It started with ₹5,000. Shanmugam, a native of Tiruttani in Tiruvallur district, needed the money for his sister’s wedding. The eldest and only brother in the family, he had to take care of all his three sisters’ weddings. While inviting a relative to the wedding in 2009, he was asked how he planned to fund the event. “Through loans from the village,” Mr. Shanmugam responded. The relative then recommended a wealthy person nearby who could give him a loan that he could work off later.
Mr. Shanmugam took his advice. After the wedding, he began working off his debt at a brick kiln in Vellore. He was given a place to stay and a weekly wage of ₹300. He was then told to bring his family; so, his wife Latha and their three-year-old son and six-month-old daughter joined him. As Mr. Shanmugam worked, his son would help by throwing sand on the bricks to help them dry. Ms. Latha, who was not paid any wages, also toiled at the kiln, after which she went over to their employer’s house to perform domestic chores.
“I thought I would have some money left over after the deductions for the loan. But at the end of one year, when I asked my employer how much I had left to repay, he told me it was ₹19,000 with interest,” said Mr. Shanmugam, who soon began to realise that there was no way out.
On February 9, 2026, it will be 50 years since the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act was enacted. Although the Act was passed in February 1976, it was given retrospective effect from October 1975 to abolish the bonded labour system and prevent the economic and physical exploitation of people from marginalised sections of society. According to the Parliamentary Standing Committee Report on Labour, Textile, and Skill Development for 2024-2025, as many as 2,95,795 people have been rescued from bonded labour since 1978.
A brick kiln near Ramanathapuram. File
| Photo Credit:
L. Balachandar
A person rescued from bonded labour is entitled to an initial compensation of ₹30,000, a release certificate, and rehabilitation measures such as land, voter ID, and Aadhaar card, among others. Once their cases see conviction in court, they would receive the final compensation of ₹1 lakh to ₹3 lakh.
However, human rights activists in the country said that there continue to be gaps in the implementation of the legislation, rehabilitation, and delivery of justice.
The Global Slavery Index 2023 estimates that nearly 49.6 million people worldwide are living in modern slavery, of which India accounts for 11 million people. In Tamil Nadu, in 2024-2025, 120 people were rescued from bonded labour, but activists estimated that the prevalence of the practice is far greater in the State.
“It took us at least 30 years after the Act came into force to fully understand it, but as the world grows, the system has also evolved. And the Act no longer keeps up with it. We need better monitoring mechanisms to address new forms of bonded labour,” said Bala Murugan Palaniyandi, a human rights activist.
What has changed?
With no end in sight, Mr. Shanmugam phoned his father to explain the situation and asked him to bring him some money. His father sold his two goats and brought him ₹12,000. His employer, however, refused to let Mr. Shanmugam go. “He told me I could leave only if I paid off the whole sum. We did not know what to do, so my father returned with the money,” he said.
Mr. Shanmugam’s day would start at 3 a.m. and end at 10 p.m. His entire family ate only one meal a day, which was mostly kanji (congee). “We had to buy the rice from the employer with the wages he gave us. We could not talk to anyone from the village, and no one was allowed to speak to us. There were four other families like us,” he said.
Ms. Latha recalled that she had fallen terribly ill while working at the brick kiln. She started vomiting blood and her stomach ache was unbearable. “I just could not go to work. I went to the employer to ask for money to buy medicines, but he said he did not have any cash. As I could not eat food on time, my ache only got worse,” she recalled.
On her way back to the brick kiln, she collapsed on the side of the road. The employer did not want to send his vehicle to take her to a hospital. “I was crying in pain. Passersby then put pressure on the employer to take me to the hospital. Much later in the evening, he finally sent me to a doctor. I thought I was left for dead,” she added.
