By Noor UL Shahbaz
In economics, the term de facto slavery describes the conditions of un-free labor and forced labor that most slaves endure. Forced labor, or un-free labor, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, violence including death, or other forms of extreme hardship to either themselves or members of their families. Many forms of un-free labor are also covered by the term forced labor, which is defined by the International Labor Organization (ILO) as all involuntary work or service exacted under the menace of a penalty. In 2019, approximately 40 million people, of whom 26 percent were children, were enslaved throughout the world despite it being illegal. In the modern world, more than 50 percent of enslaved people provide forced labor, usually in the factories and sweatshops of the private sector of a country’s economy. In industrialized countries, human trafficking is a modern variety of slavery; in non-industrialized countries, enslavement by debt bondage is a common form of enslaving a person, such as captive domestic servants, forced marriage, and child soldiers. Indenture, otherwise known as bonded labor or debt bondage, is a form of un-free labor under which a person pledges himself or herself against a loan. The services required to repay the debt, and their duration, may be undefined.
Debt bondage can be passed on from generation to generation, with children required to pay off their progenitor’s debt. It is the most widespread form of slavery today. The banks as the semi-organs of the state provide widespread loans to people either employed in government service or businessmen or to farmer’s or to common men and their repayment becomes an issue. In lieu of that the properties are mortgaged as a security and on default those properties are sold out by the banks. The government employees on one side work for the government and on other side their salary is adjusted against the loan they have taken from the semi-organ of their employer. The business class is also sailing on the same boat, they take loans for business establishment and the purpose of their business is to gain profit from the customer’s but when the whole population is suffering from financial crisis it’s direct impact is on the business class. Most among this class close their establishments because of the fault to repay the loan with interest. Then comes the agricultural, and those who are attached with horticulture industry, they also are indebted by these banks. Loan for agricultural class, horticulture class is sanctioned and at the same time the fruit industry is hit by the worst crisis. Chemical manure, sprays, packaging, branch cutting and other related services are so much costly that they did not at times get reimbursed by the market price of the fruits and repayment of loan by the same agriculturist, horticulturist remains and dream and then protests, campaigns, seminars for waiver of that loan are conducted. Then we will talk about the education loans taken by the poor class and at certain times by the middle, upper class as well so to help their children to avail different courses, degrees with a sole dream to get a job with handsome salary as soon as the degree is completed. We all know how much alarming the un-employment rate is and increasing day by day, hence failure of the government to protect the interests of their citizens and the irony for the debtors is their failure to repay the loan to the same semi-organ of the government.
Then comes the home loans, if you suffer from all other basic requirements/needs of life but the dream house is a must and for that loan from semi-organ of government is necessary and hence default in its repayment because of financial crisis. Meaning thereby modern slavery is the severe exploitation of other people for personal or commercial gain. Modern slavery is all around us, but often just out of sight. People can become entrapped making our clothes, serving our food, picking our crops, working in factories, or working in houses as cooks, cleaners or nannies. Human trafficking, forced labor, debt bondage/bonded labor, forced and early marriage etc are many forms of slavery and known to all but we all knowingly give a deaf ear to the more modern forms of slavery towards which I quoted a statement above. To add on I consider working against one’s own will any kind of work that I deem to be not fit for me is also a kind of modern slavery. I enter into the institution, system not out of my free will but to gain monetary benefit out of that work is the sole motive, is that the true consciousness or we get trapped to be the slave of the institution, system for our whole life. It is not possible that what one desires and he will get that but to submit our will or to surrender our liberty in lieu of money is worse than the well known forms of slavery. We imprecate ourselves for what we do only because that we mortgage our structure, our mind, our intellect only for certain gains. What we desire or the parent’s desire for their children is not at all times achievable and we see that hopes die on way while moving towards the journey of success, and that is the time or moment when we leave the track and choose another way that leads to slavery. Submission of our own sovereign will before any other so called sovereign authority, to take dictations altogether against our consciousness, to do what we are not supposed to do, to omit our prime duty while following the orders and under the behest of so called sovereign is the worst and extreme kind of slavery.
Noor UL Shahbaz, M.A, LL.M (GOLD MEDALIST) Presently Guest Lecturer and former Acting Principal at Sopore Law College, can be reached at im1415151819@gmail.com.