NHRC to hold workshop in Chandigarh on bonded labour, human trafficking

The National Human Rights Commission is organising on Friday a day-long workshop on elimination of bonded labour and human trafficking in Chandigarh, with an aim to sensitise senior government officials and other stakeholders about the issues, officials said.

The workshop on elimination of bonded labour, including child labour, inter-state migrant workers and human trafficking, will be held in collaboration with the Union Territory of Chandigarh at the Chandigarh Judicial Academy.

The participants will include senior officers of the Ministry of Labour and Employment, the governments of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Union Territory of Chandigarh.

Chairpersons, members from state human rights commissions of Haryana, Punjab, and Jammu and Kashmir, NGOs, representatives of brick kilns, stone crushing and other related industries, academicians and students, research scholars will also attend the event.

"The objective of the workshop is to familiarise and sensitise district magistrates, sub-divisional magistrates, state labour officers and members of vigilance committees, brick kilns, stone crushing and other related industries, in the process of identification, release and rehabilitation of bonded labourers and with the provisions of Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976 and other related legislations," a senior NHRC official said.

The NHRC was asked by the Supreme Court in 1997 to get involved in the monitoring of the implementation of the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976.

The panel, in its endeavour to raise concerns over the continuance of bonded labour, has been organising workshops to sensitise official machinery to work for its abolition in different parts of the country, he said, adding, the commission has organised 48 workshops on elimination of bonded labour.