Preventing and Eliminating Bonded Labour in South Asia (PEBLISA)

Numerous South Asian workers are bonded to their employers, forced to work for substandard or no wages because their earnings are retained by the employer to repay an outstanding debt. Of the millions of people believed to be in debt bondage, most work in the agriculture sector, although bonded labourers can also be found in industrial sectors such as mining and gem polishing, brick-kilns, carpets and textiles, as well as domestic service. The victims of bonded labour tend to be the poorest and least educated segments of the population, from low castes and religious minorities.

In its most typical manifestation, a worker – usually an adult man - takes a loan or salary advance from an employer, labour contractor or landlord. Then the debtor - and often family members as well - is obliged to work for that person for reduced wages until the debt is repaid. The terms of the unwritten, interlinked labour-credit contract are strongly biased in favour of the lender. To meet family needs, the worker is forced to borrow additional cash and the debt burden mounts. Larger debts strengthen the employer’s control to the point where basic freedoms may be denied: freedoms of expression and association, freedom of movement, freedom to undertake alternative employment.

In 1998, the International Labour Organization (ILO) adopted the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, under which all member States have an obligation to respect, promote and realize the elimination of all forms of forced labour. To help member States to abide by the Declaration, the ILO moved from the usual report-based supervisory mechanisms to a more proactive approach with technical cooperation projects designed to prevent forced labour or to help rehabilitate labourers who have been released from bondage.

Starting in June 2000, with support from the Dutch government, the Social Finance Programme began piloting microfinance-led schemes in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan. Now in its second phase, PEBLISA is a joint initiative of SFP and the Special Action Programme on Forced Labour.

• The prevention of debt bondage with microfinance-led services, November 2003 by P. Daru, C. Churchill and E. Beemsterboer.

•  Microfinance-led Strategies to Eliminate Bonded Labor,
November 2004 by C. Churchill and I. Guérin

For more information, please contact Craig Churchill.