‘India Has World’s Best Anti-Slavery Laws’ (And Largest Number of Slaves)
A child labourer cries as he is rescued during a joint operation by Labour department and a non-governmental organisation in New Delhi. India has some of the world’s best anti-slavery laws, better than Europe, but it also has more people living in modern slavery than any other country.
In terms of prevalence of modern slavery in India, there were 6.1 victims for every thousand people.
Nearly 46 million people live under conditions of slavery across the world, with 18 million (39%) of those in India, which is home to the world’s largest number of slaves, according to 2016 Global Slavery Index.
These 18 million Indians--twice the population of Sweden--have lost their freedom by way of bonded and domestic labour and sexual slavery, among other means.
Globally, modern slavery includes child workers in African mines, deforestation crews in the Amazon or people trapped in commercial sexual exploitation in Europe.
Like the economy, slavery has also become a globalised phenomenon that generates a $150-billion industry, according to Kevin Bales, a professor of contemporary slavery at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom; he is also co-founder of Free the Slaves, a nonprofit based in the United States.
In an interview at the 2016 Falling Walls Conference, Berlin, where he was a speaker, Bales reveals it costs no more than Rs 13,000 to free an Indian from slavery. He explains that India has some of the best anti-slavery laws in the world and tells us how we can fight slavery.
1. How do you define slavery? What is the difference between forced labour and slavery?
‘Forced labour’ was coined in 1920s, as colonial powers did not want to use the word slavery. If one person is controlled by another person and violence or coercion is being used by the other person and if that control is for exploitation for labour or sexual or others, then it is a situation of slavery. It is not too different from slavery of the past. Slavery of the past has been legal sometimes but slavery existed before the invention of written law. Slavery is pre-law, pre-legal, the fundamental criteria (for slavery) is that if the person is under complete control and the purpose is exploitation, it would apply to ancient Rome and today. I use the word ‘modern slavery’ simply because it helps people know I am not talking historically.
2. What can you tell us about India, the global slavery index shows that India is one of the five countries with most numbers of slaves?
It is the country with the largest number of slaves. We have done random sample surveys and state-by-state random sample surveys (in India). The proportional share of slaves in India is not the highest. In Mauritania and Haiti, the proportion of slaves is much higher. In India, there are 18 million slaves in a country of 1.3 billion. One of the reasons why we focus on India is that we can get in the country and do the polls which we are not able to do in China where we are still trying. India has really good anti-slavery laws; it is a question of implementation. The laws are, in fact, superior to European laws. On the ground, in India, we have some of the most highly experienced anti-slavery groups, who manage different formulae of liberation addressing different types of slavery. I have been working with some of them over the past 20 years.
Kevin Bales, a professor of contemporary slavery at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom and co-founder of Free the Slaves, a nonprofit based in the United States, speaks at the 2016 Falling Walls Conference, Berlin.
3. Can you tell us about their work?
In Uttar Pradesh, there are groups that have been working on hereditary forms of slavery--so you have families who have been fundamentally in slavery; they do not even know for how many generations because they only remember back to their grandparents and these things continued on and on. We now know the mechanisms in that space, a community-organising model that can be used, that will break the norms of slavery, village by village, with risk reduced. I have to say, when we began 20 years ago, we had to learn how to mitigate the risk: Villages would come out of slavery to freedom, but the retaliation would be serious to the point of injury and death to the former slaves and also the people who helped them escape. In some ways, it is not a story told well by journalists today--there are people in the world today risking their lives to get other people out of slavery, and no one knows their names and most of them are paid about $100 (Rs 6,518) a month, and there is a story there. They are being shot at, and they get up and do it every day.
4. Is decline of agriculture in India another reason for slavery?
The interesting thing is that there are lot of things people do for business--not just in India, but across the world--with slaves that if they didn’t have slaves for it, they wouldn’t do it. For example, making sand: There are big blocks of silicon and you have people hit it and turn it into sand, and that seems ridiculous because sand is ubiquitous, and it only works financially if you don’t pay the workers. If you break the cycle of enslavement, the sand-by-hand just disappears. Brick-making is another such business. There is a belt from Punjab to Uttar Pradesh, below Nepal, where they make bricks because of the kind of soil found there. You can buy Chinese brick-forming machines for not many rupees, and they don’t need to pay for the machines because they have slaves--children and mothers. As soon as you break it (slavery), either they have to shut down or they have to buy those machines. There is controversy about Uzbekistan and cotton, which is harvested by college students in forced labour. I grew up in the cotton belt in the US, in Mississippi; what really changed there even after the abolition of slavery was the invention of the combined harvester. I have never understood--and I have spoken to the American government about why they don’t just loan them (Uzbekistan) money to buy harvesters from US manufacturers, and then they would not need to take students for forced labour.
5. What is the economic impact of slavery?
According to the UN’s estimation, the global annual turnover of slavery is $150 billion (Rs 9 lakh crore). In a global economy estimated to be $7-12 trillion, $150 billion is just a drop in the ocean. That’s good news because if we live in a world of 7.2 billion people and we have 46 million in slavery, you have a drop in the population ocean and $150 billion is a drop in the economic ocean. The question is, why do we have any slavery at all? One answer is because of laws that are not enforced, and there is low awareness about it. In a country like Norway, which has 5 million people and tight borders, why do they have any slavery? But they do, some hundreds. Some are in commercial establishments, some in agriculture and some in construction. The freedom dividend, we know that there is a freedom dividend, and we are measuring it in some of the places, like India. When people come out of slavery, they get to be consumers, and that means the economic cycle begins to churn, and if they do not have anything but a little bit of food, and they are only producing at the lowest levels, they are zero in the economic equation. But as soon as they start working for themselves, they work very hard. Because one thing that they always want to do is get their children out of the workplace and into a school, and then they start doing things like buying food, clothes and tools and so in areas where slavery is stopped; the local economy begins to grow, even creating opportunities for ex-slaveholders.
6. What kind of jobs do slaves usually do?
It is all about the stuff at the bottom of the economic ladder; it is in agriculture, mining, very simple extraction work, in sex and commercial sex exploitation. It is the simple, dangerous, demeaning work. So when slaveholders find work that no one else wants to do, they find ways to put slaves to do it.
7. What can we do to stop slavery?
If you want to consume your way out of the problem, it has an effect, but it has a low or small effect because you are so many steps away from the problem. If you say you will stop using this product because it has slave labour in it, that is good, but if that is all you are going to do, it won’t change much of anything unless you can convince a billion other people to do it too. The most powerful way would be, the heroes I was talking about, if you can find a way to give them a little bit of support, that is actually the most effective way. Suppose there is this group, in Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, and say we know every day they are getting people out of slavery and give them 20 Euros a month or something to help that happen, that is really direct because the cost of getting people out of slavery is actually very low. Most people in slavery are not in rich countries, but in poor countries, where the cost of everything is low. In India, when we calculated the cost to free a person, the cost came to $200 (Rs 13,000) per person. If you help free a person in Germany, it will cost $20,000 to $30,000 (Rs 13 lakh to Rs lakh) per person. The medical care, the legal care, the outreach, the offices and rent, it adds up there.
8. Which are the anti-slavery laws in India that are benefitting people?
One of the great laws against slavery is the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act 1976, which allows the transfer of a little bit of capital to every person who comes out of slavery and support. When you come out of slavery, you have nothing, no assets and no training, but you know you have a job skill and under Indian law, you get a grant immediately so that you have food, clothing and shelter immediately, and safety, if it is done right. Then in a few weeks, someone comes and talks to them (freed slaves) and then there is a large payment, so they can buy, say, a set of tools or land or what they need to make a living. I know ex-slaves who bought four mobile phones and became “mobile companies” for their village.
