The Odisha government has banned the practice of bartan system under which upper cast families extract work from barbers and washermen during important family occasions in return for just 15 kg of paddy for the whole year. AIR correspondent reports, after active intervention by National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) the state Panchayat Raj Department has issued notification to abolish it. In Odisha's Puri district persons of low professions were made to perform menial jobs for upper castes. This demeaning ritual termed the bartan system, was taken notice of by the State Government following persuasion by the NHRC acting on a complaint filed by a local villager Baghabar Patnaik. In his complaint to the commission dated December 12, 2008, Patnaik highlighted this form of bonded labour in village Nalibasant where communities of barbers and washermen were forced to wash the feet of upper castes and perform all lowly jobs in lieu of their yearly ration.