Evaluation Report on the Results of the Interventions to Reduce the Prevalence of Bonded Labour in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh

Abstract

Since 2014, the Freedom Fund has been working with local partner non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in North India to combat bonded labour and other forms of exploitation, focusing efforts on 700 villages across the states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Using a hotspot model of concentrating resources in communities with high prevalence of bonded labour, often subject to intense socioeconomic deprivation and marginalisation, the Freedom Fund and its partners have provided community-based interventions to achieve the following objectives: 1 Reduce prevalence of these forms of exploitation in the specific communities in which Freedom Fund partners are working through direct prevention, protection, and prosecution interventions. 2 Improve the wider enabling environment for freedom through collective action and improving the effectiveness of government. 3 Increase civil society’s capacity for sustained and effective action on these issues. 4 Contribute new evidence to the global movement through supporting rigorous research and evaluation in the hotspot.