The Action Group has decided to take up the dry and drought prone areas and regions characterised by assetlessness, landlessness and from where mass migration regularly takes place.

The areas requiring priority attention have been identified as the Telangana region in Andhra Pradesh, Santhal, Parganas and Singhbum in Bihar, Chhatisgarh region in Madhya Pradesh, desert districts of Rajasthan, eastern parts of Uttar Pradesh and Kalahandi-Bolangir-Koraput districts in Orissa.

At a meeting convened by the National Human Rights Commission with the members of the Central Action Group, the need for simultaneous identification, release and rehabilitation of bonded labourers was recognised.

At the meeting the Chairman of the Commission Justice M NVenkatachaliah stressed the need for new thinking on implementation of laws relating to bonded labour. Among other things the meeting made the following suggestions: Pooling of resources of various ministries for integrated rehabilitation and for achieving convergence of resources of various welfare schemes, involvement of dedicated voluntary organisations in the identification of bonded labourers, stricter enforcement of law, building up of credible data base on the prevalence of bonded labour and educational campaign.

The Action Group proposes to submit its first report on bonded labour to the Supreme Court by October 15 and thereafter after every six month interval. In November 1997 the Supreme Court had requested the National Human Rights Commission to get involved in dealing with the issue of bonded labour.

While directing the record of the Supreme Court to be handed over to the Commission, the Supreme Court hoped that the Commission would take over the task of supervising the implementation of thelaws relating to bonded labour in the light of its orders.