Number of people rescued from bonded labour by T.N.:
YearNo. of people rescued2019-205232020-21NIL (due to COVID-19)2021-221,0162022-232972023-241762024-25120
Source: Parliamentary Standing Commitee Report on Labour, Textiles, and Skill Development 2024-2025, Tamil Nadu Labour Welfare and Skill Development Policy Note 2025-2026, and Lok Sabha Q&A
In 2014, through an NGO and government intervention, the family along with other bonded labourers were rescued. “We were so happy to be out, to not have to endure more pain and torture,” Mr. Shanmugam said. However, finding other work turned out to be more difficult than he had imagined. Though they were issued a release certificate, the family only received ₹1,000 of the initial rehabilitation amount, which was then ₹20,000. Today, it has been increased to ₹30,000 through the Central Sector Scheme for Rehabilitation of Bonded Labourers in 2021.
“Nobody would hire me in my village or nearby. They were afraid that I would lodge bonded labour cases on them,” he said. Mr. Shanmugam did not receive the other rehabilitation entitlements either.
But with an NGO’s help, he learnt how to make bamboo products and started his own company. “I make it a point to hire other released bonded labourers who would require jobs to survive. I do not want anybody else to fall into this trap and suffer like us, ever,” Mr. Shanmugam emphasised.
“When the law was formulated, there were more bonded labourers in agriculture, stone quarries, and brick kilns. But now, labour exploitation has taken a different shape,” said Kandasamy Krishnan, secretary, National Adivasi Solidarity Council. “Today, it is more prevalent in spinning mills, textile factories, construction sites, hotels, apartments, and resorts. Previously, those exploited were generational bonded labourers, but now they are mostly trapped through ‘advance debt systems’ or are intra-state or inter-state migrants trafficked by middlemen.”
Experts noted that while Tamil Nadu has been taking considerable efforts to implement the Act, they are far from enough. The execution falls on the shoulders of the District Collectors. They must identify, rescue, and rehabilitate the labourers, and ensure that justice is delivered. Further, vigilance meetings are held monthly under the chairmanship of the District Collector to track the progress of inspections and other measures.
Women at work at a brick kiln. File
| Photo Credit:
C. Venkatachalapathy
Mr. Bala Murugan noted that the official machinery, however, continues to show reluctance in lodging cases under the bonded labour legislation. “They use other clauses under the labour law to penalise employers and not report it as bonded labour. How can bonded labour be completely abolished? They also do not understand the severity of the issue to take proactive steps to address it,” he complained.
Children in bonded labour
Dhanraj (name changed) was 12 years old when he was picked up by a stranger from his school gate one morning in Theni in 2019. The man said he was sent by his parents to take him to work so he could pay for his ailing father’s treatment. “He seemed to know everything about my family and said he was a distant relative. So, I believed him,” said Dhanraj, now 19 years old.
“The man handed me over to a couple, got ₹5,000 from them, and told me this money would be delivered to my mother to help with my father’s surgery,” said Mr. Dhanraj. “I believed him, but I would often ask him to call my mother so I could speak with her. He would then make convincing excuses of her not being available. I had no choice,” he said.
The couple moved the boy to their confectionery in Bengaluru where he sometimes packaged or assembled things. “I would work from 5 a.m to 7 p.m. and be given food twice a day. I would ask about my salary and about my mother, but the owners would say that my pay was given to the stranger and that they do not have my mother’s contact,” he said.
Mr. Dhanraj said he had no idea that he was kidnapped. “I really believed that my parents had sent me to work. Only when I was rescued a year later did I realise it. My parents had taken loans to search for me,” he said. Today, he is pursuing a degree near his hometown.
The one-year break in his education, however, demotivated Mr. Dhanraj from studying. “I understood nothing. I was having a hard time reading. I would even wish I was back at the factory instead of studying. There was no one to guide my learning,” he said, adding that he was enrolled in a government school after his rescue.
A Chennai-based child rights expert noted that when a child becomes a labourer or gets into bonded labour, the denial of education becomes the biggest failure of the government. “In today’s world, everything is skill-based. A person cannot get a good job if they have no education. When a child is rescued and does not find good employment, it is not just he/she who suffers but generations after them. They will seek meagre wages offering no mobility,” he said.
Recently, in Ranipet, four tribal children aged between 13 and 17 years from the Irular community were rescued from a brick kiln in Minnal village near Arakkonam town in Ranipet district by a team of officials led by Sub-Collector and Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO) T. Ramesh.
