In the age of information and social media, a lot of people across the world still struggle to have the most basic of things, including their freedom. Approximately 30 million individuals are tagged and live as slaves. This is according to a new index that looked into slavery across the globe.
The latest Global Slavery Index puts India on top of the list with 13,956,010 individuals living as slaves. Mauritania on the other hand has the worst slavery proportion as 4 percent of its total population struggle with the condition considered by many as a hidden crime that must be eradicated by governments.
China has the second most number of slaves with 2,949,243 followed by Pakistan (2,127,132), Nigeria (701,032), and Ethiopia (651,110). Russia, Thailand, DR Congo, Burma, and Bangladesh complete the Top 10.
The ten countries on top of the list based on the number of slaves, account for about 75 percent of the total cases of modern slavery in the whole world.
In the list of proportional ranking, Mauritania is followed by Haiti, Pakistan, India, and Nepal. The Top 10 is completed by Moldova, Benin, Ivory Coast, The Gambia, and Gabon.
According to the report, slavery in India is the worst at the moment with exploitation of the citizens happening within India itself. In Mauritania, people are still inheriting the slave status of their ancestors.
"A lot of governments won't like hearing what we have to say. Those governments that want to engage with us, we will be very open to engaging and looking at ways in which we can better measure the issue of modern slavery," said Nick Grono, chief executive of the Walk Free Foundation, during an interview with Agence France -Presse. The WFF is a human rights group based in Australia that conducted the global survey.
"What modern slavery is is a situation that reflects all of the characteristics of slavery of past centuries," Grono said. "People are controlled by violence. They are tricked or they are forced into jobs or situations where they are economically exploited. They live on no pay or base subsistence pay and they're not free to leave."
The WFF was founded in May 2012 by Andrew and Nicola Forrest of the Fortescue Metals Group. The group is headquartered in Perth and is run by a 20-man team. The group is supported by political leaders such as Australian PM Tony Abbott, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Business magnates and philanthropists Bill Gates, Mo Ibrahim, and Richard Branson also back up the organization.