Forms of modern slavery
Modern slavery takes many forms. The most common are:
Human trafficking. The use of violence, threats or coercion to transport, recruit or harbour people in order to exploit them for purposes such as forced prostitution, labour, criminality, marriage or organ removal.
Forced labour. Any work or services people are forced to do against their will under threat of punishment.
Debt bondage/bonded labour. The world’s most widespread form of slavery. People trapped in poverty borrow money and are forced to work to pay off the debt, losing control over both their employment conditions and the debt.
Descent–based slavery. Most traditional form, where people are treated as property, and their “slave” status was passed down the maternal line.
Slavery of children. When a child is exploited for someone else’s gain. This can include child trafficking, child soldiers, child marriage and child domestic slavery.
Forced and early marriage. When someone is married against their will and cannot leave. Most child marriages can be considered slavery.
People end up trapped in modern slavery because they are vulnerable to being tricked, trapped and exploited, often as a result of poverty and exclusion. It is these external circumstances that push people into taking risky decisions in search of opportunities to provide for their families, or are simply pushed into jobs in exploitative conditions.
Is there a difference between human trafficking and slavery? As a practical matter, human trafficking is when someone is moved from one place to another for the purpose of enslavement; slavery is the exploitation that happens when they arrive. As a legal matter, however, in many places the term trafficking means enslavement—no movement away from home is required for an anti-trafficking law to apply. About 23 percent of people in slavery are being exploited outside their home country, most people around the world are enslaved right in their home communities.
The most current available data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) indicate that there were 8,132 reported cases of human trafficking across India in 2016. In the same year, 15,379 people were trafficked of whom 9,034 victims were below the age of 18. In addition, 23,117 people were rescued from trafficking situations of whom 14,183 people were below the age of 18. The NCRB report notes that the number of rescued victims is higher than the number of trafficked people as rescued victims may also include persons trafficked in the previous year. Most of the rescued victims reported being trafficked for the purpose of forced labour (10,509 victims), followed by sexual exploitation for prostitution (4,980 victims), and other forms of sexual exploitation (2,590 cases).
FORCED LABOUR
While the bonded labour system is formally abolished and criminalised, recent research indicates that bonded labour is still prevalent in India. A 2016 report found that in the state of Tamil Nadu, 351 of 743 spinning mills use bonded labour schemes, otherwise known as Sumangalischemes. Fraudulent recruiters reportedly target families in economically disadvantaged rural areas of India and persuade the parents to send their daughters to spinning mills with promises of good working conditions and the payment of a lump sum at the end of their three-year contracts that might help contribute to dowry costs. In these mills, young women are subject to exploitative labour practices, including restriction of movement, removal of mobile phones, and withholding wages and other payments, in return for the prospect of a lump sum of money. They work 60 hours per week year-round and cannot refuse overtime. Workers are therefore bound to their employer as changing employers would mean losing their promised lump sum. However, many women under those schemes never receive the lump sum payment they are promised because they leave early, often due to illness. Similarly, in granite quarries, wage advances and loans with an interest ranging from 24 percent to 36 percent are used to bond workers to the quarry. According to a study on bonded labour practices in sandstone quarries in Rajasthan, workers become caught in lifelong debt bondage as they owe large sums of money to their employers or contractors and have to work for little or no pay until this is repaid. In some instances this may result in intergenerational transfer of debt as it is common for immediate kin to replace workers who retire due to old age or occupation-related illnesses and to take on their debt. Situations of debt bondage are often aggravated by the need to raise emergency funds or take on loans for health crises. Debt bondage is also used as a form of control in forced sexual exploitation. Survivor interviews revealed managers requested compensation for the money allegedly paid to purchase the victim. With little or no payment given to victims for their work, repaying the debt is almost impossible, trapping them in an indefinite cycle of debt bondage and exploitation. The agricultural sector accounts for 62.7 percent of India’s rural employment, but changing environmental patterns in the eastern state of Odisha, such as irregular rainfall, frequent droughts, and deforestation, have resulted in destruction of traditional livelihoods. The lack of employment opportunities and the need to seek alternative sources of income force people to migrate to other states within India in search of