Bonded Labour around the World - Coursework Example

Topic: Bonded Labour Student’s name Course name Institution’s name Lecturer’s name 3rd October 2011 Introduction Bonded labour or debt bondage is one of the common forms of slavery in the world today. It is defined as a form of labour where people become slaves of other people as a mean of repaying a loan (World Vision Australia, 2009). This means that bonded labourers work to repay loans to their masters and their hard-earned income is directed towards the repayment of the loan. Bonded labour has a long history even though it is the least known and talked about of all labour practices that exist in the world. It is one of the methods used to enslave people because the value of the work performed by the bonded labourers towards their masters is greater than the amount of the loans they have to repay and thus bonded labour makes the masters better off while it leaves the bonded labourers worse-off in economic terms. It is imperative to note that bonded labour is characterised by harsh working conditions where bonded labourers are physically assaulted or subjected to sexual and physical violence (World Vision Australia, 2009). Bonded labourers are also closely monitored in order to ensure that they work aggressively to repay their loans with minimal time for resting. Restriction of movement of bonded labourers is also undertaken to ensure that labourers remain in a confined place until they perform and finish the work they are assigned as a repayment of their loans. Restriction of movement can also be psychological where bonded labourers are meant to rely on their masters for every basic need which prevents them from moving away from their masters. Bonded labour is therefore one form of slavery but it has long been ignored and assumed to be a form of employment. The purpose of this paper is to explore the issue of bonded labour. Among the things that will be explored include history of bonded labour, modern practices of bonded labour, actors that necessitate bonded labour and consequences of bonded labour. History Bonded labour has been in existence for a long period of time. Bonded labour was so rampart in the case system in Southern Asia (Jody, 2008). Bonded labour was also used widely by the colonial governments during the colonial era where the colonisers provided loans to the village chiefs and in return people were forced to work hard to repay the loan. The end results were that the colonisers ended up benefiting more from the labour than the amount of loans they advanced to the village chiefs. Bonded labour was also widely applied as one of the recruitment methods of labourers for the plantations in South East Asia, Caribbean and Africa. The advent of bonded labour followed the abolishing of slave trade in many countries of the world. For example, after slave trade was abolished in the American colonies, many people who desired to move to other places bounded themselves to a rich plantation owner who paid for their movement to the desired destinations (Kara, 2009). However, this payment was supposed to be repaid through bonded labour where people worked for many years to repay the loan. Similarly, the peonage system in Peru that lasted until 1950s when land reforms were undertaken was also another form of bonded labour. The peonage system in Peru begun in 16th century where more than 1800 peons worked as bonded labourers in on estate and suffered from lack of freedom of movement or association. They also had a meagre pay which made them rely on their hard labour for survival. Modern practices of bonded labour Bonded labour has been termed by the United Nations as a modern form of slavery. In the contemporary world numerous cases of bonded labour are still witnessed in different parts of the world. This is particularly the case in countries such as Nepal, Pakistan, Peru, Bolivia, India, Paraguay and other parts of South Asia (Jody, 2008). Cases of bonded labour have also been reported extensively in the Middle East particularly in countries such as Saudi Arabia where numerous labourers from other parts of the world are tricked into employment but they end up working as bonded labourers for their masters. In the developed countries, bonded labour has also been witnessed where the victims of trafficking are forced to work in plantations and industries in order to repay the money they borrowed for their transport from their countries. For instance, many people in the least developed countries aspire to migrate to the developed countries seeking for employment opportunities. They become vulnerable to human traffickers who pay for their transport to the desired destinations. In order to repay these loans they are forced to work through hard conditions for many years without a pay or with a minimal pay and through restricted movements. Statistics indicate that in India, there are more than 3 million bonded labourers. In Pakistan, it is estimated that over 1 million people work as bonded labourers in brick kilns and over 1.8 million people also work as bonded labourers in form of share croppers in the same country (Kara, 2009). Over 10,000 indigenous people in Paraguay work as bonded labourer. This is attributed to the fact that the indigenous people make only 10% of the entire population of the country. In the Chaco region of Bolivia it is estimated that more than 8000 Guarani work as bonded labourers. Additionally, more than 30,000 people are also estimated to work as bonded labourers in the logging industry in Peru. More than 75% of the people in bonded labour in Peru come from the indigenous communities. The photo below shows people in bonded labour. (Thomas, 2000) India is regarded as one of the countries in the world where enormous child exploitation in form of bonded labour is practised. Children are sold by parents as commodities in exchange for a loan which the parents must pay within a given period of time. Children work in farms and other local industries and the earnings from their hard labour goes towards repaying the loan advanced to their parents. The labour provided by the child is thus treated as the collateral or security for the amount of money advanced to the parents. The loans advanced to the parents attract exorbitant rates of interests which mean that children end up working in the farms and local industries providing free labour throughout their life time due to the accumulation of interests which surpass the amount advanced to the parents (Thomas 2000). Although, bonded labour is rampart in many parts of rural India, the Tamil Nadu Vellore district is one of the most populous places where bonded labour involving children has been practised for quite a long period of time. As mentioned in earlier section above, Middle East has also emerged as one of the populous regions of the world where bonded labour is also practised. Countries such as Saudi Arabia, Dubai and United Arab Emirates, Qatar are regarded by many unemployed youths from other parts of the world as rich destinations