BONDED LABOUR

Slavery was abolished in the mid-19^th century all over the world, but now it has gotten a new name, modern slavery. One sort is bonded labo(u)r which is most widespread in South Asian countries such as India and Pakistan, but it can even appear in Britain. Any country can encounter this serious threat any time whether one is the west or not. It flourishes year by year due to the world’s poverty and discrimination in society. Especially limited access to education, justice and jobs for discriminated groups makes it difficult to get out of poverty. The need for cash for their survival forces people to work more in exchange for a loan.

Laws against bonded labor are not implemented properly, specifically in the poor countries. Indeed, there are several significant gaps in the protection of domestic workers. For instance, when people who are in debt want to leave the system, landlords or employers use /resort to  some coercion, violence or intimidation. Domestic workers are not safe  from this mistreatment.  In addition, it is also necessary to make a new rule  in order to  eradicate the new modern slavery. Since a person is forced to work to pay off a debt and a man who is the owner of the company deceives the person to work for little or no pay, with no control over their debt. New laws should enable them not to be  dependent on the owner and instead of  the government. Also, a controllable repayment system is necessary  for such people. By doing this, several problems would be solved easily.

Women and children are most vulnerable parts of the society. If the government encouraged children to enroll, regularly attend and remain at  school, they would learn about their social rights and achieve their own economic stability earlier. Thus, they could even work on their own to repay their debt and so wouldn’t have to be under the control of another person. Education is most important, if the government convinced women to know and use their legal employment rights, that would help break the cycle of bonded labor.

All in all, people are still facing this sort of slavery, bonded labor. To eradicate this problem, the government should undertake responsibility for  ruling and implementing new labo(u)r laws. In addition, people who suffer from this problem should learn about labo(u)r rights and educate themselves well to protect themselves from being controlled by anyone.

                                                                                  Raziye Yağız