Spotlight
New Delhi, 10 August 2018
Modern Slavery
GOVT PRIORITY MUST CHANGE
By Dr Oishee Mukherjee
Next week as India
celebrates its 72nd Independence Day, it needs to take stock of the
progress it has made. A startling report published recently should make the
government frown if a thorough analysis is done. The nation has eight million
modern slaves, according to the Global Slavery Index 2018. Moreover, among 167
countries India ranked 53rd in terms of prevalence, with 6.1 victims for every
thousand people. North Korea was at the top of the list with 104.6 per 1000,
which should be no consolation.
Though the government
promptly denied the report, one cannot reject the fact that modern slavery as
defined by the team covered a set of legal concepts including forced labour,
debt bondage, forced marriage, slavery and slavery-like practices and human
trafficking, and makes India’s ranking no better. In the India chapter, the
study stated “while modern slavery clearly occurs within India, the reality of
global trade and business make it inevitable that India, like many other
countries globally, will also be exposed to the risk of modern slavery through
imports.”
The report also noted
that globally, nearly three-quarters (71 per cent) of modern slavery’s victims
are women and girls. There are more female than male victims across all forms
of modern slavery. And here too, India has a problem. Women and children from
the economically weaker sections are worst-affected and become easy victims.
The worst form is human trafficking, which repeatedly hits the headlines with
even minor girls falling easy prey. Then there are children from poor families,
who unfortunately get caught into forced labour, sometimes hazardous in nature.
So, while our governments
talk of achievements, it is indeed distressing to note that over the decades
the social sector has not progressed to the extent desired. This, even after
the years of high GDP growth, which political parties in power, have boasted of,
but in reality it doesn’t match the perspective of development of poor and
economically weaker sections.
On the one hand,
income of the rural people is on the decline and we are witnessing farmers’
protests across the country, and on the other there is an increase in the
annual declared assets of our political parties. The Association of Democratic
Reforms (ADR) has reported that these include the Samajwadi Party, AIADMK, All
India Forward Bloc and the Shiv Sena. ADR’s report on assets and liabilities found
that during financial year 2011-12 the declared assets of SP was Rs 213 crore,
which increased by 198 per cent to Rs 635 crore in 2015-16. And the average
assets declared by 20 regional parties during 2011-12 was Rs 24 crore, which
increased to Rs 66 crore in 2015-16.
How can official
incomes, not to speak of actual incomes, of political parties increase at a
time the poorer segments of society are fighting for a dignified existence? Are
the political parties under the influence of business groups, who they align
with to fulfil their interests of getting all facilities at reduced rates? It
is no denying that over the years, the political-business nexus has turned the
focus of formulating India’s development strategy in favour of big projects and
also in favour of the urban sector.
As mentioned by the
undersigned several times earlier, GDP growth cannot be considered an index of
real development. While GDP measurement does not cover a wide range of things –
including yearly losses from environmental damages etc, -- such growth does not
change conditions of the people whose incomes and standards of living need to
be raised. Therefore, it can safely be said that the socio-economic
transformation as claimed hasn’t taken place.
Further, while nobody
should question the nation spending thousands of crores on its security, recent
defence deals suggest that large chunk of the budget goes into the wrong hands,
instead of being spent for the people’s welfare. Controversy raises its head,
as allegations are made that in these mega deals, a segment, say around 15-20
per cent or even more, perhaps goes into the coffers of the political party in power,
and sometimes to enable payment of such commission, the prices are obviously raised.
This parliament
session, Congress President Rahul Gandhi accused the government of a mega scam
in the Rafale aircraft deal. He charged the Modi government of raising the
price --from Rs 520 crore as negotiated by the UPA government to Rs 1600 cr,
after Modi’s visit to France. He also sought to know why a Rs 45,000 crore
contract was taken away from the State-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. and instead
handed to his ‘corporate friend’, who has never built an airplane and had a
debt of Rs 35,000 crore.
In the early decades
our republic, tycoons and plutocrats tended to exercise their power from behind
the scenes but, in recent years, they come out flaunting their wealth and
political power. Thus grass-root development cannot be reality and poor
villagers would continue to languish in poverty and squalor.
Again a recent
example of corporate affinity has been the inclusion of Jio Institute, which is
yet to start operations, as an institution of eminence. It is indeed surprising
that how can an institution that has yet to take off be included in that
category when there are several institutions doing remarkably well and yet
excluded. Eminent educationists have rightly questioned the government’s move,
which on the face of it smacks of undue favouritism. What is necessary is the
need for a political will to ensure independence and professionalism in our
institutions, specially in the realm of education.
Then we have a
situation wherein a section of economists, directly or indirectly aligned to
the government want subsidies in the agriculture sector to be withdrawn but not
to the corporate class. Sadly, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is spent
by the corporate on their sweet will and it is doubtful whether at all it helps
to accomplish the laid out principles of the government in developing social
infrastructure or the money is just given to those who are close to the top
hierarchy of companies.
The government, which
ever it may be must adopt a better strategy. The focus should be on the rural
sector and developing its institutions to make them harbingers of change geared
to the interests of the masses. Unless the incomes of the rural population are
increased and social sector reforms are in place, ‘modern slavery’ will not be
passe’.---INFA
(Copyright, India
News & Feature Alliance)
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