Debt bondage | Be a Seed for Change

Your support was instrumental in building pressure for the Indian government to pass the Child and Adolescent Labour Abolition Bill in August. But despite 1,010,918 signatures (including yours), the Indian Parliament chose to delay the ban on child labour.

The Parliament resumes on 5 December, and we need greater public support this time to ensure that our voice is not ignored. Can you help by forwarding the message below to your friends and family asking them to call on the Indian government and ensure that it passes the bill immediately?

Thank you in advance for your help.

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“On the day that Durga Mala was rescued, she lay crying on the stone floor, where she was attempting to cool her back. She was 11 years old and her skin was covered with blisters, from her shoulder blades to her buttocks. A few days earlier, her owners had poured hot oil over her because they thought she was working too slowly.”¹

The Indian Parliament must believe we’re not concerned about Durga or millions of children like her in India. Why? Because time and again, the Parliament has delayed a vote on the Child and Adolescent Labour Abolition Bill, which would ban employment of children up to 14 years of age. But we are watching.

The Indian Parliament resumes on 5 December. Every day the bill is delayed, several children remain at risk of being bought and sold to work in unimaginable conditions of sex slavery, bonded labour and domestic servitude. Unless we speak up.

We need to build massive public pressure for the Indian government to pass this historic legislation that will help end child slavery in India.

Call on the Indian Parliament to immediately pass the Child and Adolescent Labour Abolition Bill and help end child slavery in India.

In just days, the Indian Parliament will resume. This is our last chance to put the bill to vote before general elections next year.

The Child and Adolescent Labour Abolition Bill will:
1. Prohibit employment of children up to 14 years of age; 2. Outline harsher sentences for violators of child labour laws; and 3. Provide for monitoring of suspected instances of child slavery.

While stories like Durga’s are making headlines, there are many more that remain hidden, trapped in the nightmare of modern slavery — with no choice, no pay and with no realistic chance of escaping. At an age when children should be in school, they are being subjected to situations that make them vulnerable to serious physical and psychological harm.

But all this could end. The ban on child labour will help end enslavement of children in India. But the delay to vote on this bill is delaying freedom for children from modern slavery. Even scarring them for life.

Tell the Indian government to help end child slavery and pass the Child and Adolescent Labour Abolition Bill now.

Thank you in advance for your support. Once you have taken action, please forward this message on to everyone you know and help bring us one step closer to eliminating modern slavery.

In solidarity,

Debra, Mich, Jess, Kamini, Mika, Sarah, Kate, Olly, Joanna, Jayde and the Walk Free Team

P.S. On Twitter? Follow us

¹ http://abcnews.go.com/International/daughters-sale-indias-child-slavery-scourge/story?id=20540368&singlePage=true

Walk Free is a movement of people everywhere, fighting to end one of the world’s greatest evils: Modern slavery.

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The featured photo is from an article or event by the NMAAHC.

The Faces of My People
Margaret Burroughs (b. 1917)
Woodcut on paper

it’s just another rant …

About six days ago, an article popped up about slavery and while the topic is definitely, a sensitive one I do like to read what has happened because of the word itself has a history of pain misery and sadness. I have been hearing a lot about human trafficking, which is what I expected until I read the entire headline and went from interested to pretty pissed off in a matter of seconds. I don’t know about you but we don’t use the word slavery or slaves lightly where I come from.

According to wiki, yes wiki. I use them because i need the writer to read the formal use of the word in all its ugliness… Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property and are forced to work.^[1] Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase, or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation. Conditions that can be considered slavery include debt bondage, indentured servitude, serfdom, domestic servants kept in captivity, adoption in which children are effectively forced to work as slaves, child soldiers, and forced marriage.^[2]

Slavery predates written records, has existed in many cultures.^[3] The number of slaves today is higher than at any point in history,^[4] remaining as high as 12 million^[5] to 27 million,^[6][7][8] though this is probably the smallest proportion of the world’s population in history.^[9] Most are debt slaves, largely in South Asia, who are under debt bondage incurred by lenders, sometimes even for generations.^[10] Human trafficking is primarily for prostituting women and children into sex industries.^[11]

I responded to “the article” because many of us have ancestors who have experienced the institution of slavery in its formal definition and while the headline probably grabbed the attention of many I say shame on you for using the word so loosely so disrespectfully or remorse. There is absolutely no acceptable way of using the word “slave” when defining inmates of a prison. I will repeat wiki but it will be in my words because words matter and not only do they matter they have impact especially when the word is very specific to a person or group of people. The use of the word “slave” has a long awful history behind it and if i have tell you what it meant back in 1800’s then you need to do more research or stop writing about or using the word to gain more readers. I ask the writer, were these prisoners” “slaves” as you call them taken from their countries, homes, raped, branded just because, compromised or that families were split because the owner ordered a human being “slave” to be sold. I just do not believe or accept your article calling or using prisoners to do stoop work free can be considered slaves. I cannot begin to tell the writer just how disappointing it is to read such a nonchalant use of the word let alone the definition of the word which was taken way out context or a gimmick to gain readers not to mention a lack of true journalism forget about professionalism. I have to ask the writer, maybe ask the people who are nice enough to read this blog how anyone could in with good conscious acquaint slave labour to that of labour from prisoners. So, by all accounts prisoners are called prisoners because they commit a crime of some sort then tried and convicted for said crime and taken to jail or “prison” because they were bad to someone or something. I guess you might dispute this but the fact is people of colour were victims of slavery in the 1800’s and what ensued after being imprisoned was through no fault of people considered chattel or 3/5 of a person. That is undeniable fact not fiction and the way in which the writer used the term “slavery” is disrespectful to the people who lived it. Today, we have a more modern equivalent r of “slavery” … human trafficking.

The info below is from wiki is about the new modern lives of slavery …

There are more slaves today than at any point in history,^[4] remaining as high as 12 million^[5] to 27 million,^[6][7][8] even though slavery is now outlawed in all countries.^[7][133] Several estimates of the number of slaves in the world have been provided. According to a broad definition of slavery used by Kevin Bales of Free the Slaves (FTS), an advocacy group linked with Anti-Slavery International, there were 27 million people in slavery in 1999, spread all over the world.^[134] In 2005, the International Labour Organization provided an estimate of 12.3 million forced labourers in the world,.^[135] Thanks to the ILO Special Action Programme to Combat Forced Labour (SAP-FL), the work of the ILO has been spearheaded in this field since early 2002. The Programme has successfully raised global awareness and understanding of modern forced labour; assisted governments to develop and implement new laws, policies and action plans; developed and disseminated guidance and training materials on key aspects of forced labour and human trafficking; implemented innovative programmes which combine policy development, capacity building of law enforcement and labour market institutions, and targeted, field-based projects of direct support for both prevention of forced labour and identification and rehabilitation of its victims. Siddharth Kara has also provided an estimate of 28.4 million slaves at the end of 2006 divided into the following three categories: bonded labour/debt bondage (18.1 million), forced labour (7.6 million), and trafficked slaves (2.7 million).^[136] Kara provides a dynamic model to calculate the number of slaves in the world each year, with an estimated 29.2 million at the end of 2009.

Words Matter … I cannot stress how important it is to do research before using red button topics, words, phrases, or photos and suffice it to say the use of slavery for this story is just wrong.

Slavery is a crime but it is one against humanity …shame on you

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