work. Seeking work in brick kilns across the country has become a common phenomenon for people from Odisha. This often involves labour agents who use a system of advance payment where workers are paid a lump sum upfront which they then need to pay off through the bricks they make, consequently trapping them in bonded labour until they have paid off their debt. It is reported that in certain brick kilns accepting a wage advance from a contractor, who acts as an intermediary between the kiln owner and the worker, is seen as a mandatory step to accepting a job, as shown by a study in Punjab in 2014 where 94 percent of those interviewed had taken an advance. The advance system makes it obligatory for the worker to remain in the kiln, and with advances and payments reportedly made via a contractor, there is little scope for workers to seek out other employment opportunities. Instances of forced labour exist among local and migrant domestic workers both within India and overseas who find themselves coerced into hard physical labour and experience conditions of ill treatment, and confinement. Domestic workers are particularly vulnerable as they work in private homes and depend on their employers for basic needs such as food and shelter. This is highlighted in the recent case of a Bangladeshi migrant domestic worker who was held hostage and physically abused by a family in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, after asking for her unpaid salary. Most female domestic workers migrate from India’s least developed regions, such as Jharkhand, West Bengal, and Assam, to urban areas where a growing middle class has created demand for domestic help. Among the estimated six million Indian migrants living in the six Gulf countries of Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Oman, there have been many documented cases of contract violations and exploitation, often facilitated by unscrupulous recruitment agents who promise well-paid employment under good conditions in the Gulf. However, exploitation is reportedly widespread, especially among those Indian migrants who come to work in unskilled sectors, such as construction, agriculture, and domestic work. Many of these violations also occur as a result of limited protections for migrant workers under labour law in these Gulf countries. An approximate 450 Indian migrants have allegedly died in Dubai since 2014, while Indian officials have claimed that inhumane working conditions are the most common cause of death of Indian migrant workers in the Gulf.
FORCED SEXUAL EXPLOITATION OF ADULTS AND CHILDREN
There is evidence pointing to an emerging trend in northeast India where organised trafficking syndicates operate undetected along the open and unmanned international borders, duping or coercing young, educated girls seeking employment outside their local area into forced sexual exploitation. According to a Caritas report, trafficking of children is particularly prevalent in the north eastern state of Assam where in 2016 at least 129 girls were forced into sex work by traffickers. Recent survivor interviews in Kolkata, West Bengal, indicate that victims (a majority of whom knew their recruiters) were lured with the promise of a good job but were then forced into sex work. A ‘conditioning’ period involving physical violence, threats, debt bondage, and rape was also commonly used to limit a victim’s ability to resist sex work.
FORCED MARRIAGE
Female foeticide is a widespread phenomenon in India and has contributed to a shortage in women, such as in the state of Haryana, where there are only 830 girls for every 1,000 boys. Evidence suggests there is a growing trend for brides to move from the poorer eastern or southern parts of the country to the more prosperous areas in the north where there is a higher male to female sex ratio. The skewed sex ratio in some regions in India is fuelling trafficking and selling of brides within India. Women are reportedly sold off into marriage by their families, sometimes at a young age, and end up enduring severe abuse, rape, and exploitation by their husbands. Indian women and girls from impoverished backgrounds are reportedly also lured by promises of marriage by younger men from urban areas, but then forced into sex work once married to their husbands. The men usually formally court the woman and seek approval from her family. This often means the family will not immediately search for or report the woman as missing if contact breaks down once she has fallen victim to sexual exploitation. It is also reported that sometimes the husband returns to the community to shame the family by claiming that the woman or girl has run away so that the family will refrain from reporting their relative to authorities as missing. There are also reported cases of Indian women trafficked overseas for marriage. In 2017, Hyderabad police arrested five Omani and three Qatari nationals, as well as three Muslim priests on charges of human trafficking and child marriage revolving around a scheme marrying young Muslim Indian girls to men from Arab countries. Police reported that in many cases the young brides encountered exploitation in their husband’s home country and were forced into domestic servitude or sexual slavery. Without a social network of support these women are fully dependent on their husband’s family, increasing their chances of ending up in situations of forced labour, sexual slavery, or domestic servitude.
