A/HRC/33/46 reported in Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. However the majority of those in debt bondage are reported to be in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, despite the specific prohibition on such practices within the legal frameworks of these countries. Those who are trapped in debt bondage in South Asia are reportedly predominantly Dalits, persons of “low” caste, indigenous peoples10 or members of other minority groups. 11 16. In traditional forms of debt bondage in South Asia, patronage assumes an important role in the employer-employee relationship, in that the labour and the life of the debtor become collateral for the debt accrued. In some cases, such patronage perpetuates the cycle of debt from one generation to the next. 12 However, this generational debt bondage has decreased over the years and has been replaced by a more individualized temporary and/or seasonal form of bondage that is exclusively economic and lacks the dimension of patronage. This form of debt bondage, also known as “neo-bondage”, is considered to involve the seasonal movement of migrant workers within and between countries. