Sagri Pratha — Abolition

5.1 Nature of Sagri

Sagri (also Sagra/Sagari) was a feudal labour obligation in Rajasthan (especially prevalent in eastern Rajasthan — Bharatpur, Dholpur, Karauli, Sawai Madhopur areas). Features:

• A cultivator (typically from lower caste) borrowed from a landlord
• The debt was often ancestral — passed down generations
• As security, the debtor (sagri) was obligated to perform agricultural labour for the landlord for little or no wages
• The sagri system effectively created intergenerational bonded labour

5.2 Legal Abolition

Section 177 of the Rajasthan Tenancy Act 1955:

• Declares all existing sagri obligations void
• Makes enforcement of sagri obligation (compelling someone to work) a criminal offence
• Recovery of any debt claimed as basis for sagri was channelled through civil courts, not self-help

The national-level Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act 1976 further reinforced this abolition at the central level, making all forms of bonded labour — including sagri — both void and criminally punishable.

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