Release Certificate After Bonded Labour Rescue

One sheet of paper decides whether a rescued worker gets ₹30,000 within days or nothing at all. It is the Release Certificate, signed and sealed by the District Magistrate or an officer authorised by the district.

The Central Sector Scheme for Rehabilitation of Bonded Labourer, 2021 lists the papers a district must attach when it claims money from the Centre. The Release Certificate is on every list.

1. The immediate cash, up to ₹30,000. Para 2.2(i) needs a duly filled Release Certificate in Annexure-A form for each rescued person.
2. The rehabilitation assistance of ₹1 lakh, ₹2 lakh or ₹3 lakh. Para 2.2(ii)(a) needs the same certificate, plus a detail form and a consolidated statement.
3. The district's whole claim to the State and the Centre. Annexure-C says a release certificate must be attached for every rescued labourer. A missing one means that person is not in the file.

It is not legally required for a ration card or a job card. But it is the only paper recording under seal that a named person was held in bonded labour, and officers ask for it first.

The parent law is the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976, Act 19 of 1976, in force from 25 October 1975.

• Section 6(1) extinguished every bonded debt. Section 6(2) bars any court or authority from entertaining a suit to recover it.
• Section 8 bars eviction from the homestead occupied as part of the bondage.
• Section 12 makes it the duty of every District Magistrate to inquire whether forced labour is being enforced in the district and to act forthwith.
• Section 13 requires Vigilance Committees in every district and sub-division, chaired by the DM, with three members from Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes and two social workers.
• Section 14(1)(b) makes rehabilitation of freed bonded labourers a function of that committee.
• Section 15 puts the burden of proof on the creditor, not on the worker.
• Section 16 punishes compelling bonded labour with up to three years imprisonment and a fine up to ₹2,000. Section 22 makes offences cognizable and bailable.

Here is the gap nobody explains at the counter. The Act creates the duty to inquire, act and rehabilitate, but never mentions a Release Certificate and sets no deadline for one. The certificate is Annexure-A of the 2021 scheme, circulated under Office Memorandum F. No. S-11012/01/2019-BL dated 2 February 2022. Its own heading calls it an order of the JMFC or JMSC under section 12.

So districts stall. The nearest national instruction is the NHRC advisory of 31 May 2021, issued under the Supreme Court's directions in Writ Petition (Civil) 503 of 2020, telling DMs and SDMs to issue Release Certificates within 24 hours of rescue. That is an advisory written in the COVID context, not a statutory clock, but it is the standard to demand in writing.

Annexure-A has fixed entries, and a certificate with gaps is the one the State sends back.

• BL case number, name, caste category, parent's name, age, gender, address
• Aadhaar and mobile if available, and the address where the person was rescued
• Name, Aadhaar and address of the captor, the field most often left blank
• A colour passport size photograph, and the officer's signature, district and seal

Get the captor's details filled in before the paper leaves the room, and keep a photocopy and a phone photograph.

Note the asymmetry: the ₹2 lakh and ₹3 lakh tiers have a fixed annuity floor, the ₹1 lakh tier has none, so that money can be taken as cash. On top of the table:

• Up to ₹30,000 immediately from the District Bonded Labour Rehabilitation Fund, which each State must keep at district level with a corpus of at least ₹10 lakh at the DM's disposal. Fines recovered from the bonder may go into it. The DM may release more at once, capped at the total entitlement, and any advance is deducted later.
• All of it is in addition to benefits due under any other scheme or law, so it cannot replace wages, a pension or a ration entitlement.
• Skill training is compulsory for adults. For children the package must include education up to class 12, counselling and a short stay home. For freed women the State is to provide assistance for marriage, and for disabled persons special care under national policy.

The immediate assistance is not tied to any trial. It comes from the district fund on the strength of the Release Certificate.

For the larger sums, para 2.4 of the scheme says two things at once. Where the summary trial under section 21 has not concluded, but the DM or SDM has a prima facie finding and proof of bondage, the proposal shall not be stopped for want of details of conviction. However, final disbursement is made upon proof of bondage and other legal consequences as per the judicial process. So the file must move now, and only the last payment waits on the court.

One correction to carry with you: older circulars and many district staff still quote ₹20,000 as the immediate assistance. That belongs to the 2016 scheme, revamped with effect from 27 January 2022. The current figure is ₹30,000.

Section 13 makes Vigilance Committees compulsory. Nothing makes them meet. Many districts constitute one on paper and never convene it, and no rescued worker is told so.

That is a records question, and records are what the Right to Information Act, 2005 is for. Anyone may file under section 6(1), including a relative or an NGO worker acting for the rescued person, and need give no reason (section 6(2)). The PIO has 30 days under section 7(1), but its proviso requires information concerning the life or liberty of a person within 48 hours. Section 7(6) makes the information free if that deadline is missed, and under the proviso to section 7(5) no fee is charged from a person below the poverty line.