Recommendations in Parliamentary Standing Committee Report on Labour, Textile, and Skill Development 2024-2025
The committee feels that unless the convictions come through, it may be extremely difficult to establish the crime of bonded labour and provide full benefits under the Central Sector Scheme for Rehabilitation of Bonded Labourers in 2021.
The committee is of the considered view that there is an urgent need on the part of the Union Labour Ministry to strengthen efforts so as to eradicate the scourge of bonded labour and implement the scheme in a more effective way.
The committee also advised the Ministry to explore the possibility of setting up fast-track courts by taking up the matter with the Ministry of Law and Justice and the States, where the cases of bonded labourers are predominant.
Officials from the Labour Department said there are bonded labourers in remote tribal areas in Jawadhu Hills, covering Vellore, Tirupattur, and Tiruvannamalai districts, where tribal people are forced to work in inhuman conditions without wages, and are subjected to verbal abuse and caste-based discrimination. They are also not allowed to leave their work site. Labour officials said that many landlords take advantage of remoteness of these tribal hamlets, where there are no jobs for locals, to enrol tribal families as bonded labourers.
Activists note that there have been increasing cases of inter-state migrants, with debts involved, coming into the State and getting caught in the bonded labour system. “The new challenge is inter-state migration. We have estimated that four million people migrate. The source and receiving States need to work together further with the Centre to tackle bonded labour involving inter-state migrants. The destination State must also take responsibility to provide protection,” says Bernard D’Sami, senior fellow, Loyola Institute of Social Science Training and Research.
Mr. Krishnan says there needs to be help desks set up to tackle the problem effectively. “These can be established in places such as railway stations – which would be the workers’ primary mode of travel – to ascertain that they are not trapped in the bonded labour system,” he said.
Legal gaps
It has been 12 years since Mr. Shanmugam and his family were released – and they still await justice. While their case is still ongoing, Mr. Dhanraj’s case ended in conviction in 2025. This means that he can now receive his final rehabilitation amount. He, however, said there has been no update regarding this for over three months.
There are many like them who, despite having been released from bonded labour, continue to wait for compensation, with their cases dragging on for years. “As this process continues to take longer, with assistance and rehabilitation dependent on the verdict of the case, there is a very high risk of the released labourer getting into re-bondage,” said Mr. Krishnan.
In 2017, Tamil Nadu came out with a Standard Operating Procedure to end bonded labour in the State. This move, advocates said, has helped cut down the time required to complete a rescue, file an FIR, and submit the chargesheet. However, there is still much to be done before the case can be completed. While previously, the filing of the chargesheet would take at least two years, now, it has been reduced to a year, which is only a marginal improvement, human rights advocates said.
“Many times, the police do not add provisions from other Acts such as the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, or Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, which have their own procedures. So, when the chargesheet is filed without these provisions, the judge would ask the police to add them. As a result, the cases get delayed further,” said M. Raja, advocate, legal advisor, Released Bonded Labourers Association.
Further, coordination among various departments is required to ensure the disbursal of the final settlement. The police are required to keep the Labour Department up to date about all the cases. This, however, is not done meticulously, leading to a further delay in rehabilitation, because it is the Labour Department that has to send the proposal to the government.
Noting the absence of a State-level database that tracks cases and compensation, legal experts and human rights activists opine that this leads to many gaps going unaddressed.
Recognising the increasing delay in delivering justice to the victims, a senior official in the Labour Department said officials are working with other departments to ensure that speedy justice is ensured.
Ten years ago, in July 2016, the Union government informed Parliament that it would achieve a “total abolition of bonded labour” by 2030 – a sentiment that was echoed by Chief Minister M.K. Stalin in 2023.
Activists, however, point out that with the current state of implementation, this is far from possible. But there is a glimmer of hope for Tamil Nadu. “The State could eradicate bonded labour by 2030, but only up to 70%. This is possible only if the government takes a serious stand and makes sure that there is a convergence of the departments, and that rehabilitation is provided without delay,” said Mr. Krishnan.
(With inputs from D. Madhavan from Vellore)
