78 i RIGHTS OF THE VULNERABLE
8.4 The salient points in the reviews conducted by Dr Justice K. Ramaswamy,
Member are indicated below:
Rajasthan (9 June 2001)
8.5 Eleven out of a total of 22 districts have been identified as Bonded Labour Prone.
Vigilance committees have now been constituted in all the districts. Divisional
Commissioners have been directed to monitor the functioning of the vigilance
committees. A total of 5,438 labourers have been released during the period 1997-98
to 2000-01. Only 4,226 of them have been rehabilitated. 182 have died; 125 are
reportedly untraceable and 100 are in the process of rehabilitation. 805 migrant
labourers were sent to their native places, no effort was made to arrange for their
rehabilitation under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme.
Uttar Pradesh (7 July 2001)
8.6 District-level vigilance committees are in position in 57 out of a total of 70
districts as of 7 July 2001. As regards the sub-divisional vigilance committees, only 190
out of 299 sub-divisions have constituted such committees. A total of 1,738 bonded
labourers have been identified and released in the State during the period 1996-97 to
2000-01. Before this, a total of27,489 bonded labourers were released after the Bonded
Labour System (Abolition) Act came into force and 27,469 of them were rehabilitated
by 1997. Of the 1,738 bonded labourers released during 1996-97 to 2000-01, 978 were
migrants and no information could be obtained about their rehabilitation. The
remaining 760 bonded labourers, together with 10 others who had arrived from other
States, were to be rehabilitated in Uttar Pradesh. Only 332 out of this total of 770 had,
however, actually been rehabilitated until the date of review.
Orissa (29 January 2002)
8.7 Vigilance committees have been constituted in all the districts (30) and sub-
divisional headquarters, after a preliminary review conducted by the Special
Rapporteur on 8 November 2001 had pointed out such committees did not exist in
many places. A total of 50,083 bonded labourers have been identified in Orissa since
the enforcement of Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, of whom 48,992 were
actually released. The balance of 1,091, it is now stated, were wrongly identified. A
NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION