In 2016, India promised to liberate 18.4 million bonded labourers by 2030. Nine years on, less than 1% have been freed and the system remains intact, particularly for Dalits and indigenous workers. From sugar mills to textile factories, bonded labour continues to fuel global supply chains. Reports from various international organisations show that despite outcry, not a thing has changed on the ground.
This post argues that multinational corporations remain complicit in India’s bonded labour regime, and that only binding legal tools like the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive can close the accountability gap, something that the India’s framework has been unable to do. It examines how India’s implementation failures has failed to provide justice to the millions of bonded labourers, and how the EU’s new due diligence laws coupled with domestic European statutes can be a new ray of hope for those in dire need of some light.
A Law Ignored: Why India’s Bonded Labour Act Fails
India’s Constitution expressly prohibits forced labour (Article 23) and child labour (Article 24). Article 21 guarantees the right to life with dignity, encompassing freedom from exploitation (Article 21). The Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976 abolishes bonded labour, extinguishes debts and criminalises the practice (text of the Act). Rehabilitation measures, like the Central Sector Scheme for Rehabilitation of Bonded Labourers, promise rescued victims compensation, housing and employment support. Yet, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and UN Special Rapporteur repeatedly highlight failures in implementation: vigilance committees under the Act are largely inactive, convictions are rare, and compensation often arrives years after liberation, if at all. Thus, while legally robust on paper, the framework falters in practice due to a lack of vigilance and enforcement and no real political will to fix it seems visible in the near future.
Modern Colonialism?
Despite India’s laws and its 2016 pledge to eradicate bonded labour by 2030 which is a part of SDG Target 8.7, progress has been painfully slow. Data shows only a few hundred victims rehabilitated annually instead of the targeted 1.3 million per year. A shocking 80–98% of bonded labourers belong to Dalit and indigenous communities. Sexual violence, child labour and forced hysterectomies remain rampant, especially in industries like brick kilns, agriculture and textiles.
These abuses are not confined to local actors. Multinational corporations—including Zara, H&M, Amazon, Gap and beverage giants like Coca-Cola and Pepsi) source from Indian suppliers implicated in debt bondage, child labour and coercive practices. While many brands rely on audits and certification schemes, evidence shows these often fail. Complex supply chains deliberately hide abusive practices in subcontracting tiers where oversight is weakest.
Corporations are entangled in systems designed to obscure exploitation and are far from being passive complicit actors. Without binding obligations that pierce these corporate veils, such complicity will remain invisible and unaccountable. A lack of political will and an unenforced statute has made a domestic solution to the issue hopeless, international law and pressure must step up to the plate. This system is eerily similar to what has been perpetrated for centuries where exploited labourers from historically marginalised communities is used to to fuel the needs of consumers in the west.
How EU Due Diligence Law Could Make a Change, Finally
Internationally, the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs, 2011) establish that businesses must identify, prevent and mitigate human rights abuses, including bonded labour. The OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises similarly require companies to undertake due diligence.
Europe is translating these soft standards into binding obligations. In 2024, the EU adopted the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), mandating large firms—including non-EU companies active in the EU—to assess and prevent forced labour across their supply chains. Noncompliance can result in fines or civil suits (Business & Human Rights Resource Centre).
Several countries already lead the way, France’s Duty of Vigilance Law (2017) allows victims to sue multinationals failing to prevent abuses by subsidiaries and subcontractors. Germany’s Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (2021) obliges companies to establish risk management systems to avoid forced labour.Furthermore, in the UK, courts in Okpabi v. Shell allowed claims against parent companies for abuses abroad; more recently, forced labour claims against Dyson’s Malaysian suppliers were permitted to proceed in England (Clifford Chance).
Together, these developments signal a paradigm shift, European law increasingly treats corporate responsibility for bonded labour as a legal obligation not voluntary ethics. This raises hope that brands profiting from Indian bonded labour may soon face real accountability.
Practical Issues in Implementation
Despite stronger laws, structural challenges run deep. Global supply chains are deeply fragmented and brands often source through multiple subcontractors, making oversight difficult. Audits and certifications have repeatedly failed to detect abuses, especially where suppliers bribe inspectors or keep workers hidden.
Brands sometimes treat due diligence as a box-ticking exercise, focusing on paperwork rather than genuine risk prevention. Without rigorous monitoring and enforcement, bonded labour risks remaining hidden in the lowest tiers of supply chains. However, the enforcement of EU laws would hit these corporations where it hurts. It would create publicity about their entanglement in human rights abuses and tainted supply chains. It could trigger civil suits, large damages, and boycotts which would tear the veil behind which these corporations are hiding forcing them to make a change.
The Way Forward
To eradicate bonded labour in India, a multi-pronged approach must be urgently adopted. Domestically, the government should revitalise and properly fund vigilance committees established under the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976. These committees should proactively identify and rescue victims, monitor industries prone to exploitation, and ensure strict implementation of the law. Establishing fast-track courts to handle bonded labour cases can deliver justice swiftly.
At the international and European level, the enforcement of binding obligations on corporations is crucial. The EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) must be fully implemented, together with national laws like France’s Duty of Vigilance Law (2017) and Germany’s Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (2021). These laws should impose real sanctions and allow victims in countries like India to bring civil claims against multinationals in European courts. Only through robust enforcement will companies be held truly accountable for abuses hidden in their supply chains.
Equally important is a shift in corporate culture. Companies must go beyond superficial audits and tick-box compliance. In line with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, businesses must conduct genuine human rights due diligence. This includes mapping full supply chains, banning recruitment debts, guaranteeing fair wages, and immediately severing ties with suppliers engaged in bonded labour or child labour.
Finally, international cooperation and transparency are vital. The European Union and India should include labour rights protections in trade agreements, and global bodies like the ILO and United Nations should regularly monitor corporate practices and publish reports identifying sectors at risk. Civil society organisations and journalists must continue their critical work documenting abuses, raising public awareness, and supporting litigation against perpetrators. On the ground legal aid clinics and NGOs ought to make victims aware of their ability to seek justice internationally.
Bonded labour in India is not an accidental byproduct of poverty or poor enforcement, it is a legacy of colonial-era labour systems that have adapted to global capitalism. Today’s supply chains mirror yesterday’s empire, extracting cheap labour from the east to fuel consumption out west. Multinational corporations continue to profit from this structural exploitation while hiding behind legal distance and contractual fragmentation. As Europe begins to legislate corporate accountability, this moment must mark more than regulatory progress it must be a commitment to dismantling the conditions that still bind millions in invisible servitude.
Siddhant Singh is a 3rd year law student from National Law University, Jodhpur. He has a keen interest in Intellectual Property Law and Public International Law, he is the Managing Editor of the Centre for Youth Policy.