ORGAN TRAFFICKING
Human trafficking for organ removal continues throughout India where growing rates of kidney and liver disease have added to the increasing gap between the demand and supply of organs. With the 2011 Transplantation of Human Organs (Amendment) Act allowing only an immediate relative to be a living donor, there has been a growth in organ traffickers carrying out illegal procedures and forging documents to show donors and recipients as family. In some parts of India, poor people use their kidneys as collateral for money lenders. Researchers have documented instances of kidneys sourced from the “kidney belt” region of southern India being sold to clients in Sri Lanka, the Gulf States, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
USE OF CHILDREN IN ARMED CONFLICT
Armed violence and conflict between armed opposition groups and state forces continue to affect different regions in India. Ongoing conflict in affected regions has disrupted livelihoods and trapped populations in a cycle of violence. There are reported cases of abductions and coercion of children to join Bal Dasta units which train children in front-line operations, and as couriers and informants against national security forces. In April 2016, Maoists reportedly abducted five girls aged between ten and thirteen years of age from Karcha village, West Bengal State. It is reported that the Bharatiya Communist Party (Maoist) forced inhabitants of seven villages in Jharkhand State to hand over five children per village to join their ranks.
IMPORTED PRODUCTS AT RISK OF MODERN SLAVERY
While modern slavery clearly occurs within India, the realities of global trade and business make it inevitable that India, like many other countries globally, will also be exposed to the risk of modern slavery through the products it imports. Policy-makers, businesses, and consumers must become aware of this risk and take responsibility for it. Table 1 lists the top five products (according to US$ value) imported by India from countries which are at risk of using modern slavery in the production of these goods.
Table 1 Imports of products at risk of modern slavery to India
Product at risk of modern slavery
Import value
(in thousands of $US)
Source countries
Laptops, computers, and mobile phones
8,338,931
China, Malaysia
Sugarcane
456,472
Brazil
Gold
363,795
North Korea, Peru
Apparel and clothing accessories
360,045
Brazil, China, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam
Diamonds
97,062
Angola
Laptops, computers and mobile phones are India’s highest value category of imports at risk of modern slavery (US$8.3 billion). Secondly, India obtains over 99 percent of its overall sugarcane imports from Brazil where there is risk that modern slavery will have been used in its production. The value of this import totals nearly US$457 million. India imports gold produced in Peru and North Korea, both of which are suspected to use modern slavery in their gold mining industries. For example, a report from 2014 documents cases of forced labour among inmates of North Korean prison camps, who were forced to work in gold mines.
Apparel imported from countries at risk of modern slavery amount to US$360 million. Lastly, India imports US$97.1 million worth of diamonds from Angola. Diamond extraction in Angola has over the past decades been linked to torture, murder, and forced displacement, and reportedly relies on both child labour and forced labour. Research suggests that undocumented migrant children from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) enter Angola to work in diamond-mining districts and experience conditions of forced labour or commercial sexual exploitation in mining camps.
