Revision of the Minimum Wages Act into a Living Wages Act and setting up of a national task force to examine the obstacles and challenges in combating the scourge of bonded labour, were among the various suggestions made by an NHRC-hosted seminar on Wednesday.
The two-day event at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library concluded with a host of suggestions made by members from various state commissions, legal experts and bonded labour activists and other eminent personalities.
"It was suggested that a national task force should be set up to examine the obstacles and challenges in the implementation of the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976 and subsequent schemes be introduced, as also to work further to eliminate bonded labour," a NHRC official said.
Chairing the concluding session, Member, NHRC, justice (retd) D Murugesan said, "The Commission would further deliberate upon all such important suggestions and finalise its recommendations to the government for implementation towards prevention and elimination of bonded labour in the country".
Other important suggestions included revision of "Minimum Wages Act of 1948 and into Living Wages Act by bring at par the minimum wages of a skilled labourer with the lowest paid employee of the central government as per the 7th Pay Commission," the NHRC said.
Experts at the seminar also felt that "most of the bonded labourers belong to the Scheduled Castes and Schedule Tribes communities and the official statistics do not match the ground realities of bonded labour, which continues to manifest not only in the agricultural sector but also in any sector of employment, including brick-kilns, stone quarries, salt fields, leather manufacturing units, brothels, massage parlours, placement agencies or trafficking and so on".