Slavery is still here, only hidden..

During the age of slavery human beings were completely fungible, that is they were harvested in poor countries, transported in ships to the rich world where they could and were bought and sold like any commodity. Overt slavery is not politically correct these days so it is contracted out by multinationals to national companies. Deaths of more than 1000 people in the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh was caused by workers being forced to work inside the building which was known to be unsafe. Suicides at the Foxconn factory in China, manufacturing the latest Apple products, was because of very long working hours with very low wages. In India, the much hyped growth during this Congress led government was based mostly on a frenzy of construction fueled by a humongous property price bubble. However, the bricks required for the booming construction industry were made by slave labor, some as young as 4 years old. These bricks have now been labelled as ' blood bricks '. But surely human beings have the choice of refusing to work as slaves in today's world? Seems that they cannot. A loan taken from a moneylender in an emergency can bind succeeding generations to slave labor. But there are governments, pundits, NGOs and do-gooders to protect the poor and the vulnerable from exploitation. Why are they failing? Maybe it is their actions that keep the poor where they are. In India, the last BJP government reduced the level of social schemes relative to the GDP by economic reforms which led to the ' India Shining ' campaign. This was a disaster as the Congress grabbed power by promising free handouts to the poor. Since 2004 spending on social schemes has risen as parties have competed to give handouts. The result has been massive fiscal and Current Account Deficits, leading to soaring inflation harming the very poor that social schemes are supposed to help. The Right To Education Act has resulted in falling levels of literacy among children while increasing the numbers going to school. More than half the children cannot read or do basic level math. What the Act has done is to increase school fees by 433% as 25% reservation in private schools for poor children has acted as a tax. The only way to stop slavery is to reduce numbers of the poor. Social schemes increase the numbers of slaves by encouraging births. But they win elections.