Observation (CEACR) - adoptée 2001, publiée 90ème session CIT (2002)

The Committee has noted the Government’s report.

Articles 1(1) and 2(1) of the Convention. Over a number of years the Committee has been commenting on the Destitute Persons Act, 1989, which repeated without change certain provisions of the Destitute Persons Act, 1965. Under sections 3 and 16 of the 1989 Act, any destitute person may be required, subject to penal sanctions, to reside in a welfare home, and under section 13 of the same Act any person resident in such a home may be required to engage in any suitable work for which the medical officer of the home certifies him to be capable, either with a view to fitting him for an employment outside the welfare home or with a view to contributing to his maintenance in the welfare home.

The Committee has noted the Government’s repeated statement that section 13 of the Act should be interpreted in the context of rehabilitation of the destitute persons and does not therefore constitute forced labour. The Government also states that imprisonment as a penalty for leaving the welfare home without permission does not involve compulsory labour.

The Committee recalls that, under Article 2, paragraph 1, of the Convention, the term "forced or compulsory labour" shall mean all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily. The imposition of labour under the Destitute Persons Act, 1989, comes under this definition, and the Convention makes no exception for labour imposed "in the context of rehabilitation" of destitute persons. The Committee therefore expresses firm hope that measures will be taken in the near future to bring the abovementioned legislation into conformity with the Convention, either by making the admission of destitute persons to a welfare home and their stay therein (if it implies an obligation to work) subject to their consent or by amending section 13 of the Act so as to make any work in such homes to be done voluntarily.