India - A nation of slaves

India is home to 14 million slaves. What does this tell us about one of the world's fastest growing nations?

With newsprint and television debates largely dedicated to the coal scam and CBI FIRs against Kumaramangalam Birla, a startling report that’s got skimpy, almost negligible coverage is the findings by a new Global Slavery Index.

 

What does the report say? That there are a staggering 30 million modern day slaves worldwide, and hold your breath, almost half of them, i.e. close to 14 million are in India! 

 

Modern day bondage, according to the report takes myriad different shapes – “from severe forms of inter-generational bonded labour across various industries to the worst forms of child labour, commercial sexual exploitation, and forced and servile marriage.” Many of India’s enslaved are internally trafficked on ‘false pretence of employment’ from poorer regions to relatively wealthy areas for work in areas such as construction, mining, hospitality, domestic work etc. Others, just inherit slavery because of caste and birth, or are trapped in debt bondage to landowners in their villages. 

 

This report is attention-grabbing on its own merit, but more mesmerizing and relevant when juxtaposed with developments of the last few months. It also points to the sheer apathy of this government, which loves to tom tom about its developmental and welfare achievements. 

 

While poverty and the caste system are notable aspects of modern enslavement, a majority of the problems seems to be a result of lax enforcement of laws and government inaction in critical areas like jobs and equitable development. Let’s look at the problem areas one by one - 

 

#1 Indian nationals who have migrated for work have found themselves in modern slavery – often involving recruitment intermediaries and debt bondage – around the world. They have been exploited in various industries including construction, mining, agriculture and hospitality, in manual labour and commercial sexual exploitation, as well as in private domestic work and as domestic staff at Indian diplomatic missions abroad.

 

Read this in context of another recent finding which suggested that India’s urban slums contributed to 7% of GDP, and were the drivers of the country’s economic engine. Despite this contribution slum dwellers are deprived of basics like sanitation, healthcare and safe living conditions and their migration from agriculture, deemed necessary for modern economic development given the concentration of people working on farms, hasn’t necessarily resulted into a better life. This is a stinging indictment of the government’s inability to create more productive jobs. Despite being among the fastest growing economies, as the economic survey pointed out, India has had a decade of jobless growth, and most of the jobs being created are informal, in low productivity sectors like construction – which like the index points out are breeding hubs for modern slavery. 

 

For far too long, a vibrant manufacturing sector has been perceived to be an answer to harnessing India’s abundant labour source, and preventing it from turning into a demographic curse. But it’s all too well known what’s happened on this front. 

 

#2 For those enslaved in their own area, corruption or non-performance of safety nets (such as the National Employment Guarantee, food rations, primary health care and pensions) and practices of land grabbing and asset domination by high caste groups (or for commercial development) leaves people without protections. Some of those affected by slavery in India do not officially exist – they have no birth registration or ID so it can be hard for them to access protective entitlements.

 

This is a reflection of the devastating effects corruption and leakages in government schemes is having on the social fabric of backward rural areas that is so heavily dependent on government aid. It is also a vindication of the numerous reports including one by CAG in April this year, which showed how shoddy the implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme has been on many counts. Roll out of the food bill in the capital has also been plagued exactly by the kind of problems the report talks about, where migrant labour without official IDs or certificates are finding it difficult to enroll into the scheme. 

 

#3India has ratified a number of key Conventions relevant to modern slavery. However, India is one of the few remaining countries in the world not to have ratified the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention. While not always slavery, these so called “worst forms” of child labour covered by this Convention occur on a significant scale in India and are deeply connected to the modern slavery issue. 

 

Not just the treaty on child labour, India has also refused to ratify the Domestic Work Convention which would have given protection and legal rights to domestic workers, amongst the most exploited class of informal workers according to reports. 

 

That’s not to say that India hasn’t acted at all. The Global Slavery Index report says amendments to the Penal Code in 2013 which criminalized all forms of human trafficking for instance, or the enactment of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012 are steps in the right direction. But inconsistent enforcement of laws and a painfully slow judiciary mean offenses are committed with impunity. 

 

The report calls for a number of urgent action plans to combat the problem on priority, but is there political will to even address this issue by a government battling allegations of all kinds of crimes itself, is the big question.