Forced labour and globalisation

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India's National Magazine - Frontline
Forced labour and globalisation
T.K. RAJALAKSHMI

IN 2001, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) published a report that acknowledged the presence of forced labour and modern forms of slavery in the brave new world. It described human trafficking for forced labour as being the "underside of globalisation". One significant outcome of this report was that a Special Action Programme to Combat Forced Labour was approved by the ILO governing body.

Four years later, the ILO has come out with a second global report titled "A global alliance against forced labour", which reiterates much the same thing but also attempts to analyse the types of forced labour. Describing forced labour as one of the most hidden problems of our times, it claims to have a better understanding of the numbers involved, the characteristics, the gender and ethnic composition of forced labour the world over and so on. It details the symptoms and characteristics of the problem but stops short of addressing its ideological and political dimensions - both nationally as well as globally. It aims at having a "fairer kind of globalisation" (....)

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