ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the implementation of the rights-based approaches to the cases of bonded labour among Kamaiyas and Sahariyas. The overall goal of the chapter is to investigate the strategies used by the rights-based NGOs and to conceptualise the interpretation of the rights-based approaches by participants and the staff of NGOs. It investigates functions of rights within rights-based movements for freedom and argues that in both cases the concept of rights is directly linked with the concept of human dignity and normality. The inclusion of human rights in a discussion of the liberation of bonded labourers supports the process of re-humanisation of enslaved people and serves positively to the purpose of the restoration of their subject status both in their own eyes and the eyes of other members of society.
