The rescue of a dozen workers from an industrial unit in western Uttar Pradesh is more than another criminal investigation. It is a reminder that one of independent India’s oldest social evils continues to survive beneath the country’s impressive economic ambitions. Bonded labour may have been abolished by law in 1976, but legislation alone has never been enough to dismantle a system sustained by poverty, migration, weak enforcement and the invisibility of those at its mercy.

India has made significant strides in expanding infrastructure, manufacturing and industrial output. Yet growth loses much of its moral force when sections of the workforce remain vulnerable to conditions resembling modern-day slavery. The victims in this case were reportedly recruited with promises of employment, only to find themselves trapped through intimidation, violence and deprivation. Such methods are not isolated aberrations; they reflect a recurring pattern in which economic desperation is exploited by unscrupulous employers operating beyond the reach of routine inspection. The episode also exposes a troubling institutional failure.

Labour laws, police intelligence, local administration and welfare mechanisms are........

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