Centre extends help to bonded labourer in Odisha

The Centre will work jointly with Odisha government to end the practice of bonded labour, Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh said.
"I look forward to working with the state government to put an end to this horrendous social evil," he said in a letter to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
Centre would implement a special livelihood project started under National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) to mitigate the plight of the bonded labourers, he said adding Odisha is one of the worst affected states.
Odisha's Balangir and Nuapada districts are among the 10 vulnerable ones in the country to witness implementation of the scheme, the union minister said.

NRLM will join hands with NGOs to become an institutional partner of the 'Bandhua (bondage in Hindi)Campaign, 1947' to combat bonded labour.
Admitting that a number of people are still enslaved four decades after India enacted the Bonded Labour System Abolition Act, 1976, Ramesh said under the NRLM umbrella the Rural Development ministry would begin pilot projects in 10 vulnerable districts to identify bonded labourers and take adequate measures to provide them alternative livelihood and ensure their proper rehabilitation.

The pilot projects would help identify and rehabilitate bonded labourers by including them in self-help groups and their federations, provision of soft loans and vulnerability reduction funds and special projects for alternative livelihoods including skill development interventions for them.

"The Mission would appoint a state level point person to monitor and ensure that objectives and activities are executed in letter and spirit", he said.
According to Sarada Mulaleedharan, chief operating officer (COO) of NRLM, the State Rural Livelihood Missions (SRLMs) would be the leading partners who would ensure their coordination with other stakeholder departments or agencies.