45.8 million enslaved globally with India topping list

EOI, Siliguri, 1 Jun 2016: An estimated 45.8 million men, women and children around the world are today trapped in modern slavery, 28 per cent more than previously estimated. They are enslaved through human trafficking, forced labour, debt bondage, forced or servile marriage or commercial sexual exploitation. This has been revealed in the 2016 Global Slavery Index, the flagship research report published by the Walk Free Foundation.

In terms of absolute numbers, India remains the highest with an estimated 18.35 million enslaved people, followed by China (3.39m), Pakistan (2.13m), Bangladesh (1.53m) and Uzbekistan (1.23m). Combined, these five countries account for almost 58 per cent or 26.6 million, of the world’s enslaved.

The 2016 Global Slavery Index estimates that 28 per cent more people are enslaved than reported in the 2014 edition. This significant increase is due to enhanced data collection and research methodology. Survey research for the 2016 Global Slavery Index included over 42,000 interviews conducted in 53 languages across 25 countries, including 15 state-level surveys in India. These representative surveys cover 44 per cent of the global population.

The Global Slavery Index also tracks government actions and responses to modern slavery. Of the 161 assessed, 124 countries have criminalised human trafficking in line with the UN Trafficking Protocol and 96 have developed national action plans to coordinate government response.

While India remains the country with the highest number of enslaved people in absolute terms, it has made significant progress in introducing measures to tackle the problem. It has criminalised trafficking, child prostitution and forced marriage. The government is massively reforming, consolidating and modernising its legislation against all forms of human trafficking, which will also now include forced labour. The government is also expanding the number of anti-trafficking units across the country and taking steps to create a central national investigation agency. It is also working hard to improve its existing victim protection and recovery support.