Tamil Nadu - Vellore   

District-level panels sought

VELLORE: The Vellore Institute of Development Studies (VIDS) has requested Kannagi Packianathan, Commissioner, Department of Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare, to constitute a special committee in each district to oversee rehabilitation programmes of rescued bonded labourers.

It also wanted the committees to make periodical social audit of various bonded labourer relief schemes with the cooperation of proven non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the field.

In a letter to Ms. Packianathan, director of VIDS P. Jegadish Gandhi said that the VIDS welcomed constructive steps taken to resurvey bonded labour in Tamil Nadu, encourage district administration to form labour cooperatives for rescued bonded labourers engaged in quarries, brick kilns and rice mills, and involve proactive NGOs who were at present engaged in rescue and rehabilitation activities of bonded labourers across the State.

The VIDS also appreciated the immediate action ordered by the commissioner for a thorough administrative enquiry of the poverty-stricken bonded labour families in Villupuram district in response to a report in The Hindu dated March 20, on the conditions of poverty in which 650 families of freed bonded labourers were living.

The VIDS pointed out that according to 2006 official data, of 38,554 bonded labourers identified in the State, only 12,408 had been rehabilitated.

A total of 26,146 freed bonded labourers were left in the lurch.

Many NGO studies revealed that the non-rehabilitated bonded labourers were re-bonded in deplorable living conditions owing to “lethargic administrative lapses in implementation of well-defined relief and rehabilitation packages.”

Hence the plea for district-level special committees to monitor the rehabilitation programmes, Mr. Gandhi said.

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