Bonded and Migrant Labourers: Sociology YouTube Lecture Handouts
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Introduction
- The bonded labours is a social system
- When a person is forced to work to pay off a debt
- Double burden of caste and class
- Feudal hierarchical society
- Industrialization and emergence of private property made conditions worse
- Landless class, Unpaid⟋ beggar
- Victim of exploitation, natural calamities, debts, loss of land due to non-payment, etc.
- Bonded Labour Abolition Act, 1976
- Bonded labour system by definition: “the relationship between a creditor and a debtor who obtains loan owing to economic compulsions confronting his day-to-day life, and agrees to abide by the terms dictated by the creditor” .
- Debtor agrees to provide or mortgage his services or services of any or all the members of his family (succession) for a specified or unspecified period.
- Low or no payment received
- Not allowed to sell his products in market
- Main cause –
- Zamindari system
- Indebtedness and forced labour
- Low wage work
- No added benefits
- Modern day slavery
- Unequal terms
- Indebtedness caused by:
- Crop failure
- Wedding expenses, dowry
- Death of earning member
- Vulnerable position
- Caste system – forced to work
- Expenditure on rites and rituals
- Poverty
- Extremely attached vs Partially attached bonded labour
- In case of Extremely attached, there is total bondage
- Rural distress
Contract Based Labour
- Low wage
- Limited scope
- Forced labour
- Seasonal employment
- The system of contract labour in our country was abolished in September 1970 by an Act called ‘Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act’ .
Urban Labour
- Different from rural labour
- No setbacks like lack of mobility, education, social stigmas, debt, etc.
- There is awareness, knowledge of rights
- Health, family issues, etc. taken care of
Migrant Labour
- In hope for better they engage in low paying jobs
- Consequences:
- Slums
- Skewed sex ratio
- Stress, hostile environment
- Sanitisation, housing, no social security
- Easy to exploit
- Earned money can be stolen
- Discrimination at public places or public transport
- Stereotyped
- Family left behind in villages also suffers
- Education of children suffers
- Children forced to join workforce
- Loneliness
- Feminisation of Agrarian work but at low wages due to gender
Remedies and Suggestions
- Create an environment of decent employment and income for the vulnerable and unreachable
- Work in freedom and with dignity
- Strict and immediate action against complaints
- Coordination between Ministry of Labour and Employment and other social ministries
- Participation of all the major stakeholders like employers organizations, trade unions, civil society and media
MCQs
Q.1. Assertion: Bonded labour is often referred as modern day slavery.
Reason: It is called so because the system infringes human rights and destructs dignity of human behaviour.
A - Both A and R are true and R is the correct explanation of A.
B - Both A and R are true but R is NOT the correct explanation of A.
C - A is true but R is false.
D - A is false but R is true.
E - Both A and R are false.
Answer: A
Q.2.
Statement 1: Forced labour can hereditarily descend from father to son or be passed on for generations together.
Statement 2: During the period of bondage, the debtor cannot seek employment with any other person.
a) Statement 1 is wrong and Statement 2 is correct
b) Statement 1 is correct and Statement 2 is wrong
c) Both are wrong
d) Both are right
Answer: D
Q.3. Read the statements and carefully and answer:
a) In order to protect footloose workers or migrant workers the Govt. has initiated many programmes.
b) MGNREGS, Aadhar, NREP are some of them.
1. Both are false
2. a is true and b is false
3. b is true and a is false
4. Both are true
Answer: 4
#Rural Sociology
#Social Issues and Strategies for Rural Development
#Bonded and Migrant labourers
#UGC-NET
✍ Manishika