Modern Forms of Debt-Bondage in Indian Agriculture

Abstract
This paper re-interrogates the nature of unfreedom in Indian agriculture. Debt-bondage in agriculture has prevailed in India since ancient times. However, the nature of bondage has significantly changed over the years. The movement of workforce from agriculture to non-agriculture sectors, declining share of agriculture in the national income, mechanization of agricultural tasks and use of casual wage labour in agriculture has contributed to newer forms of forced labour in rural India. The laws preventing the use of bonded labour have not changed adequately to deal with these newer forms of bondage. This research is based on a survey of four villages in rural Haryana, India.

Key factors
Demand of Labour, Legal-framework, Monitoring, including prevalence studies, Ethnicity/Religion, debt-bondage, agriculture, siri workers, short-term bondage vs long-term bondage, alternative employment

Key outcomes
Legal frameworks, Ethnicity (or Caste), Informality, Prevalence/Incidence of forced labour, bonded labour, Why accept slavery/bondage? post covid problems, unfreedom, siri workers, debt-bondage, bondage in agriculture, post-liberalization new forms of slavery, modern slavery