VULNERABILITY
India’s economic growth has enabled the country to achieve its Millennium Development Goal of halving poverty. However, ‘low-income states’ such as Jharkhand, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, and Madhya Pradesh continue to face poverty rates that are disproportionately higher than in other states, with 62 percent of India’s poorer populations residing in these states alone. . Search for better economic and employment opportunities acts as a powerful incentive for people to migrate from low to high income states
and internationally. New estimates of labour migration in India from the Ministry of Finance’s Economic Survey 2016-2017 indicate an annual average flow of close to nine million migrants internally between Indian states for the period 2011-2016.India also has a large influx of labour migrants from neighbouring countries such as Nepal and Bangladesh where open borders with India make it easy for individuals with these nationalities to migrate. A lack of official identity documents increases internal Indian migrant workers’ vulnerability and reduces their capacity to access basic social services. Lack of social networks, as well as cultural and linguistic differences also add to the vulnerability of Indian migrant workers from other states. Children of Indian seasonal migrant workers are a particularly vulnerable group as they face barriers accessing education due to the isolation of the work sites where their parents work. This results in them ending up working alongside their parents. In 2017, it was reported that 200 children who had migrated from Odisha were rescued from a brick kiln where they were living and working with adults.
More than 90 percent of India’s total workforce are engaged in the informal economy in agriculture, forestry, fishing, mining, manufacturing, construction, and service industries. Lack of formal employment opportunities leads individuals to seek employment in the informal sector where withholding of wages, debt bondage, and physical and sexual abuse at the workplace are common. Lower real wages, which are typical of the informal sector, further exacerbate vulnerabilities. With no records or contracts maintained, there is no accountability to hold employers responsible for any exploitation, making informal workers highly vulnerable to exploitative practices.Indian migrant workers, who move seasonally from rural villages to the cities in search of work opportunities, have limited access to support and redress in cases of exploitation due to the informal nature of their work.
The 2016 demonetization aimed at curbing accumulation of black money and funding of criminal and terrorist activity left many of the poorest exposed to increased uncertainty. The ‘demonetised’ (that is, ceasing to be legal tender) Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes made up 86 percent of the total currency circulation in 2016. Consequently, poorer populations, who rely on cash for their daily purchases of food, medicine, and transport, were most likely to be affected. NGO reports present mixed reviews on how demonetization affected vulnerability to slavery, however, some indicate workers in the informal sector, including brick kilns and sex work, were paid in void currency notes or not paid at all during demonetization, thus increasing their vulnerability to ongoing debt bondage and forced labour.
Discrimination against Scheduled Castes, Dalits, and Scheduled Tribes is still a characteristic of the modern and globalising Indian society, with reports that it is becoming more evident in urban areas. Social stigmatisation and economic marginalisation compounds the unequal power dynamics between marginalised groups, government, and dominant groups who usually own or manage worksites. This is reinforced by other factors, such as inadequate access to healthcare and social benefits, poor working and living conditions, and low literacy, all of which increase marginalised groups’ vulnerability and reduce their ability to escape exploitation.
Women, especially those from economically disadvantaged and marginalised communities, face an increased risk of exploitation. Perceptions of gender inequality, fuelled by practices such as dowry or bride burning, make women more vulnerable to exploitation and abuse, as well as trafficking. Certain recruitment practices even discriminate based on gender and take advantage of families desperate to get their daughters married. For instance, the Sumangalischemes appear to present good opportunities to save for dowry payments but often result in trapping women and girls in situations of debt bondage.
RESPONSE TO MODERN SLAVERY
India has criminalised most forms of modern slavery, including trafficking, slavery, forced labour, and child sexual exploitation, in its Penal Code. However, under section 366 of the Penal Code, forced marriage is only criminalised when kidnapping is present. There is currently no legislation criminalising the use of children in armed conflict.
There has been significant progress in drafting national legislation to encompass more aspects of modern slavery. A draft Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill was announced in May 2016. The bill calls for the creation of a special agency to investigate trafficking crimes, anti-trafficking committees at the district, state, and central levels, and the establishment of special courts to prosecute trafficking crimes. It also includes provisions for cross-border repatriation of victims from other neighbouring countries. The bill was approved by the Union Cabinet in late February 2018 and will reportedly be presented in the budget session of Parliament, which began in March 2018.
