WASHINGTON, D.C. – There are more than 30 million people living in slavery, according to the Global Slavery Index, published by the Walk Free Foundation. Modern day slavery can appear in many forms and names, like human trafficking or forced labor, but the end result is the same – a human being losing his or her freedom.
The Global Slavery Index was published on Oct. 17, 2013 and ranks 162 countries. The index also identifies the risks for enslavement for each country and how each country’s government responds. According to an article published on The Guardian, this information is a silver lining for anti-slavery campaigners who were previously frustrated with the lack of data available.
“There is no index out there, and it’s critical to measuring the scale of the problem on a country-by-country basis because that informs policy responses. Measuring a hidden crime is very challenging, but there are efforts to measure domestic abuse and drug trafficking. A lot of it boils down to taking the best data on reported issues and then looking at the scale of the unreported or ‘dark’ problems,” Nick Grono, CEO of the Walk Free Foundation told The Guardian.
India was found, by the index, to have nearly 14 million people living in what is qualified as modern day slavery, according to an article published in The Independent. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Bill Gates, have also endorsed the index.
“I urge leaders around the world to view this index as a call to action, and to stay focused on the work of responding to this crime,” Clinton said.
The project of compiling all of the numbers and evidence on modern day slavery was daunting and those involved had to look into every country in the index’s published data and estimate what Grono calls “dark figures,” according to The Guardian.
Academics behind the index are hoping publishing extensive data like The Global Slavery Index will be one of the first steps to really tackle human exploitation across the world. Although the Walk Free Foundation boasts the first Global Slavery Index published, those involved are aware of some discrepancies.
“We recognize the data is not that strong; we want to be open about this. If a government says they don’t agree [with the data], we will say great, let’s work with a national statistics office to do a study across the country to try and analyze the scale of the problem,” Grono said.
Part of the reason these discrepancies exist due to the fact that many modern day slavery is done without evidence and kept very quiet. The other part is because of governments refusing to acknowledge that its country has a problem; another goal of publishing the index is to bring those problems to light. The goal is to, then, hold the governments accountable, according to The Independent. Stimulating conversations about modern day slavery, as well as feedback for future indexes, is another goal of publishing the index, according to the Walk Free Foundation’s website.
Others have their doubts that the information found in The Global Slavery Index is worth reading, or even publishing.
“Slavery is such an emotive term. It has an incredible emotive power, which is what a lot of campaigners use and draw on productively, but then people engage with their emotions and don’t think about it politically. It becomes de-politicized,” said Bridget Anderson, deputy director of the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society at Oxford.
Wherever and however a particular country uses modern day slaves is irrelevant, according to the Walk Free Foundation. All that matters is that 30 million people in this world are living without freedom.
– Molly Mahannah
Sources: Global Slavery Index, Independent, The Guardian
Photo: The Contributor