From the Second Reading of the Anti Slavery Bill in the House of Lords on 5 March 2010

Lord Alton of Liverpool:

...A week ago I was in West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. At several events I spoke about the plight of India's untouchables, the Dalits, and the forms of exploitation and slavery which stem from the caste system. Dalit is a term which derives from a Sanskrit word meaning "broken" or "crushed". Dalits form about a quarter of India's population; one in 40 of the world's population is a Dalit living in India.

...Tens of millions of India's citizens are subject to many forms of highly exploitative forms of labour and modern-day slavery. This often plays into the problem of debt bondage and bonded labour, which affects tens of millions. It perpetuates a cycle of despair and hopelessness, as generations are bonded to the family debt, unable to be educated and unable to escape. Tragically, the debt is often the result of a loan taken out for something as simple and essential as a medical bill.

The caste system also plays into people trafficking, another form of slavery which affects millions in India and which has been spoken about eloquently by the noble Baroness, Lady Nicholson of Winterbourne. According to a report on CNN Asia last year, India's Home Secretary, Madhukar Gupta,

"remarked that at least 100 million people were involved in human trafficking in India",

whether for sex or for labour. The head of the Central Bureau of Investigation said that India occupied a unique position as a source, transit and destination country for trafficking, and that it has more than

3 million prostitutes, of whom an estimated 40 per cent are children. These statistics are hugely significant: the situation in India simply must be at the heart of the fight globally against trafficking. The Dalit Solidarity Network UK, which has been calling for an end to manual scavenging before this year's Commonwealth Games, also highlights devadasi-a system of ritual prostitution of almost exclusively young Dalit girls.

...I commend the attempt of my noble friend to remember and highlight the campaign against modern-day forms of slavery. In my study at home in Lancashire, I have a small terracotta pot given to me by Dr Joseph D'Souza, international president of the Dalit Freedom Network. Such pots must be broken once a Dalit has drunk out of them so as not to pollute or contaminate other castes. This is the 21st century. It is not the pots which need to be broken, not the people, but the system which ensnares them. Dr D'Souza rightly says:

"If we are not intentional about bringing change and transformation in lives and society it will not happen. To love people is to act on behalf of them".

My noble learned and friend's Bill will be a stimulus to act on behalf of people such as the Dalits and I readily support it.

Source: Lords Hansard 5 Mar 2010 Columns 1733-5