Definition and Overview of Debt Bondage
– Debt bondage is the pledge of a person’s services as security for a debt or obligation.
– The terms of repayment are often unclear or excessive, giving the debt holder control over the laborer.
– The services required to repay the debt may be undefined, allowing indefinite demands.
– Debt bondage can be passed on from generation to generation.
– It is estimated that 8.1 million people are currently bonded to labor illegally.
– Debt bondage is distinct from forced labor and human trafficking.
– It occurs when individuals consciously pledge to work as a means of repaying debt.
– Those in debt bondage have no hope of leaving due to their inability to repay the debt.
– Lack of prosecution and insufficient punishment contribute to the prevalence of debt bondage.
Historical Context of Debt Bondage
– Pawnship, the transfer of rights for debt settlement, was common in East and West Africa during the 17th century.
– Slavery was rampant internally in Africa, alongside the export of slaves to the Americas.
– Development of plantations in East Africa led to the need for internal slaves.
– Gender implications existed in the pawnship system, with more women being pawned and sexually exploited.
– After the abolition of slavery, freed slaves often entered slavery-like contracts with their former masters.
– Indentured servitude was practiced in the American colonies, where individuals worked to repay their passage to the New World.
– Debt peonage, an illegal form of slavery, persisted in the Deep South until the 1950s.
– In Peru, a peonage system existed from the 16th century until land reform in the 1950s.
– Severe personal debt was widespread in the ancient Near East, leading to debt bondage.
– In the 19th century, people in Asia entered debt bondage due to various reasons, including natural disasters and scarcity of food.
Forms of Debt Bondage in Different Regions
– Siddharth Kara estimated 18 to 20.5 million bonded laborers in the world in 2011.
– Bonded laborers work in industries such as frozen shrimp, bricks, tea, coffee, diamonds, marble, and apparel.
– South Asia has the highest percentage of bonded laborers (84-88%).
– Human Rights Watch estimated 40 million workers in debt bondage in India alone in 1999.
– Brick kilns in South Asia employ thousands of workers, with high revenue and extreme poverty among workers.
– 6.25 million people estimated to be enslaved in Western and Southern Africa.
– Ghana has an estimated 85% of enslaved people tied to labor.
– Mauritania has the highest proportion of slavery with 20% of its population enslaved.
– Human rights violations found in fisheries on the coasts of South and West Africa.
– Labor exploitation is common in the fisheries industry.
– Black women in South Africa and Nigeria turned to domestic work after slavery was abolished.
– Between 800,000 and 1.1 million domestic workers in South Africa.
– Compulsory indebtedness common for girls in forced prostitution.
Consequences of Debt Bondage
– $51.2 billion made annually in the exploitation of workers through debt bondage.
– Buyers of products and services contribute to the profitability of debt bondage.
– Global supply chains likely tainted with slave labor.
– Entire families are often involved in paying off the debt of one individual.
– Worst Forms of Child Labor label given to the cycle of debt bondage.
Policy Initiatives and Solutions
– Debt bondage described as a form of modern-day slavery by the United Nations.
– Prohibited by international law, specifically dealt with by the United Nations 1956 Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery.
– Lack of credit security and formal land ownership barriers to development.
– South Asian countries have legislation prohibiting debt bondage.
– Despite laws, debt bondage is still widespread in South Asia.
– International labor laws need to be created and enforced.
– Lack of access to education keeps families in poverty. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt_bondage
Debt bondage, also known as debt slavery, bonded labour, or peonage, is the pledge of a person's services as security for the repayment for a debt or other obligation. Where the terms of the repayment are not clearly or reasonably stated, or where the debt is excessively large the person who holds the debt has thus some control over the laborer, whose freedom depends on the undefined or excessive debt repayment. The services required to repay the debt may be undefined, and the services' duration may be undefined, thus allowing the person supposedly owed the debt to demand services indefinitely. Debt bondage can be passed on from generation to generation.
Currently, debt bondage is the most common method of enslavement with an estimated 8.1 million people bonded to labour illegally as cited by the International Labour Organization in 2005. Debt bondage has been described by the United Nations as a form of "modern day slavery" and the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery seeks to abolish the practice.
The practice is still prevalent primarily in South Asia and parts of Western and Southern Africa, although most countries in these regions are parties to the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery. It is estimated that 84 to 88% of the bonded labourers in the world are in South Asia. Lack of prosecution or insufficient punishment of this crime are the leading causes of the practice as it exists at this scale today.
