Mid-Term Review of the Freedom Fund Southern India Bonded Labour Hotspot

The Institute of Development Studies is carrying out a programme of research, learning and evaluation in relation to the Freedom Fund ‘hotspot’ in Southern India, a programme that seeks to reduce bonded labour in the cotton mills of Tamil Nadu. Work towards this mid-term review has involved scoping visits comprising: interviews with NGOs; focus groups with community members and field observations; the participatory collection and analysis of 300 life stories and the generation of a baseline of participatory statistics of 2,970 households across 66 hamlets in locations covered by 11 NGOs. This will be followed by the roll-out of a systemic action research programme in which stakeholders analyse and develop solutions to their problems as well as a follow-up participatory statistical analysis.