What is Slavery?

Origin, Cause
• Late 15th century Atlantic Slave Trade
• North America, South America and Africa
• Native Americans lesser in number and prone to disease
• Vast lands and labor intensive crops such as cotton, tobacco, sugarcane required
able and disease-resistant workforce.
• After ban of slavery in 1807 and due to the outlawing of enslavement of
fellow Christians, European slave traders created racist ideologies to
continue the use of Africans as slaves.
 Modern Slavery
• Why the term? Slavery abolished in all countries but till this date happens
all around us, just out of sight.
• Most people are trapped into slavery while trying to escape poverty,
insecurity and finding better lives for their families, tackle health crises.
• But they end up being controlled – face threats and violence, inescapable
debt, can have their passports taken away and be threatened with
deportation (factories, mines etc)

• 40 million people are estimated to be trapped in modern slavery

worldwide:
• 1 in 4 of them are children.
• Almost three quarters (71%) are women and girls (explain)
 Modern Slavery in India
• GSI reported 18.3M people in slavery in 2016.
• GSI estimates on any given day in 2018, nearly 8M people
living in slavery; 6.1 per 1000 people.
• Difference in figures not due to reduction in number of slaves
but changes to counting rules and estimation methods.
(explain)
 FORMS
• Bonded/forced labor
– Tamil Nadu spinning mills; Sumangali schemes
– Granite quarries
– Debt bondage mines and forced sexual exploitation; intergenerational transfer of debt
– Brick kilns; advance wage payments via contractors/labor agents
– Local and migrant domestic workers (from lesser developed regions); India or abroad
– Unskilled labor work such as agriculture, construction in gulf countries; contract violations
• Forced Sexual Exploitation of Women and Children
– Increasing trend in North East India where organized trafficking syndicates operate along the
open and unmanned international borders.
– Young, educated girls searching for work outside native region preyed upon, lured through
false promises of job and good pay, working conditions.
– “Conditioning” period involving physical violence, threats, debt bondage and rape to limit
victim’s ability to resist sex work.
• Forced Marriage
– Due to prevalence of female foeticide, some Indian states have a skewed sex ratio. Thus,
women and girls from impoverished families of the eastern or southern parts are sold off as
brides to the more prosperous families in the north; these brides face sexual abuse, rape and
exploitation by husbands
– Sometimes the husbands will formally wed the woman bought from a poor family and later
sell them off to sex traffickers. The husband will then tell the family that their daughter has
run off. The family never report the missing daughter by fear of shame or ridicule by society.
– Indian women are also trafficked overseas for marriage.

• Organ trafficking
• Use of children in armed conflict
– Bal Dasta units
– Examples; Maoists in Jharkhand, Naxalite movement
• Chattel Slavery
• Domestic Servitude
• Imported products at risk of modern slavery
 Why is it still prevalent?
• Disproportionate development across states
• Lack of official identity documents and cultural and linguistic differences faced by migrant laborers
restrict their access to basic social services
• Children miss out on education due to migration and therefore end up working alongside their
parents in bonded labor
• Lack of opportunities in formal sector causes informal sector to employ 90% of India’s workforce.
Lack of regulation and law enforcement means absence of contracts and records, poor working
conditions, little pay etc
• Demonetization not only hit the poor who rely on cash to meet daily expenses but also prolonged
the debt cycles for many bonded laborers and sex workers.
• Discrimination based on caste originating from the Varnas system; social stigmatization and
economic marginalization – low literacy, lack of basic healthcare, poor working and living
conditions
• Discrimination based on gender; dowry, bride-burning – forced marriage, sex trafficking
• Master-slave mentality amongst Indians since historic times
• Lack of awareness among common people
• Lack of access to redressal and rehabilitation mechanisms for slaves due to fear, shame, lack of
movement etc.
• Govt looking for FDI from MNC’s looking for cheap and easily available labor, benefitting through
commissions
• Competition amongst other south-Asian countries.
• Gaps in policy making and implementation
 Way forward
• The govt should strengthen legislation
– Including domestic work in labor laws
– Pass awaiting bills in parliament which aim to tackle trafficking and slavery.
• Improving victim support
• Increasing coordination and transparency
• Creating awareness
• Conducting regular supervisions at high risk industries of the informal sector (brick kilns, textile
and granite/sandstone industries)
• Encourage more companies to fund the NGO’s working for the cause
 Arguments we put forward

• Are we still following the varna system?

• When do we cross the line between employment and slavery?
• Are the rescued victims ever rescued?
• How does the lack of dignity towards different occupations affect slavery as a trend
• Why do mainstream media or govt organizations shed little light on this issue?
• Does forced marriage need to have kidnapping involved in order to become a criminal offence?
• Do modern society and modern slavery go hand-in-hand?
• Need for regulation in domestic work sector and its inclusion in labor laws.
• Practicality of Ujjawala and Swadhar schemes when most of the rehabilitation and repatriation
work is done by NGO’s through private or foreign funding while governments focus on handing
out compensations to victims?
• Can we rely on the laws to end the modern slavery?