Since the abolition of legal slavery in the nineteenth century, the emergence of over 300 international treaties could not stop the institution of slavery in the world. Contemporary slavery is a global challenge and requires the attention of the world nations to eradicate the barbaric phenomenon. Slavery is illegal virtually in every country of the world; however, the statistics show that there are perhaps 27 million slaves alive today. Around 15-20 million of these slaves belong to the countries of India, Pakistan and Nepal, others distributed in Southeast Asia, Northern and Western Africa, parts of South America and North America including the United States . The key characteristics of slavery are violence, loss of free will and economic exploitation. Every slave suffers loss of independence, personal degradation, maltreatment, sexual abuse and exploitation of all forms.
Behind the individual pain of the slaves lie their anguished families and communities torn apart by abduction and the agonizing loss of the loved ones. Sudan, similar to other African countries has traces of traditional slavery. Inter-tribal conflicts for land and livestock are the common causes that lead to the abduction of women and children as slaves. The objectives of slavery in Sudan are forced conversion of the non-Muslims into Muslims, forced Arabization of the Africans of the south and other regions ranging from Abyei in the west to the Nuba Mountains . The slavery of human trafficking is a common scenario in the Europe and the United States. In India, the plight of the ‘Dalits’ or the untouchables of the centuries-old Hindu caste system forbids any occupation to the slaves other than the most degraded jobs, such as working with human sewage .
Although the Indian law brought significant changes in their legal position in the society, many still suffer stigmatization, marginalization and limited job opportunities. There are several ethnic groups in Burma, notably the predominant Christian Kachin and the Burmese Army, which faces the worst violations of human rights, including forced labor . The Muslim Rohingya people suffer extreme systematic oppression including forced labor and denied citizenship. In Europe, slavery takes the form of trafficking women belonging to the eastern European countries to the western countries for the purpose of prostitution. In the Gulf countries, western and central African countries, child slavery is a common scenario. Child slaves perform works, such as drug trafficking, farming, fishing, brick-making, stone-quarrying, manufacturing, mining, domestic labor and many others . Child slavery is significant in the families with poor economic conditions.
In some cases, the extremities of child slavery lead to child prostitution and child sexual exploitation. The United Nations Convention safeguards the rights of the children below the age of eighteen years. Child marriage is a form of slavery in the 21st century. Girls at the ages of ten marry without their consent and lead the life of physical violence and domestic servitude. The institution is common in most of the parts of rural China and the Central Asian Republican countries. There are several laws countrywide to combat child marriage, but it is still persistent in most parts of the world. Traditional slavery is prevalent in the countries of Niger, Mauritania and Sudan. The nomadic tribes of these countries have slave castes and they pay tribute to their former masters, who inherit the slaves as a property . In the countries of Togo, Ghana, Niger and Benin, priests pledge young girls as slaves into domestic and sexual work for the offences committed by the family members of the girls.
Women belonging to the slave caste become the second wives of their owners and work as the slaves of owner’s first wife. In the United States, the persistence of slavery in spite of the presence of capitalism and wage relation poses important questions for social and economic theories as well as political actions. Slavery in the contemporary America is peril in nature and is often short-term and hidden. Systems of oppression and notions of race and class are separate structures related to racial slavery, racial subjugation and White Supremacy in the United States . African Americans still experience segregation in the judiciary system, which reminds them that the 21st century America is not free from the unjust practice of slavery. The immigrants are the major victims of the 21st century slavery in the United States. Massive debts incurred by the immigrants throw them into the institution of hidden slavery cheated out of wages and held captive by businesses that confiscate the passports of the immigrants.
Immigrants experience issues, such as denial of access to healthcare, holding possession of the return tickets and social security cards by the brokers, and threats from sexual harassment and violence if they complain to the officials about their institution of slavery . Predatory capitalists of the United States lure the foreigners by offering them work less than $10 an hour in manual labor-based industries with little or no regard to human rights. The human and economic relationships of modern slavery are complex. Liberation is a bitter victory if it only leads to starvation and re-enslavement. One cannot sweep a lifetime of dependence in a single instant. It is important to help the free slaves by repairing the damage slavery does to their mind and body. Slaves possess a few skills and the jobs they do are not worthy in the free market.
References
Cox, B., & Tanner, L. (2013). This Immoral Trade: Slavery in the 21st Century. Monarch Books.
Holliday, E. T. (2009). The 21st Century Great Awakening. Wicker Mountain Media.
Rodriguez, J. P. (2011). Slavery in the Modern World: A History of Political, Social, and Economic Oppression. ABC-CLIO.
Skinner, E. B. (2013). A Crime So Monstrous: A Shocking Exposé of Modern-Day Sex Slavery, Human Trafficking and Urban Child Markets. Random House.
Webber, M., & Bezanson, K. (2012). Rethinking Society in the 21st Century. Canadian Scholars’ Press.
