Between jobs & slavery: Addressing informal employment is the key

Source: The post is based on the article “Between jobs & slavery: Addressing informal employment is the key” published in the Business Standard on 16th June 2023

Syllabus: GS 3 – Employment.

Relevance: About the issues with Global Slavery Index.

News: Recently Global Slavery Index 2023 has been released. The report highlights that the G20 nations alone account for more than half the people living in modern slavery. However, India does not figure in the top 10 nations in terms of the incidence of slavery per 1,000 people.

Note: The last edition of the Global Slavery Index was published five years before in 2018.

What are the key findings of the Global Slavery Index 2023?

What are the concerns with Global Slavery Index?

Methodology applied: It is derived from a broad estimate partially based on a “risk score.” The score deploys the same factors to determine whether a nation falls under the “developing” header or not. This automatically leaves the developed nations, mostly in Europe, with relatively delicate scores.

Real slavery is underestimated: Burgeoning African and West Asian refugee crisis and slowing economies suggest that modern slavery may be more prevalent than the surveys suggest.

Issues with sample size: In the past, India had complained that the sample size of the surveys was skewed and the survey’s assumptions ignored the country’s unique socio-economic factors.

The issue with the definition: Global Slavery Index follows no internationally accepted norm and is constantly recalibrated. For instance, the index includes child labour, sexual exploitation, human trafficking, and forced labour from forced marriage within the definition of modern slavery.

About India’s measurement of modern slavery

In India, the proximate term for slavery is bonded labour, which was outlawed in 1976. But the term bonded labour is narrowly defined. The Supreme Court expanded the definition to include workers paid below the prevailing market and legal minimum wages. However, there is no definitive data on modern slavery in India.

For instance, according to the Ministry of Labour and Employment, 93% of the country’s workforce falls in the unorganised sector. In that area, the benefits and oversight mechanisms against exploitation are non-existent.

What should be done?

The government introduced the e-Shram portal for unorganised sector workers to register and receive pensions, insurance, and death benefits. About half the workforce has registered on the portal. Now the real test will lie in how easily retired informal workers can access these benefits.