Case primary details

Fact finding date

Case Incident details

Case summary

(1)  Sh. Ashok Singh @ Bhatti S/o Sh. Madan Lal resident of Village-Mari Buchian, Sub-Division- Batala, District-Gurdaspur has filed a Self Declaration which revealed that;

(a)  That he belongs to caste “Majhabi Sikh” which has been declared as Scheduled Caste by the State Government of Punjab.

(b)  That Ashok Singh and his family members whose names are mentioned in Annexure A were employed from 2013 to October 2015 by M/s. Baba Bricks B.K.O, Focal Point, Village- Mari Buchian, Sub-Division-Batala, District- Gurdaspur, Punjab, whose present owner is Baba Deepu. This firm is a Brick Manufacturing Factory. The workers were employed as Brick Moulder (Pathera).

(c)  That the workers were brought to this brick kiln by agent (Jamadar) of this brick kiln named Edaah, who is resident of village-Mari Buchian, District- Gurdaspur.

(d)  That the brick kiln owner advanced the bonded debt of Rs. 7,000 (Rupees Seven Thousand) at the time of employment, which they spent on their household expenses.

(e)  That the workers are expected mould at least 2000 bricks in one day working for 12 – 16 hours a day.

(f)   That the Brick kiln owner did not pay them their earned wages and on their repeated requests, he paid them only Rs. 1500 or Rs. 2000 per week for their necessary expenses and since then there has been no further payment of wages.

(g)  That is there is no facility of clean water, sanitation, toilets and washing facilities at the brick kiln.

(h)  That now, the brick kiln owner has ill-treated with them and has used to abuse them on caste basis. Instead of the paying the workers their due wages as per the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, the brick kiln owner did not give them their full wages. The workers mentioned in Annexure A hardly manage to survive and facing starving like situations and finally they were forced to left the brick kiln.

(i)    That now, when the workers demanding their earned wages from the brick kiln owner then, he is harassing the workers and has abused and threatened them saying, that there is no wages due towards them and if they will again demands their wages from him then, he will lodge some false and frivolous complaints against them.

(j)    That now the workers do not wants to continue their services with the brick kiln owner, as he has abused them on caste basis and since the last two years he has taken forced labour from them and has not paid their earned wages.

(2)  That, the facts narrated in Paragraph 2, it is clear that the workers mentioned in Annexure A were subjected to the bonded labour system as defined under S. 2 (g) of the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976 [“BLSAA”]. The employer has extracted labour from the workers in lieu of the debt advance paid to them. Thereafter the workers were forced to work for wages well below the minimum wages. The worker’s freedom to leave the brick kiln and choose alternative employment was curtailed by the employer. Due to such deprivation and hunger, the workers had no other choice but to leave the employment.

(3)  That no such complaint has been earlier made to this Honorable Commission or any other commission or any court of law according to the information received from the victim.