there were 2,617,000 
bonded labourers in the ten states surveyed. It should be stressed that this survey only 
looked at bonded labour used in the agricultural sector.  The more recent report 
submitted to the Supreme Court by the Commission on Bonded Labour in Tamil 
Nadu  (31 October 1995) estimated that there were approximately 1,250,000 million 
bonded labourers in Tamil Nadu alone.   Given the prevalence of bonded labour in 
other Indian states – Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, 
Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, etc. it seems more likely that the correct figure is 
more likely to be in the region of 20 million. 
 
In Pakistan, the official number of bonded labourers is said by the Government to be 
between 5,000 and 7,000 persons.  This also seems to be a completely unrealistic 
figure.  The most recent survey of bonded labourers – carried out for the International 
Labour Organisation by the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research in 
October 2000 - indicates that up to 6.8 million persons were living in conditions of 
bondage as share croppers in Sindh Province – i.e. were forced to give unpaid labour 
to their landlords.  A more conservative estimate - counting only those who said they 
were indebted to their landlord  -  would be 1.8 million persons.   The majority of 
these are “untouchable” Hindus.  The same study estimates that across the 4,000 brick 
kilns in Pakistan, up to 700,000 persons are in debt bondage, over half of them 
women and children.   These figures do not include workers in carpet weaving 
factories, where it is known that there is a high incidence of debt bondage and child 
labour.    
 
The Government of Nepal acknowledges that the problem of bonded agricultural 
labourers from the indigenous Tharu community needs to be urgently addressed.  In 
total, based on three studies carried out by different organisations in 1992, 1994 and 
1995 it can be estimated that there were (until July 2000) between 70,000 and 110,000 
persons from the Tharu indigenous community in debt bondage in five districts 
(Kanchanpur, Kailali, Bardiya, Banke and Dang) under the system known as 
“Kamaiya”.    The recent Government order outlawing debt bondage has caused tens 
of thousands of bonded “Kamaiya” families to be either pushed out by landlords or to 
leave of their own free will.  In spite of the existence of available land, and pledges of 
substantial funds from the International Labour Organisation (among others) concrete 
assistance for rehabilitation has not been provided to communities of freed bonded 
labourers. At the time of writing they are living precariously in plastic and cardboard 
camps.   Approximately 3,000 Kamaiya families remain in bondage – unable, or 
unwilling to leave their landlords. 
 
The figure of 70-110,000 persons in debt bondage as “Kamaiya” does not include 
debt bondage in other parts of Nepal, where agricultural labourers – known as 
“Haliya” are bonded to landlords from whom they have taken loans.  A survey of 600 
 4 
Haliya extended family households carried out in Baitadi District (Far Western 
Region) in 1999 found that the majority were providing unpaid labour to landlords as  
 
/……. 
interest on loans which they had received.   Their only payment for this work was a 
daily meal.   All but one of the 600 households were Dalit.   A survey in Saptari  
District (Eastern Region) undertaken in January 2001 found that, there too, Dalit 
agricultural labourers were working to pay interest on loans taken from landlords. 
 
Caste Discrimination 
 
One of the most striking features of debt bondage in South Asia is that it is largely 
confined to people who are designated as being outside the Hindu caste system –
Dalits and indigenous communities.  In India, and Nepal, the majority of the 
population is Hindu and maintains a political, economic and social order which is 
based on caste discrimination.  In both India and Nepal, Dalits and indigenous (tribal) 
communities are systematically discriminated against in terms of education, 
employment, and social relations.     
 
By tradition, and according to ancient Hindu doctrine, Dalit people are assigned 
specific tasks they must undertake for the community, such as sweeping, cleaning, 
tanning, ploughing, removal of animal and human waste, snake catching, etc.  Higher 
castes must not allow themselves to become polluted by undertaking these tasks, and 
Dalits are expected to do this work without any payment.  In rural societies, a refusal 
will lead to ostracisation and violence.  This so-called “free” labour is known as begar 
in Hindi, Sindhi (Pakistan) and Nepali.   Within rural agricultural communities, begar 
is extracted by landlords in India, Nepal and Pakistan from women, children and old 
people, who must clean and feed animals, and clean the landlords’ houses.   Failure to 
do this work would lead to eviction.  The origin of debt bondage lies in this 
requirement to give service without payment.    However, human beings cannot 
survive without food and shelter, and cash is required for medical care, and social 
obligations at times of death and marriage.  Landlords and employers who require a 
more permanent workforce provide loans as a means of  forcing workers to stay with 
them permanently.   Usually, debts are passed on from father to son, husband to wife, 
thereby causing enslavement to the same employer for generations.   
 
In Sindh Province in Pakistan, the majority of agricultural labourers and share-
croppers are originally from India – from Kohl and Bhil communities who migrated 
before partition.   Most of these labourers and tenants have some form of debt 
relationship with their landlord, and are grossly exploited.  In the worst cases – 
notably in Lower Sindh – bonded agricultural labourers work under guards in the 
fields, and are kept under lock and key at night time.   Documentary evidence of 
murder, rape, kidnapping and physical assault has been provided to the authorities by 
the Special Task Force on Sindh, a branch office of the non-governmental Human 
Rights Commission of Pakistan. 
 