Prepared by the National Platform for Domestic workers, a draft Domestic Workers Regulation of Work and Social Security Bill 2016 has been submitted to the Indian government for consideration. This bill seeks to extend existing labour laws to cover domestic workers and ensure that they are entitled to the minimum wage and to access social security. The bill is still in parliament, awaiting to be passed at the time of writing. In 2016, the government adopted the new “Central Sector Scheme for Rehabilitation of Bonded Labourers”. This scheme recognises the needs of different groups trapped in bonded labour by providing cash compensation of approximately US$1,540 (IND. 1 lakh) for male bonded labourers, US$3,080 (IND. 2 lakh) for female and child bonded or forced labourers, and US$4,620 (IND. 3 lakh) for those physically challenged, trafficked, or commercially sexually exploited.
Importantly, compensation is now available for individuals still on trial and those who have a release certificate confirming evidence of bonded labour. While this represents an increase in compensation as compared to the compensation available under the Bonded Labour Act, there is often little link between compensation, and recovery and rehabilitation. Successful recovery generally requires much broader support services and assistance in accessing such services, both of which are largely provided by NGOs that are often dependent on foreign or private funding.
The Ujjawala and Swadharschemes initiated by the Ministry of Women and Child Development run shelter and rehabilitation services for rescued women as well as promoting awareness campaigns within local communities. The Ujjawala scheme is specifically for female victims of trafficking whereas the Swadharprogram provides support services for victims of domestic violence, homeless women, and women in distress, who are in need of shelter.
The government ratified two core ILO conventions in 2017, namely No. 138 on Minimum Age to Employment and No. 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour. With the passing of the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Act in 2016, India has set a general minimum working age of 14 years for children and a minimum age of 18 years for hazardous work. This excludes work carried out by the child for his or her family or after school hours and vacations. A National Plan for Action for Children was also established in 2016 to strengthen and monitor national, constitutional, and policy efforts in line with the 2013 National Policy for Children.
The government also supports initiatives such as Track Child and “Khoya-Paya” e-portal that help trace and rescue vulnerable children. Shelter homes for children are provided under the Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) and the Child Welfare Committees play an important role in making arrangements for protecting rescued children. Additionally, the Indian government revised the guidelines of the National Child Labour Project (NCLP) scheme in 2016 which aims to eliminate all forms of child labour, and launched the corresponding Platform for Effective Enforcement for No Child Labour (PENCIL), which aims to support effective legislative enforcement and implementation of the NCLP.
Despite the existence of legislation and schemes aiming to combat modern slavery, severe gaps between the government’s policy commitments and implementation have been noted. For instance, a 2016 research study of children trafficked for labour exploitation emphasises that there are a range of practical challenges to the rescue and reintegration of victims, such as failure to provide adequate reintegration services, a lack of human and financial resources, limited organisational accountability, and poorly structured partnerships between NGOs and government, among others.
Although the Ministry of External Affairs launched the eMigrate online recruitment system in 2015, ensuring that foreign employers and recruiters comply with regulations and requirements under the Emigration Act 1983 remains an issue. In 2017, the government announced the withdrawal of the requirement that 17 countries under the ‘Emigration Check Required’ category, most of which are in the Gulf, have to provide a refundable bank guarantee of US$2,500 to ensure repatriation and payment of any unpaid wages or medical expenses for Indian workers in cases of exploitation. The removal of this guarantee may increase the vulnerability of Indian workers abroad who are losing a crucial safety net.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau, police investigations and trials related to trafficking continue to increase. In 2016, police arrested a five-member gang on trafficking charges and in 2017, a court in Southern India successfully sentenced a brick kiln owner to ten years in prison and fine of INR16,000 (US$246.59) for trafficking and exploiting workers. However, various factors still deter victims from seeking justice, such as accessing the justice systems from rural or isolated areas and the costs and uncertainty associated with delayed proceedings.
