Between jobs & slavery

Addressing informal employment is the key

As India prepares for the G20 leaders’ summit in New Delhi in September, the grand finale of its year as president of this group, a sobering reality comes in the form of the fifth edition of the Global Slavery Index. Published after a gap of five years — the last edition appeared in 2018 —it shows that some 50 million people live in modern slavery. India is home to about a fifth of this population at 11 million — the highest absolute number, though the country does not figure in the top 10 nations in terms of incidence of slavery