Entire families migrate every year from other states in India to find work in Punjab’s brick kilns. The survey data suggest that there are more than 18 million people or 1.4 percent of the total population, who are living in conditions of modern slavery in India. Industries implicated in survey data include domestic work, the construction and sex industries, agriculture, fishing, manufacturing, manual labour, and forced begging. Most of India’s slavery problem is internal, and those from the most disadvantaged social strata—lowest caste Dalits, members of tribal communities, religious minorities, and women and girls from excluded groups—are most vulnerable.
Mangadeen was trapped in bonded labour in a brick kiln.
Brick moulders, loaders, brick fireman, brick pullers: none of us got any money for our work. They told us they will pay the money in the brick kiln. We went there and worked but they didn’t pay us money. I have three small children, one-year and four-year old girls, and a four-year old son. They all had to come with me. We reached such a helpless stage that we did not have even a penny with us. We kept moulding bricks and completed the work but we were not given any money. We did not have anything to eat there.
Narrative and image provided by Anti-Slavery International