The Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976

The Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976

This law officially abolishes India’s bonded labour system to prevent the economic and physical exploitation of weaker sections of the people. It applies directly to all debtors forced to work or forfeit basic freedoms to repay financial advances, family duties, or social obligations, as well as to their creditors. The Act matters because it immediately frees workers, permanently extinguishes their debts, restores mortgaged properties, and protects them from residential eviction. Furthermore, local vigilance committees must actively provide essential economic and social rehabilitation to freed labourers, while anyone enforcing bonded labour faces up to three years in prison and a fine.

PDF: pending for this language.