A young Muria (Adivasi) man works a field. Collin Key/Flickr. Creative Commons.
India occupies a distinctive position within representations of ‘modern-day slavery’. According to recent indexes of global slavery produced by the Walk Free Foundation, the country’s “modern day slavery problems are immense”. In 2014, Walk Free proclaimed that more than 14 million people—from a population of 1.2 billion—are trapped in “all forms of modern slavery”. India is consequentially regarded by Walk Free and others as the country in the world with the highest absolute number of people living as modern-day slaves.
This politics of numbers is accompanied by a series of further arguments that vulnerability to modern-day slavery is higher among some groups than others. “Indians most vulnerable to modern slavery”, states the 2013 report, “are those from the ‘lower’ castes (dalits), and the indigenous communities (adivasis), especially women and children.” In a similar vein, the 2014 report notes: “Evidence suggests that members of lower castes and tribes, religious minorities, and migrant workers are disproportionately affected by modern slavery.”
