Slavery: South Asia
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India, world's slave capital
Global Slavery Index: 2014
Home To 37% Of Global Enslaved Population
With over 14.2 million in India being involved in forced labour and being victims of trafficking -for sexual exploitation and forced marriage, the country is home to the largest number of people trapped in modern slavery . Globally , 35.8 million people are enslaved across the world. Of them, 23.5 million people are in Asia, two-thirds of global total in 2014 (65.8%).
The Global Slavery Index 2014 announced that India and Pakistan alone account for over 45% of total global enslaved population and have highest prevalence of modern slavery in Asia.
The Index said “Particularly in countries such as India and Pakistan, nationals -often including entire families -are enslaved through bonded labour in construction, agriculture, brick making, garment factories and manufacturing“. The report this year found 23% more people across the world are involved in modern slavery than previous estimated.
Modern slavery exists in all 167 countries with five countries accounting for 61% of the world's population living in modern slavery.
The 2014 Global Slavery Index has been published by the Walk Free Foundation, a global human rights organization with a mission to end modern slavery in a generation.
The report looks at prevalence (the percentage of a country's population that is enslaved) as well as the total number of people living in modern slavery in each country. It estimates that over 23.5 million people in Asia are living in modern slavery . This is equivalent to almost twothirds of the global total number of people enslaved. Of these, over 14.2 million are in India and over 2.05 million are in Pakistan, which demonstrate the highest prevalence of modern slavery in Asia (1.141% and 1.13% of their populations respectively).
“Some countries with the biggest challenges are also taking important steps to tackle the problem. India for example has strengthened its criminal justice framework through legislative amendments and has established 215 Anti-Human Trafficking Police Units.Much more needs to be done,“ said the global report.
Global Slavery Index, 2016
The Hindu, May 31, 2016
India has the dubious distinction of having the highest number of people in the world trapped in modern slavery with 18.35 million victims of forced labour, ranging from prostitution and begging, according to a new report, which estimated that nearly 46 million people are enslaved globally.
According to the 2016 Global Slavery Index, released by Australia-based human rights group Walk Free Foundation, an estimated 45.8 million people, including women and children, are subject to some form of modern slavery in the world, compared to 35.8 million in 2014.
The report said India has the highest absolute numbers of people trapped in slavery with 18.35 million slaves among its 1.3 billion population, while North Korea has the highest incidence (4.37 per cent of the population) and the weakest government response to deal with it.
Five countries account for 58% of the world’s enslaved
Incidences of slavery were found in all 167 countries in the index, with Asian countries occupying the top five places.
China (3.39 million), Pakistan (2.13 million), Bangladesh (1.53 million) and Uzbekistan (1.23 million) were behind India in the list. The index said that these five countries combined accounted for almost 58 per cent of the world’s enslaved, or 26.6 million people.
Modern slavery refers to situations of exploitation that a person cannot leave because of threats, violence, coercion and abuse of power or deception.
The research included over 42,000 interviews conducted in 53 languages across 25 countries, including 15 State-level surveys in India. These representative surveys covered 44 per cent of the global population.
Govt. actions and responses
The study also tracked the government actions and responses to the modern slavery and of the 161 assessed, 124 nations had criminalised human trafficking in line with the U.N. trafficking Protocol and 96 nations had developed national action plans to coordinate government response.
It noted that while India had more people enslaved than any other country, it had made significant progress in introducing measures to tackle the problem.
“It has criminalised trafficking, slavery, forced labour, child prostitution and forced marriage. The Indian government is currently tightening legislation against human trafficking, with tougher punishment for repeat offenders. It will offer victims protection and recovery support,” it said.
Those governments taking the least action to combat modern slavery are North Korea, Iran, Eritrea, Equatorial Guinea, Hong Kong, Central African Republic, Papua New Guinea, Guinea, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan.
