More than 18 million people, or 1.4% of India's population, live in slavery
India has more people living in modern slavery than the population of the Netherlands, a new report estimates.
Of the 167 countries surveyed, the South Asian country has the highest number of people living in slavery–more than 18 million people, or 1.4% of the population.
The 2016 Global Slavery Index from the Walk Free Foundation said modern slavery comes in many forms, from domestic to sexual to bonded and child labor. The term refers to a situation in which a person has taken away another’s freedom so they can be exploited.
Globally, 45.8 million people are enslaved, the report estimated. The countries with the highest prevalence as a proportion of the population were North Korea, Uzbekistan, Cambodia, India, and Qatar. But India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Uzbekistan had the highest absolute numbers.
“All forms of modern slavery continue to exist in India, including intergenerational bonded labor, forced child labor, commercial sexual exploitation, forced begging, forced recruitment into non-state armed groups and forced marriage,” the report said.
It is hard to know exactly how many people are subject to slavery, the authors of the report admitted. In India, Gallup conducted the surveys in 15 states that were used as the basis for the estimate.
Among the sectors known known to use slave labor in India were the construction, sex, agriculture, fishing and manufacturing industries as well as domestic help and begging, the report said.
Indian law doesn’t differentiate between human trafficking and sex work, so it is difficult to know how many people are stuck in sexual slavery, the report said.
The survey also counted people who had been forced into marriage and children who were forced into armed opposition groups. The country’s brick making business is one of the worst offenders the report said.
“The country’s steady population growth and the corresponding demand for improvement of infrastructure and increased dwellings have enabled the »blood bricks’ produced in these industries to continue,” it said.
Pakistan had the third-largest number of people in modern slavery, more than 2 million.
Bonded labor is one of the most prevalent forms of modern slavery there, according to rights groups. Though prohibited under law, the practice hasn’t been eliminated, and persists especially in the brick-making industry and agriculture.