with numerous job opportunities. Following this kind of assumptions and perceptions held by the unemployed youths, rich industrial owners take advantage and set up employment bureaus in other parts of the world in the pretext that they are capable of providing employment opportunities. Those seeking for employment opportunities in the Middle Eastern countries are provided with transport documents which are fully paid for and their parents are also a certain amount of money as an advance payment for the services that will be provided by their children once they start working (Allain, 2007). However, young people from other parts of the world end up in bonded labour once they reach these countries because they are forced to work in order to repay the amount used by their masters for their transport and travel documentation as well as the amount advanced to their parents. As a result, many young people from African, Asian and Caribbean countries are exposed to hard physical labour and sexual violence. The female labourers are also forced to work as prostitutes and the amount earned from the prostitution business goes to the masters. On arrival in the Middle Eastern countries, the young people are denied their permits and other travel documents struck which limit their movements. From the foregoing, it is evident that bonded labour is a common practice in many parts of the world today. This practice is both common in both least and the most developed countries of the world. It has also been established that bonded labour is most common in Asia and the Middle East particularly in countries such as India and Saudi Arabia (Allain, 2007). It is also a common practice where indigenous communities such as the Aborigines of Australia are taken advantage of by the rich segments of the population where loans are advanced to the families and in return the families are required to provide their labour services in order to repay the loans. Certain conditions precipitate the occurrence or the existence of bonded labour in different parts of the world as discussed below. Conditions that result to bonded labour One of the conditions or factors that result to bonded labour is poverty. Lack of means for meeting basic needs such as food, clothing and shelter drive people into seeking for alternative means of survival such as requesting for loans from the rich farmers, industrialists and traders in exchange of labour services. Once hired, the poor people become the property of the rich until they finish repaying the loans advanced to them (Allain, 2007). This takes many years because the loans attract hefty rates of interests and in some cases it is only death that separates the bonded labourers from their masters. Hence, the rich people take advantage of the desperate states of the poor people to transform them into bonded labourers. The second factor that results to bonded labour is high rates of unemployment among the youths. Unemployment is defined as the state where qualified, skilful and knowledgeable people actively seek for job opportunities which they do not get. This has been regarded as the single most factors that have driven many unemployed youths to migrate to other parts of the world (Allain, 2007). Unfortunately, the rich people take advantage of the unemployment state of many young people and promise to offer good jobs in various parts of the world. As a result, many people fall into the hands of masters ho transform them into bonded labourers as is the case in the Middle East and Asia. Other factors that have been indirectly associated with bonded labour include social exclusion, discrimination and the low pace with which labour legislations meant to deal with the bonded labour problem have been implemented in various parts of the world. Bonded labourers are subjected to different kinds of jobs such as domestic work, work on ranches, logging industry, sexual exploitation, forced labour in agricultural farms and plantations as well as textile and good processing industries. Consequences of bonded labour One of the most evident consequences of bonded labour is that people in labour lose their sense of dignity because they are subjected to poor working conditions and they are denied any freedom of movement. They are also prevented from seeking for other employment opportunities until they finish repaying their loans or debts. The second consequence of bonded labour is that it separates the family members because those in bonded labour are denied the freedom to travel back to their families. This may take more than 20 years before a bonded labourer completes repaying his/her debt and is allowed to visit the family (Munro, 2001). In conclusion, it is evident that bonded labour is still a common practice in many regions of the world. The discussion above reveals the fact that bonded labour is another form of slavery which seeks to make some segments of the populations better off while leaving others worse off. Both domestic and international laws such as the United Nations Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery should be upheld and formulated in order to deal with the problem of bonded labour in the contemporary world. It is evident that bonded labour is contributed largely by the increased rates of poverty, unemployment, sexual exploitation and discrimination. Towards this end, governments should strive to ensure that eliminate and fight poverty and unemployment in their countries in order to reduce the vulnerability of their citizens to bonded labour. In countries where bonded labour among the children is rampart such as India, stringent measures should be undertaken to ensure that such vices are stamped out completely from the society. References Allain, J. 2007, The definition of slavery in general international law and the crime of enslavement within the Rome Statute. Guest lecture series of the Office of the Prosecutor, International Criminal Court. The Hague. Jody, B. 2008, Bonded Labour? Pacific Guest Worker Scheme. Available from http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/40144 Kara, S. 2009, Sex Trafficking - Inside the Business of Modern Slavery. Columbia University Press. Munro V. 2001, A tale of two servitudes: defining and implementing a domestic response to trafficking of women for prostitution in the UK and Australia. Social and legal studies 14(1): 91-114 Thomas, C. 2000. Anti-Slavery: Today’s fight for tomorrow’s freedom. http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:Kormg2nMWjYJ:www.antislavery.org/includes/documents/cm_docs/2009/b/1_bonded_labour.pdf+bonded+labour&hl=sw&gl=ke&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESjXWj2PpLSUsC0r4Ep8On58bBEpY_de2tXjp7FRaiwNFq37zk-bCmRXnu7TMvtQJ4daSWTwVBxNLgWrcOrgi-V21mVlsHZvhv-PwFfHnsrVMzVloW_56Zw4axxFVcE03epwn3wh&sig=AHIEtbTharvcv6TgWfhWpHL1loeNbIztfw&pli=1 World Vision Australia. 2009), Roghini: A story of bonded labour http://www.worldvision.com.au/issues/human_trafficking___slavery/Why_is_it_happening_/Roghini__a_story_of_bonded_labour.aspx Read More