Vigilance committee found 165 bonded labours in Ukhrul
Source: Hueiyen News Service

Imphal, July 06 2011: In a shocking turnout in the state, the Ukhrul district Vigilance Committee headed by DC Ukhrul in its survey conducted under the Bonded Labour Act (Abolition) Act 1976 found 165 bonded labour in Ukhrul district as per survey report of the committee submitted recently to the state government.

The survey was conducted by the committee under an order of the state government to check if there were any bonded labours in the state.

Committees of all the nine districts were formed with DCs of the concerned districts as its chairman by the government under the Act.

Ukhrul district committee who conducted the survey in May and June is the first one to submit report of the surveys conducted.

The committee conducted the survey in various hotels, shops, factories and brickfields etc in the two month.

According to an official record, the 165 labours, who were believed to be bonded labours will be screened once again to confirm whether they really are bonded labours or not.

Rehabilitation schemes of the labours will be taken up only after screening and confirming their status.

The survey found 81 bonded labours in Ukhrul block, 24 in Chingai block, 35 in Kasom Khullen, nine in Kamjong, 11 in Phungyar and five in Longchong Maiphai.

Out of the 165 respondents, 140 were men labours while the remaining 25 were women labours.

According to the report, three bakery workers, 19 hotel waiters, four weavers, 24 carpenters, seven drivers, eight brick makers, seven sweepers, 46 daily wagers, two domestic workers, four shepherds, eight salesmen, four butchers and three watchmen were found working as bonded labours in suspicious conditions.

Most of the labours were found to become bonded labours after they borrowed money amounting from Rs 20,000 to Rs 70,000 from rich persons for the purpose of treatments, buying cattle, setting up shops, sending children to schools and other domestic purposes.

The committee in their report recommended to the state government to provide loan facilities to the local people of the area through nationalised banks, developed district hospitals and PHCs, upgrade government schools and run them properly and implement various income generation programme in order to abolish such bonded labours and alleviate their living standard.

The state Labour Department instructed DCs of all the nine districts to conduct the survey by setting up vigilance committees each for their respectivel district in an order issued on February 8 this year.

A person is said to be a bonded labour if he/she works for a person without any proper wages and time limitation to pay off debts which he/she borrowed from the rich person, according to the Bonded Labours System (Abolish) Act 1976 .

According to the act, all the properties belonging to the labour which were bargain for the debt or mortgaged properties should be return to the labour if he/she is found to be working as a bonded labour.

Rehabilitation schemes for the bonded labours should also be taken up by the government to give them a new meaning of life in which they can live freely and government should also provide them shelters and vocational trainings in order to make them able to earn their livelihood.

The survey report of the Vigilance Committee should be submitted to the Ministry of Labour and Employment along with the Utilisation Certificate of the amount spent during the survey on or before July 15, the official source stated.

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