Welcome To Our Slavery Blog!

We are group of eighth grade students that go to High Tech Middle School in San Diego, California. In our humanities class, we are learning about modern day slavery that still exists all around the world. This blog will teach you about modern day slavery in Southeast Asia. Specifically in India. We hope you learn a lot from our blog and help the world make a difference with slavery. "As long as one of us is enslaved, then none of us are truly free..."

Before you learn about slavery in India, here are a few facts about slavery around the world...

• There are more than 27 million slaves in the world today
• In the 1860's the average slave were expensive, the equivalent of $40,000 today
• Today, the average slave costs about $90
• About 14,500 people are trafficked and forced into slavery in the U.S.

To learn more about other areas in the world with slavery, visit BBC news.. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/world/05/slavery/html/1.stm

What is slavery in India?

There is an estimated ten to fifteen million slaves in India, out of the twenty-seven million slaves worldwide. There are more children enslaved in India today than adults because families need to pay off debts. To do so, they send their child to work to pay off debts that they owe. They usually never see their child again because slave owners charge interest making it difficult to ever be freed. Usually, it takes generations to pay off the debts.
There are many different types of slavery in India including Debt Bondage, Sex slavery and Forced slavery. Sex slavery is one of the most common in India. Women and children (mostly girls), are forced into prostitution to earn money and pay off debts for their families. Usually they are tricked into sex slavery because someone offers them a job and then they are forced to work. Many women and children from Nepal and Bangladesh are trafficked into the country for the purpose of sex slavery. Forced labor can be related to sex slavery or debt bondage or people that are tricked into thinking they would get a good job but end up working for numerous hours in poor conditions. Also, young boys ages two to seven are kidnapped and forced into camel racing. They are fastened to a camel and race each other unwilling. South Asian boys are usually recruited because they are lighter weight, cheaper and they scream louder and they are more high pitch so it will make the camel go faster. Many children die from this and many come out injured.
Slavery today and many years ago have both had poor conditions. Slaves have to work twelve to eighteen hours a day, seven days a week and minimum hours to have a break and sleep. In carpet looming businesses, slaves are often chained to their loom so they can't escape. Many people, including children, suffer from multiple sicknesses and infections that are often fatal. Illnesses such as, lung disease, kidney and liver problems, and malnutrition.
Slaves are punished for their wrong doings such as crying for their parents, getting their finger cut from a loom or complaining. They can be beaten, whipped, branded, or hit with heavy objects such as bamboo staffs.
Debt bondage slaves are usually popular in embroidery factories, brick kilns, rice mills, agriculture, prostitution and rug looms. 20% of India's economy is dependent on the child slaves.
Governments around the world are trying to stop slavery in India by doing campaigns with factories. The U.S. has helped a lot with this issue and has raised enough money to free slaves and build shelters for freed slaves. These shelters, offer places to stay, education and counseling to overcome the awful experiences they encountered and put these memories to rest.
Women and children are mostly affected by this unfortunate occurrence. Usually children are forced into sex slavery and children are forced into debt bondage with companies, camel racing and sex slavery.

What Can You Do About Stopping Slavery?

As you have learned, slavery is a big problem that still exists in world today. We need to do something about it because if we don't, slaves will never be free, our world will never be completely free. Here are a few ways you can make a difference in many enslaved peoples life...

• Spread the word around about slavery to your friends and family. Give them this website and flyer to learn more about what is happening around the world. Make fliers that you can pass around for people to learn about slavery. If you increase public awareness, the public will respond.
  
• Volunteer and support groups trying to end slavery in other parts of the world. Have bake sales, car washes and have to profit go to modern day slavery. Every little bit counts so start brainstorming ideas to support abolition in the world. Go to... http://www.iabolish.org/donate/
  
• Educate yourself of modern day slavery and what is happening that most are most likely not aware of. The more you know about issues that affect not only the slave but the world, the more close we are to freedom in all slaves.
  
• Send a letter to those in power and those that care about modern day slavery They will be more then happy to find out that more people care about slavery and want to make a difference in the world. Below is an example letter...
  

Dear President,

We are a group of 8th graders attending High Tech Middle School in San Diego California. We have been researching the following topic about slavery in India for the last week. We have written you this letter to inform you about the hardships many of these people have to face. Thank you for taking your time to read the following letter.

Slavery today is illegal all around the world, however, it still occurs in almost every country. There are about 27 million slaves in the world today and more then half of them are in India. Many of these slaves, are children who have been kidnapped from their families or have been sold into slavery to pay off a debt. These children and adults have no freedom when they are trapped and most of the time, never experience freedom again.

The conditions that the slaves have to work under are horrifying and very cruel. Many slaves have to work for twelve to eighteen hours a day seven days a week and are given very little time to sleep. If they work really slow or mess up, they will be beaten and/or whipped.

These people cant free themselves because if they tried to run away, the usual punishment is death. Also, it makes it hard for the police to find these slave holders because they are so hidden away and have disguised themselves as something they are not.

Unfortunately, it is very hard to completely stop slavery,however there are some ways to decrease it. If we were to decrease slavery in the U.S., then we could help other countries abolish it and be a role model for the countries we are helping. We also need to educate people. Many of the slaves are lured into slavery because they are illiterate. They are offered great jobs with a fantastic commission, but after they accept the invite, they find themselves enslaved. Again, slavery will be something nearly impossible to abolish, but that should not stop us from trying to decrease it.

Thank you for your time,

sincerely,

Kevin K., Skylar E., Anastasia O.

Send this letter or write your own to people who care and have a concern about slavery. Some recommended people to send the letter to are below.



President George W. Bush

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500

Secretary Colin Powell
U.S. State Department
Washington, DC 20520

Whoopi Goldberg
555 Melrose Avenue, Suite 114
Los Angeles, CA 90038

Toni Morrison
African-American Studies Program
Princeton University
21 Prospect Avenue
Princeton, NJ 08544

Steven Spielberg
c/o Shoah Foundation
P.O. Box 3168
Los Angeles, CA 90078

Patricia Ireland
National Organization for Women
P.O. Box 96824
Washington, DC, 20090

Congressman Donald Payne
(D-NJ, former chair of the Cong. Black Caucus)
2209 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-3010

Rev. Jesse Jackson
Rainbow-Push
930 East 50th St.
Chicago, IL 60615

Maya Angelou
Wake Forest University
1834 Wake Forest Road
Winston-Salem, NC 27106

Danny Glover
c/o Carrie Productions
41 Sutter Street, Suite 1648
San Francisco, CA 94104


Please help slavery as it is today. Everyone has one life, everyone deserves a good life and everyone has the right to freedom. No one deserves the life of a slave. How would you feel if you were held against your will? Think about it....

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