Antislavery Usable Past

Gunja

2012 (Narrative date)

The Global Slavery Index 2018 estimates that on any given day there were nearly 8 million people living in modern slavery in India. While the bonded labour system is formally abolished and criminalised, recent research indicated that bonded labour is still prevalent in India. A 2016 report found that in the state of Tamil Nadu, 351 of 743 spinning mills used bonded labour schemes, otherwise known as Sumangali schemes. Similarly in granite quarries, wage advances and loans with an interest ranging from 24% to 36% are used to bond workers. Situations of debt bondage are often aggravated by the need to raise emergency funds or take on loans for health crises.

Gunja moved to Delhi from Tripura in the hopes of finding work. However, unable to make enough money to support his family, was forced to take out a loan from the garment factory owner where he worked. He is now trapped in debt bondage until he has paid back the money he borrowed.

I moved to Delhi from Tripura (next to Bangladesh) in 2002 after the death of my father. I was a tailor in my village. When my father died, my uncle took all our lands and forced my family to move out of our house.

When we first came to Delhi there was not much work. I was only paid on a piece rate basis and that was not sufficient to look after my family, therefore I had to take loan from the factory owner. Within six months the debt had increased to Rs 8,000 [approximately GBP 114, or USD 182]

I had to borrow some more money when I arranged marriage for my daughter. In total I owed Rs. 40,000 to the factory owner.

I work around 13-14 hours a day and earn around Rs 5,000-6,000 per month when it is busy. I live in a single room with my family and pay Rs 1,500 per month as rent. I don’t have any option to leave until I have paid back the money to the factory owner.

Narrative provided by Anti-Slavery International from their report ‘Slavery on the High Street: Forced Labour in the manufacture of garments for international brands’, June 2012.

Country

Theme

Debt bondage

Type

Narrative

Tags

Garment industry

VOICES: Narratives by Survivors of Modern Slavery

This is the world's largest archive of modern slavery survivor narratives. Across more than a million words spoken or written by survivors of modern slavery, we can see why slavery persists in particular hotspots, analyse patterns in trafficking routes, identify vulnerabilities, understand more about the challenges survivors face in liberation, and discover new antislavery solutions. These narratives offer the chance to systematically design new antislavery strategies based on the experiences, ideas and solutions of enslaved people themselves.

The database is searchable by country, name, theme, and narrative date. Narratives can be viewed in list or map form. A short introduction provides context to each narrative. Narrative provenance appears after the main narrative text.

For ideas on how to use this database, please see our accompanying guide.

Project Lead: Zoe Trodd. Team Members: Andrea Nicholson, Lauren Eglen, Rosemary Pearce, Olivia Wright.

Project Funders: AHRC Antislavery Usable Past grant (2014-19), ESRC/AHRC PaCCS Modern Slavery: Meaning and Measurement grant (2016-19), and AHRC-GCRF Antislavery Knowledge Network grant (2017-2021).

For any queries about the collection please contact: [email protected]. If you wish to cite a particular narrative, please acknowledge the survivor’s name, the provenance of the narrative and cite: Voices Database, the Rights Lab, University of Nottingham.

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