Unlocking what works - The power of grassroots interventions to reduce bonded labor in India
Evaluations show the strengths of a community-based approach in India, and EU pressures Cambodia to raise textile workers' wages.
Yesterday, the Freedom Fund released a new report summarising the findings from their recent evaluations of their programs to eradicate bonded labor in northern and southern India.
Since 2014, the Freedom Fund has been working with frontline organizations in northern India to combat bonded labor and other forms of exploitation, focusing on 700 villages across the states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. The communities in which the partners work are subject to intense economic deprivation and exposed to a host of exploitative labor practices in local agriculture, brick, stone, and carpet industries. In Tamil Nadu, in Southern India, local employment is centered on the garment industry. A large proportion of the workforce are young women and girls, aged 14 to 20, many working in conditions of bonded labor. The workplaces are often remote, and workers can suffer harassment, abuse, and infringement of their rights.
The organizations implement a range of activities across northern and southern India, including awareness-raising and community organizing, rescue, recovery and rehabilitation, legal aid, registration for social support schemes, access to education and medical care, and alternative livelihoods programs.
The following principles are highlighted in the report: 1) Building coalitions to bring together diverse networks of partners to share best practices, collaborate and influence, 2) Investing in organizational development, and 3) Prioritising quality data and research across programs to ensure reliable measurement and impact assessment.
While the evaluations show the strengths of the community-based approach, they also highlight opportunities for growth and increased effectiveness such as extending community action to vulnerable migrant workers, long-term support to improve current employment schemes and address the roots of exploitation, and to strengthen the voice of survivors and power of grassroots evidence to engage governments, brands, and business owners.
Here’s a round-up of other noteworthy updates and news:
According to a new report from the Clean Clothes Campaign, the social auditing industry is operating as a corporate social responsibility (CSR) tool protecting brands' reputation and profits, while failing protection and aggravating risks to garment workers.
The Dead Eye and the Deep Blue Sea is the graphic memoir of a Cambodian man held hostage, first on a fishing vessel and then on a plantation in Malaysia, for years before an NGO could secure his return to Cambodia. As little is known about what happens to the men and boys who end up working on fishing boats in Asia, the illustrations in the book are some of the first records.
And, sex workers in the Philippines have always been vulnerable to police violence, but are at greater risk of harm since the President's war on drugs.
Cambodia raises textile workers' wages following pressure from the European Union over its human rights and political record
Slavery survivors in India are denied compensation because officials are often ignorant of the law
UK announces new steps to ensure government supply chains are free from modern slavery, and is making available an additional £87 million funding for sustaining the Rohingya refugee operation in Cox’s Bazar
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