Rehabilitation of bonded labourers: NHRC notice to Odisha

New Delhi, July 25 (IANS) The NHRC Friday issued notice to the Odisha government on the action taken to monitor rehabilitation of the state's labourers released from three other states.

Acting on a complaint by an NGO, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) observed that 239 labourers, released from bondage and posessing release certificates, have not been rehabilitated by the Odisha government.

"The rescued bonded labourers have not been even provided primary assistance for their survival which might lead them to go back to bondage," the commission said in a statement.

The labourers were rescued from Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

The panel also observed the village economy of the labourers had been deliberately destroyed by industrialisation and mechanisation of agriculture.

This led to marginalised rural communities, comprising mostly Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, to sell off their sources of livelihood.

The NHRC issued notices to the Odisha government and to the district magistrates of many districts in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka calling upon them to submit a report within four weeks.

The commission has decided to take up the issue at its camp sitting in Bhubaneswar in the third week of August.