Forced Labour (Slavery and illegally required labour)

June 8, 2023

This article has been written by Ms. Damini Chauhan, a student of BBA.LLB (Hons), from United world school of law, Karnavati University, Gandhinagar. This author is a 5th year law student.

INTRODUCTION

According to Section 374 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, anyone who forcibly makes another person work against their will faces a sentence of up to one year in prison, a fine, or both. This is how the term “unlawful compulsory labour” is defined. Beggary is prohibited by Indian Constitution’s Article 23 since it constitutes forced labour. It criminalises forced labour that is against the law.

Section 374’s fundamental components include:

It must be necessary to be forced to work.
It must be unlawful to be forced.

INTERNATIONAL CONVENTIONS ON FORCED LABOUR

Remuneration Conventions, 1951.

The purpose of the remuneration laws is to pay all labourers an equal amount in payment or wages. Remuneration refers to fundamental living expenses like minimum wages. It provides workers with equal pay without considering their sex or location of birth. It strives to pay men and women equally in proportionate compensation for equal effort. The 34th International Law Commission (ILC) session approved this act, which requires each government party to establish domestic legislation, authorise collective bargaining, and reach a pay agreement.

Minimum Age Convention, 1973.

At the 34th ILC session, the minimum wage convention was approved. On June 19th, 1976, it went into effect. The ratifying states must establish a policy to prohibit child labour and set a minimum age for employment within their borders. According to the Minimum Age Convention Act, the minimum age cannot be less than 15 years old (Article 2), and the minimum age for entry to any sort of employment or work that, due to its nature, could endanger young men’s health, morals, or safety cannot be less than 18 years old (Article 3). A young person must be at least 18 years old to be admitted to any form of labour or job that has the potential to harm their health, morals, or sense of justice due to their behaviour or the nature of the work environment.

Right to Organise And Collective Bargaining, 1939.

At the 32nd ILC session in Geneva, it was approved. On July 18, 1951, it went into effect. In accordance with this convention act, employees shall have enough protection from acts of anti-union discrimination related to their employment (Article 2) and from any actions of disruption by other employees, their agents, or members in their operation, establishment, or administration (Article 3).

FORCED LABOUR AND SLAVERY

Slavery and forced labour have vastly different meanings. Forced labour is distinct from slavery. UN conventions focus on slavery. Forced labour may not always include slavery, however all forms of slavery do. A person who is subjected to slavery is one who has some or all of the rights associated with ownership exercised over them.

Slavery is completely prohibited globally, without exception. Slavery is the type of institution where the slave master’s application of the justice of ownership destroys human character and reduces the slave to chattel without rights. The idea of slavery is complete ownership. In this social institution, slaves are employed as a separate class of labourers with no rights, which is incredibly unfair to them.

Slavery is an ongoing circumstance. Every element of a slave’s existence is completely under the control of the slave master, including who a slave marries, what they eat and wear, when they sleep, whether they receive education or medical care, and whether they are allowed to practise their religion. A slave master has historically been free to lend, sell, or trade both child and adult slaves. Ownership concepts are finished. As a result, slavery is much more than just having power over someone else.

Except for Mali, slavery is now illegal everywhere. Despite being against the law, there are still some nations where slavery is still practised because the government chooses to disregard it.

Forced labour

This definition is included in the agreement of 29 ILO on forced labour:

“Forced labour shall imply all employment required by any person under the threat of any penalty and for which such person has not voluntarily given himself.”

Facts and figures

Thereafter, it is projected that 40.3 million people are trapped in modern slavery, including 24.9 million who are subject to forced labour and 15.4 million who are married against their will in 2017.

It indicates that for every 1,000 persons in the world, there are 5.4 victims of modern slavery.

Children make up one out of every four victims of contemporary slavery.

THE ENDLESS LOOP OF EXPLOITATION

In India, there are numerous hundreds of people who continue to endure hardship as forced labourers. According to data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), 8,132 incidences of human trafficking were registered in India in 2016. It is quite obvious that many of these cases—who continue to be employed as bonded labourers in India—go undetected.

Illustration

Lalita, an Indian girl, was transported from her own country to another country to serve as a domestic helper for a wealthy American family. She was compelled to labour 18 hours per day and was forbidden from leaving the house without the owner’s permission. She received poor treatment, was given leftover food, and faced threats from her boss.

Domestic Slavery

Domestic slavery refers to home activities that are especially susceptible to exploitation due to exceptional types of situations or labouring inside the home’s boundaries without legal protection.

These domestic workers handle tasks like cleaning, laundry, cooking, child care, etc. They frequently receive very poor pay with numerous delays. Some domestic employees may not receive any compensation at all or may only receive “payment in kind” in the form of lodging, food, or clothing.

HOW DOES DOMESTIC SLAVERY OCCUR?

The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that, excluding minors, there are at least 68 million women and men employed worldwide as domestic workers.

The vast majority of home employees, or almost 80% of them, are women. According to ILO statistics, domestic work employs more girls under the age of 16 than any other category of child labour.

Some domestic helpers come to the city from other regions or nations, typically from villages or rural areas. One of the few opportunities many people have to enable them to support their families and themselves is domestic employment.

Domestic work is not well controlled or maintained. Domestic employees are frequently excluded from national labour laws in many other nations and are instead viewed as informal “helping hands.”

They frequently are not afforded the same rights as other workers, such as the right to minimum wage, binding contracts, health insurance, paid time off, and maternity benefits. Domestic workers are protected by national labour laws in some countries, however enforcement is weak and these rights have not been put into action.

EFFECTS OF UNLAWFUL COMPULSORY LABOUR

Millions of men, women, and kids around the world are impacted. It is most frequently observed in sectors with a high worker population but low control. These comprise:

Fishing and farming, housework, brick kilns, quarries, construction, manufacturing, processing, and packing;
exploitation of sexual minors and prostitution
shady business practises and unlawful conduct.

Females are disproportionately affected by forced labour, accounting for 58% of victims in other industries and 99% of victims in the commercial sex industry. The most prevalent form of modern slavery is forced labour. It represents the highest level of exploitation. The methods used to compel people to work are more subtle and ingrained in some cultures, despite the fact that many people identify forced labour and slavery with physical violence. The most vulnerable and marginalised groups are frequently impacted by forced labour, such as the Dalits in India who frequently face prejudice. Males make up a quarter of those who perform forced labour, but women and girls are more at danger. The reason why migrant workers are targeted is that they frequently do not speak the local language, have few acquaintances, have little rights, and depend on their employers.

Causes

Forced labour happens when there is a lack of sustainable agricultural education, a rule of law that is unsteady, corruption, and an economy that depends on cheap labour. Each of the demand-side factors that we have selected to examine puts pressure on the market for highly exploitable types of employment or generates opportunities for the exploitation of these forms of work. Global supply chains as they currently exist are fundamentally characterised by all of these processes. These include:

1. CONCENTRATED CORPORATE POWER AND OWNERSHIP- It significantly degrades working conditions by, among other things, lowering the portion of value that is accessible to employees as salaries;

2. OUTSOURCING: This disperses responsibility in relation to labour standards and makes oversight and accountability exceedingly challenging;

3. IRRESPONSIBLE SOURCING PRACTICES – It places a high burden on pre-agrarian suppliers in terms of time and expense, which can result in unsafe practises such unauthorised subcontracting;

4.The deliberate creation of GOVERNANCE GAPS around and within supply chains leaves room for unethical behaviour.

NEW CRIMINAL OFFENCE

The consultation reveals a discrepancy between the criminal penalties for violations of the National Minimum Wages (NMW) and those for offences involving modern slavery. The treatment of dishonest bosses whose offences against employees fall between these two conceptions is ineffective.

For a new crime, there are two potential solutions. The first is a custodial fine for employers who violated labour law while acting within the scope of the director of labour market enforcement’s authority (many of these crimes are currently punishable by a fine). This penalty would be imposed when:

the theft of a person’s rights as a worker, such as his right to earn wages, served as the incentive for the crime (entirely or partially); or the employer exploited the employee in connection with the conduct of the crime (for example, threatening a worker to work for less than the NMW).
Second, the government would implement a notice-of-improvement system (which will be issued in a civil proceeding, but an infraction would be criminal). Following a violation of the employment legislation, an enforcement agency could seek the court for notice of improvement, which would compel a business to take corrective action within a predetermined time frame.

CASES RELATING TO FORCED LABOUR

The Supreme Court ruled in The State of Gujarat v. Hon’ble High Court of Gujarat that a prisoner sentenced to a harsh term of imprisonment cannot claim that the prison staff engaged in illegal compulsory labour in violation of Section 374 of the IPC by forcing him to carry out additional tasks both during and after his confinement.

The Supreme Court ruled in the case known as the ASIAD case, People’s Union for Democratic Rights Vs. Union of India, that it is unlawful for jamadars to deduct Rs. 1 from the salaries owed to workers employed by contractors for the ASIAD project each day. It constitutes a violation of Article 23 of the Constitution and forced labour because the workers were not paid the required minimum wage of Rs 9.25 per day. Every type of forced labour, including begging, falls under the definition of “unlawful obligatory labour” as defined by Article 23. It is irrelevant whether the individual who is compelled to provide labour or services for another person is paid.

CONCLUSION

Whatever its form, forced labour is a crime against humanity. Therefore, its eradication is vitally needed in a nation like India, where the creation of an equitable and united society that offers everyone the same chances and fundamental economic minimum wages is the ultimate goal.

In fact, the problem of forced or bonded slavery is a component of the larger agrarian dilemma in our nation. Therefore, the solution to the issue is to improve the socioeconomic circumstances of the labourers by enacting major changes in the agrarian structure and social interactions in rural areas.

REFERENCE

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June 8, 2023