About 30 non-governmental outfits have planned to come under an umbrella of national alliance to fight bonded labour still prevalent in the country.
Stating that over 12 million people are still trapped in the clutches of bonded labour, Jeevika co-ordinator Kiran Kamal Prasad said the national alliance would be christened Coalition to Eradicate Bonded Labour in India (CEBoLI) which would include organisations like Action Aid India, National Adivasi Solidarity Council and others.
According to Prasad, the current norms only call for rehabilitation grant of Rs 20,000, while NGOs are arguing for 24 times the minimum monthly wage over a two-year period.
“The current rules are not sufficient to fight the emerging forms of bonded labour, where millions of people are brought from states like Orissa, Bihar and Jharkhand to southern states like Karnataka and Tamil Nadu as migrant bonded labourers to work in brick kilns, construction sites, rice mills and others,” he added.
CEBoLI has called for nodal officers to be appointed at district and state levels to monitor and end bonded labour. A draft amendment is also proposed to submitted to the Union Ministry of Labour shortly, said National Law University Delhi Prof Babu Mathew.
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