Work › Bonded labour, trafficking or child labour
Family member forced to work to repay a loan
What usually matters in this situation, and the papers to keep ready before you meet an advocate or free legal aid (call 15100).
Your situation
- What is happening? Forced to work to repay a debt / not allowed to leave
Where you stand
- In your favour Every bonded debt is cancelled by law — the worker owes nothing.
- In your favour Rescued workers are entitled to a release certificate and rehabilitation assistance.
Do these now
- Written complaint to the District Magistrate / SDM
The DM must act on bonded labour. Where: DM / SDM office.
Papers to gather
- Address or location of the workplace, and the employer’s name
Needed for a rescue. - Names, ages and photos of the people affected
Helps identify them. Where: Family. - Details of the advance or loan given and how it is being "repaid"
Bonded labour is proved by the debt and lack of freedom. Where: Workers, family, notebooks. - Calls, messages or voice notes from the person
Direct evidence. Where: Phone.
What the law says
The Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976 abolishes all bonded debts; the District Magistrate must identify, release and issue release certificates. Freed bonded labourers get rehabilitation assistance under the Central Sector Scheme. Trafficking (Section 143) and unlawful compulsory labour are offences under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023. Children under 14 cannot be employed, and adolescents (14–18) cannot work in hazardous jobs, under the Child and Adolescent Labour Act, 1986. Complaints about child labour can be made on the PENCIL portal or to 1098.
General information, not legal advice.
Saboot will also ask
- Who are you?
- Do you know where they are?
Similar situations
- Child working in a shop or factory
- Relative taken to another state for work and can’t return
- Girl taken with a job promise and now missing
- A girl from our village was taken for a job and has not come back
Sources
- Ministry of Labour — bonded and child labour
- PENCIL — child labour complaint portal
- Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023
- NALSA — free legal aid
The full guide: Someone is being forced to work, held, trafficked, or a child is working · All situations