Bonded Labour

Bonded Labour Essay

Bonded Labour, also known as Debt bondage or forced labor is the most common form of modern slavery. It was constructed to exploit people for labor, the cycle begins with a debt that is either acquired or inherited. The victim must then repay with their labor or services to avoid punishment which can either be physical or more subtle such as accumulated debt, retention of identity papers or threats of denunciation to immigration. In many cases, there is no hope of ever actually repaying the debt. The employer will continue to add on additional expenses that the victim is required to pay. For example, a laborer may have a debt of $500 but while working and being unable to leave the worker needs food, water, and shelter.

These workers are made more vulnerable to forced labor practices because of political conflict, poverty, crime, discrimination, unemployment, corruption, and cultural acceptance of forced labor. Immigrants are particularly vulnerable as they can be threatened by their employer with deportation or reported to immigration officers, however, individuals are also often forced into labor in their own countries. Everyone needs food, money, shelter, and water and if no one is willing to supply these things or you do not have them, you will die. This is where the ‘invisible hand’ of bonded labor is used. Large amounts of poverty-stricken populations have another choice but to give in to the coercion or exploitation in order to survive. The people most vulnerable are the people most affected by it, Women, low-skilled migrant workers, children, indigenous peoples and other groups suffering discrimination on different grounds are disproportionately affected. Overall the main causes of forced or bonded labor are lack of education, poverty, large families with not enough money as well as the political, social and economic standpoint of the country it is occurring in. Uneducated people can be easily manipulated into believing that the work they are doing is fair and not a hidden form of slavery. Poverty leads to desperation and creates people willing to do anything for even a very small amount of money. This is even more evident in very large families with a lot of children that are too young to work, this paired with poverty creates easy victims for bonded