\\\'Modern-day slavery still exists in BD\\\'

The New York Times (NYT) has reported that 'modern-day slavery' still exists in Bangladesh, citing some recent incidents in labour migration as well as working environment in houses for domestic helps and in ready-made garments (RMG) factories for workers.
NYT's writer Lipika Pelhamoct wrote an article, titled 'Enslaved Abroad, Oppressed at Home: Modern Slavery in Bangladesh', in its opinion page on October 29.
In the article she highlighted the incidents when Bangladeshi labourers rescued from Thai forest, and working condition of domestic helps at home and abroad and of workers in RMG factories after the Rana plaza collapse incident as evidences to prove her claim.
Bangladesh ranked 10th in last year's Global Slavery Index - the list of countries with the highest number of enslaved people.
The writer, who is also a filmmaker, said modern face of slavery can express itself in many forms: in the lives of domestic workers, bonded and forced labour in rural and urban areas, low-paying factory work, errand boys in offices, flower sellers at traffic junctions, tea-boys in makeshift eateries, and sex workers.
She also cited the incident of the Pope's denouncing Bangladesh as the country of 'slave labour' for working condition here after the Rana Plaza incident.
Regarding the news of rescuing more than 170 men, mostly Bangladeshis, from human traffickers in the jungle of Thailand, the writer said the fact that these men were so easily lured into bonded labour abroad is a proof of the hopelessness of their lives at home.
"We should be outraged over what happened to these Bangladeshi men in the Thai jungle. But we should also be mortified by the terrible indignity that they face in their own land, which is forcing many of them into a life of servitude abroad," she said.
Highlighting the examples of young girls working as domestic helps from morning until night, sometimes for very little money or just for food scraps and basic lodging, the article quoted Nishat Mirza of Save the Children saying of themselves "inside the room, outside the law,"
Regarding thousands of workers under the age of 18 in Bangladeshi garment factories pre-emptively fired following the US Child Labour Deterrence Act 1993, she said many of them had migrated to the city for work, and now found it difficult to return to their villages.
"Instead they ended up in sex work, and during the late 1990s, there was a significant rise in street-based prostitution in Dhaka," she also said.
The article also brought some horrific stories about maids in Saudi Arabia, where they had been tortured.

smunima@yahoo.com