A key challenge in implementing laws criminalising trafficking or bonded labour is also the lack of integrated law enforcement systems for investigation and prosecution across different states in India, leading to a lack of robust investigation of trafficking networks across states.
RESPONSE TO MODERN SLAVERY IN SUPPLY CHAINS
Public procurement
India does not have one central legislative framework governing public procurement. However, government ministries and departments are to comply with the requirements of various guidelines, manuals, and the procedures available for public procurement, none of which specifically refer to modern slavery. In June 2017, the Indian government issued the Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India) Order 2017 as part of the government’s policy to encourage manufacturing and production of goods and services in India. The policy is aimed at giving purchasing preference to local suppliers in public procurement processes. It has been noted that this policy could open the door to including human rights as a consideration in public procurement processes.
Business supply chains
India does not currently have any laws requiring business to report on the actions they are taking to respond to modern slavery risk in their supply chains. The 2013 Companies Act requires mid and large companies to spend two percent of their three-year annual average net profit on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities, including those that promote poverty reduction, education, health, environmental sustainability, gender equality, and vocational skills development.
The Act also demands that companies set up a CSR board committee that submits an annual report on all CSR activities undertaken. However, it does not specifically require companies to spend this allocated money on modern slavery initiatives. While a positive step forward, the effectiveness of the Act is disputed following claims that some companies who were previously spending more on CSR activities are now scaling back to the mandated two percent as the requirements of the act are seen more as legal compliance rather than a reputation building or branding exercise for companies.
India’s Ministry of Corporate Affairs released theNational Voluntary Guidelines on Social, Environmental and Economic Responsibilities for Business (NVGs) which calls on businesses to promote the wellbeing of all employees and prohibits businesses from engaging in “child labour, forced labour or any form of involuntary labour, paid or unpaid”. In 2016, 77 companies in the India Responsible Business Index (which analyses the policies, disclosures and mechanisms of top 100 companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange within the National Voluntary Guidelines framework) had a system to ensure the prohibition of forced labour and ensure the health and safety of all employees.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The government of India should:
STRENGTHEN LEGISLATION
Ratify and implement the ILO Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189).
Pass the Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill and provide adequate financial resources towards implementation. When passed, develop training materials for police, judges and prosecutors on how to investigate and prosecute cases.
Pass the National Domestic Workers Regulation of Work and Social Security Bill 2016 and provide adequate financial resources towards implementation. When passed, set up a taskforce to ensure the new domestic workers bill is implemented effectively, including training for officials and police on how to handle cases of exploitation of domestic workers.
IMPROVE VICTIM SUPPORT
Allocate adequate financial and human resources to local governments to set up units that assist internal migrant workers to access new identification documents, social security benefits, and housing assistance.
STRENGTHEN COORDINATION AND TRANSPARENCY
Implement a National Action Plan for all victims of modern slavery that recognises the different contexts of cross-border and localised forms of slavery.
Strengthen the role of the National Human Rights Committee (NHCR) as an independent government body to oversee and coordinate India’s response to all forms of modern slavery.
ADDRESS RISK FACTORS
Publicly encourage formal, regulated, and safe channels to assist labour migrants.
Set up awareness initiatives at local and national borders that provide migrants with contacts of local support organisations.
ERADICATE MODERN SLAVERY FROM THE ECONOMY
Encourage companies to fund local initiatives and NGOs which are combatting modern slavery and providing victim services, as part of the fulfilment of the CSR requirements under the 2013 Companies Act.
Conduct mandatory labour inspections in high-risk industries within the informal sector, such as brick kilns, textile, and granite/stone/mineral industries.
Mandate all industries and businesses to create credible grievance mechanisms that are accessible to vulnerable workers.
Pass legislation mandating large companies to annually report on steps taken to eliminate modern slavery in their supply chains.
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