E/CN.4/Sub.2/434 page 4
the Committee had asked the Government of India for information under the Indigenous and Tribal Populations Convention, 1957 (No. 107), which was relevant to the problem of debt bondage given that a large percentage of bonded labourers were from scheduled castes and tribes. In addition, in 1977 India had ratified the Rural Workers Organization Convention, 1975 (No.141), India' first report under this Convention was due later in 1979
11. The FAO representative rointed out that the relationship between inequitable land tenure patterns and the deteriorating situation of the rural poor in most developing countries had been demonstrated and was now fully accepted. Fão carried out programmes to promote the reform of agrarian structures and to lay out the foundations for equitable access to resources by the rural people. Ho informed the Group that the World Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development, held in Rome in July 1977, had discussed two issucs of particular interest to the Group, namely, (a) the wide-scale practice of tenancy, particularly in conditions of land shortages, leading to absolute control by landowners over the tenants; (b) usary by money-lenders where small farmers and peasants lost their land and their assets due to the non-availability of institutional services and credit, and were then forced to work without due payment or compensation. In its Declaration of Principles, the Conference had emphasized inter alia the need to maintain constant vigilance so that the benefits of agrarian reform and rural development would not be offset by the reassertion of past patterns of concentration of resources in private hands, and the emergence of new forms of inequity. In its Programme of Action the Conference had made specific recommendations for action by governments concerning in particular the creation and maintenance of records of tenants and sharecroppers; the adoption and enforcement of legislation to ensure fair rent ceilings; the enforcement of security of tenure as a measure of social equity; the improvement of credit facilities to small farmers; the encouragement of ten aa organizations; the enactment of labour legislation to protect rural workers from exploitation.
12. A member of the Group pointed out the great difficulties facing bonded labourers in particular and the rural poor in general in organizing themselves to obtain their rights. He mentioned a recent report in the British press concerning a strike by more than one hundred bonded labourers in a brick kiln in Maryana state in India to protest what they called "conditions amunting to slavery". The workers were not allowed to seck other employment and were forced to work in inhumane conditions. However, when the workers attempted to organize themselves they were the object of violent repression. This example showed that, despite the existence of constitutional provisions and legislative enactments, the problem was continuing and was deeply rooted in the socio-economic structure of this and other countries, as well as in traditional practices. He wondered whether comparative studies with debt bondage in other parts of the world, including Latin America and southern Africa, would be of value.4/ He wondered what practical, constructive measures could be taken by the United Nations and the specialized agencies to help, and suggested that local and/or international conferences should be called to study the issue in depth, and make concrete recommendations, particularly since the victims of such practices in rural areas had no access to the United Nations. The Secretariat should also give priority to the study on debt bondage requested by the Sub-Commission in resolution 6B (XXXI).
13. Another member concurred with the view that starvation is the worst form of slavery. Political freedoms were meaningless without economic freedoms. He pointed out that the root of the problen lay in an inequitable class structure which placed the ownership of the means of production in the hands of landowners, resulting in the economic exploitation of rural workers. A thoroughgeing reform in land ownership
4/
A member of the Group objected to mentioning Latin America and southern Africa in the same connexion.
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