To
The Public Information Officer
Office of the District Magistrate and Collector
[District], [State]

Subject: Request under section 6(1) of the Right to Information Act, 2005

Please supply the following for [District] district, for 1 April 2023 to
the date of this application:

1. The dates on which the District Vigilance Committee constituted under
   section 13 of the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976 has met,
   with a copy of the minutes of each meeting.
2. The date of the notification constituting the present Committee, and
   the names and categories of its members.
3. The number of Release Certificates in Annexure-A form of the Central
   Sector Scheme for Rehabilitation of Bonded Labourer, 2021 issued in
   this district, year by year.
4. The present balance of the District Bonded Labour Rehabilitation Fund
   and the total disbursed from it as immediate assistance, year by year.
5. The number of proposals for rehabilitation assistance of ₹1 lakh,
   ₹2 lakh and ₹3 lakh sent to the State Government, and the number for
   which funds have been received and disbursed.
6. The status and file notings on the Release Certificate and
   rehabilitation proposal of [name], rescued on [date] at [place].

This concerns the life and liberty of persons rescued from bonded labour,
so I request it within 48 hours under the proviso to section 7(1). If any
part is held by another public authority, please transfer it within five
days under section 6(3) and inform me. I am below the poverty line, so no
fee is payable under the proviso to section 7(5). [If not BPL, enclose the
₹10 fee.]

Name, address, mobile:
Date and signature:

Send it to the PIO in the District Magistrate's office, and an identical copy to the PIO of the State Labour Department. Both hold these records, and whichever answers first breaks the silence. The AI RTI Drafter will format it, and the Timeline Tracker fixes the date the 30 days run out.

1. Ask in writing. An application to the District Magistrate, stamped and acknowledged, quoting section 12 of the Act and para 2.2 of the 2021 scheme. Copy it to the State Labour Commissioner.
2. File the RTI above. It turns a favour into a record. Once the district has stated on paper how many certificates it issued, it is harder to say yours cannot be.
3. First appeal. No reply in time, or an evasive one, means a first appeal under section 19(1) within 30 days, to the officer senior to the PIO in the same office. It must be decided within 30 days, and never beyond 45, under section 19(6). The First Appeal Builder drafts it.
4. Second appeal. Under section 19(3), within 90 days, to the State Information Commission. Section 19(5) puts the burden of justifying a refusal on the PIO.
5. Complain to the NHRC. It hears bonded labour matters and takes complaints online at hrcnet.nic.in. Attach the certificate and the RTI reply, or proof that none came.
6. Use the Vigilance Committee. Under section 14(1)(f) and 14(2) it must defend any suit brought against a freed bonded labourer for a bonded debt, and may authorise a member to act as the worker's agent.

Where a child is involved, the Ministry of Labour and Employment runs pencil.gov.in for child labour complaints, with tracking. The Ministry of Women and Child Development lists the Child Helpline as 1098 and the Women Helpline as 181 on its own site. No national bonded labour helpline could be verified, so ask the State Labour Commissioner for your State's number. For the full escalation method, see The RTI Playbook.

No. It is not in the repeal list in section 143 of the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020, nor in section 164 of the Code on Social Security, 2020, and it does not appear in India Code's register of repealed Acts, where it is still listed as a live Act.

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The District Magistrate, or an officer authorised by the district authority. Annexure-A provides for that officer's name, signature, district, State and seal. A rescue NGO, a police officer or a labour inspector cannot issue it.

No. The 1976 Act does not mention the certificate. The NHRC advisory of 31 May 2021 asked DMs and SDMs to issue Release Certificates within 24 hours of rescue. Demand that in writing, knowing it is an advisory, not a statutory clock.

Not for the whole amount. The immediate ₹30,000 has no link to a trial. For the larger sums, para 2.4 says the proposal must not be stopped for want of conviction details where the DM has a prima facie finding and proof of bondage. Final disbursement follows the judicial process.

₹30,000. The ₹20,000 figure is from the 2016 scheme, revamped with effect from 27 January 2022. Quote Office Memorandum F. No. S-11012/01/2019-BL dated 2 February 2022.

No. Section 6(1) extinguished the bonded debt and section 6(2) bars any suit to recover it. Section 15 makes the creditor prove a disputed debt was not bonded.

Section 8 bars eviction from the homestead occupied as part of the consideration for bonded labour. If it happens, the Executive Magistrate of the sub-division is to restore possession as early as practicable.

The cash is, but the package is not only cash. The scheme requires skill training for adults, schooling to class 12 with counselling for children, marriage assistance for freed women, and special care for disabled persons, in addition to any other scheme.