What are the causes of bonded labor?

Answer 1

Poverty, discrimination, social exclusion and insufficient implementation of legislation are the root causes of bonded labour across the world. In South Asia, a Caste System excludes particular groups from accessing education, health care and land, on the basis of their assigned status at birth leaves this group vulnerable to exploitation and families trapped in a cycle of poverty. Desperate poverty in India means that 81 per cent of those trapped in bonded labour took out a loan from a landlord as they did not have enough money to meet their basic needs, with over 70 percent of people bonded for an initial loan equivalent or less than $16 (USD). A manipulative form of bonded labour affects 33,000 people in the Peruvian Amazon who are forced to work in the logging industry. Timber companies use middlemen to approach indigenous communities and offer them advances in the form of money, basic goods or public services such as building schools or playing fields. In return the community is contracted to provide an amount of timber of a specified quality. Middlemen overcharge for goods they provide whilst undervaluing the timber provided or rejecting it for being of inferior quality. Final payment on delivered timber is repeatedly postponed thereby increasing the debt. The contracts that the communities sign states that they are not allowed to sell timber to anyone else or work for anyone else which traps them further into debt bondage.

By

Hussain Mansoor

GM Dhartee Development Society Sindh

Answer 2

Bonded labor can be caused by poverty, lack of education and job opportunities, debt bondage, caste or social discrimination, and ineffective enforcement of labor laws. Workers may become trapped in bonded labor when they are forced to work to pay off debts that are continuously increased through unjust practices.