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Bonded labor in India

http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/08/generations-pay-off-debts-through-slavery/?hpt=C1


Generations pay off debt through bonded labor

Cause: Older generations borrowed money and could not repay.
Some people are being bound to bonded labor because the generations before them borrowed money that they could not pay back, now the younger generations must work for free to pay off the debts.

Cause: The economy in India is bad so there are few jobs.
Some families are desperate to find work, they are being told that there is work in other villages but in order for them to get there they must borrow money. Once they borrow money and get to the village they are in debt and so are their children and must work as bonded laborers

Cause: High illiteracy.
People that are working as bonded laborers do not know how much they are paying back each day they work. They do not have balance sheets or any other form of showing them how long it will take them to pay back the debt and if they did they do not know how to read them so they can’t tell how much they still owe, how much longer they will have to work, or even how much they borrowed.

Cause: Lax enforcement.
Bonded labor has been illegal in India for over 30 years yet law enforcement does nothing about it and allows it to continue.

Thesis: Slavery or bonded labor is often thought of as being an issue of the past but many people do not realize that bonded labor is still going on in countries around the world today.