Is Bonded Labour New?
No, it has existed for hundreds of years. In South Asia
it is rooted in the caste system and flourishes in agriculture, in cottage
industries, and in factories.
Debt bondage was also used as a means of trapping
indentured labourers into working on plantations in Africa, the Caribbean and
South-East Asia, following the abolition of the slave trade.
Bonded labourers are forced to work to repay debts their
employer says they owe, and they are not allowed to work for anyone else.
Various forms of force are used to make sure they stay. In many cases they are
kept under surveillance, sometimes under lock and key.
Poverty and threats of violence force many bonded
labourers to stay with their masters, since they would not otherwise be able to
eat or have a place to sleep.
Why does Bonded Labour exist?
Poverty, and people prepared to exploit the desperation
of others lie at the heart of bonded labour. Often without land or
education, the need for cash just for daily survival forces people to sell
their labour in exchange for a lump sum of money or a loan.
Despite the fact that bonded labour is illegal in most
countries where it is found, governments are rarely willing to enforce the law,
or to ensure that those who profit from it are punished.
Today the International Labour Organisation estimates a
minimum 11.7 million are in forced labour in the Asia-Pacific region, the
majority of whom are in debt bondage.
Who are the Bonded Laborers?
Entire families kept like cattle on farms in India,
Pakistan and Nepal; migrant agricultural workers forced to remain on ranches in
Brazil; and the organised export of women into domestic and sexual slavery in
Europe.
Bonded labour is expanding due to poverty and the global
demand for sources of cheap, expendable labour.