Conversion to other religions has often been seen as a way of escaping from such 
discrimination and exploitation.  However, the majority of bonded labourers in the 
brick kilns of Pakistan are converts to Christianity from the “sweeper” (Dalit) caste.  
 5 
In Haryana and Punjab (India) bonded labourers within the Sikh community come 
from ex-Dalits. 
 
/…… 
 
Government Responses 
 
Anti-Slavery International has consistently raised the problem of bonded labourers in 
several fora – notably the UN Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, 
the UN Commission on Human Rights, and through member organizations of the 
International Labour Organisation.  It has also regularly addressed its concerns 
directly to the relevant governments.    Without fail, the responses a) convey the 
impression that legal and administrative arrangements are in hand to deal with the 
problem;  b) suggest that the number of people in bondage is not a significant 
problem;  and c) give details of programme initiatives which, it is said, will resolve 
the problem.  The letter dated May 11, 2000 from the Government of Pakistan’s 
Secretary of Labour to the European Union Ambassador in Pakistan (copy attached), 
is a very typical example.  “It may not, however, be possible to give some concrete 
information regarding the actual situation of bonded labour.   In this regard no survey 
was carried in the past.  A general view is that bonded labour in Pakistan is not wide 
spread.  After the enactment of the law namely;  the Bonded Labour System 
(Abolition) Act, 1992, stringent measures have been taken by the Government to 
ensure that the law is fully implemented.  District-wise Vigilance Committees 
represented by NGOs and other relevant groups have been constituted to oversee the 
implementation of the law.  The reports sent by the field formations in the 
government machinery hardly identify the existence of labour in bondage – so much 
talked about.  It seems that apparently the magnitude is exaggerated because of vested 
interests.” 
 
In spite of the above-mentioned evidence of tens of thousands of bonded labourers 
being kept illegally by landlords in Sindh Province, District Magistrates in Umerkot, 
Sanghar, and Mirphurkas refuse to take action, according to the law.    
 
The International Labour Organisation has consistently called on the Government of 
India to take action on bonded labour, noting on 8th June 1998 that “….until today no 
comprehensive survey existed:  the Government had announced a number of 256,000 
bonded labourers freed;  other estimates referred to 5 to 10 million bonded labourers.  
They said that the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations had also observed 
a lack of effective measures to eradicate this problem.   The Government has made 
reference to the [individual Indian] States’ responsibility to identify the magnitude of 
bonded labour and to release bonded labourers and also referred to meetings between 
central and state governments, but there had never been a final decision coming out of 
that.  Moreover, state governments denied the existence of bonded labour, and the 
Government attended the outcome of [the] Supreme Court’s decision before taking a 
final decision on the need for an all-India survey to discover the extent of bonded 
labour..….”(copy attached). 
 
The declaration by the Government of Nepal in July 2000 that debt bondage was 
prohibited, and that a law would be passed soon after by Parliament was very 
 6 
welcome.   It remains to be seen whether the administrative and legal mechanisms 
will be put in place to ensure that no one is able to keep workers in bondage with  
impunity.   
 
 
/…… 
The evidence from India and Pakistan suggests that impunity is the norm.  It is the 
contention of Anti-Slavery International that the authorities fail to act because the 
victims are treated as people who are “polluted”, “low caste” or outside the caste 
system, by reason of their birth and occupation.   This failure to act constitutes a 
serious form of discrimination. 
 
Recommendations 
 
• That the UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human 
Rights inform the Governments of India, Pakistan and Nepal that debt 
bondage is an intolerable form of slavery and must be eradicated 
• That the attention of the Governments of India, Pakistan and Nepal be drawn 
to the evidence for discrimination on the grounds of caste-based occupation 
and descent in the case of bonded labourers, at the forthcoming World 
Conference Against Racism 
• That the Governments of India, Pakistan and Nepal be informed that serious 
and urgent measures must be taken, to end this form of discrimination.  
Among which should be:  comprehensive national surveys of the existence of 
debt bondage;  evidence of prosecution of those who keep bonded labourers;  
evidence of the release and rehabilitation of bonded labourers.    
 
References 
 
1. Anti-Slavery International.  This Menace of Bonded Labour;  Debt Bondage in 
Pakistan.  London, Anti-Slavery International, 1996. 
2. Robertson, A. and Mishra, S.  Forced to Plough;  Bonded Labour in Nepal’s 
Agricultural Economy.  London/Kathmandu, Anti-Slavery 
International/Informal Sector Service Centre, 1997 
3. Anti-Slavery International.  Submission to the UN Human Rights Commission, 
1997. 
4. Letter from the Secretary of the Government of Pakistan’s Labour, Manpower 
and Overseas Pakistanis Division to the European Union Ambassador, May 
11, 2000. 
5. International Labour Organisation.  86th Session.  Report of the Committee on 
the Application of Standards, 8 June 1998. 
 
 
 
 
 
 


The Enslavement of Dalit and Indigenous Communities in India, Nepal and Pakistan Through Debt Bondage

https://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3901&amp;context=globaldocs

The Enslavement of Dalit and Indigenous Communities in India, Nepal and Pakistan Through Debt Bondage

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

DigitalCommons@ILR