The report Mid-Term Review of the Freedom Fund Southern India Bonded Labour Hotspot was commissioned by the Freedom Fund to the Institute of Development Studies to evaluate our ‘hotspot’ in Southern India, aiming to reduce bonded labour in Tamil Nadu’s cotton mills. The mid-term review involved scoping visits, interviews with NGOs, focus groups with communities, field observations, and collecting life stories and statistics from 2,970 households across 66 hamlets.
Organisational recommendations include focusing activities in areas with high slavery prevalence, implementing longer-term programming addressing underlying drivers, enhancing NGO capacity for adaptive learning, and strengthening community facilitation skills. Programme recommendations stress prioritising alternative livelihoods, addressing transport issues trapping workers, tackling health concerns perpetuating bondage, involving whole families, improving mill conditions, and clustering families based on threats they face. Sharing the research results with field staff and communities for informed action is crucial.
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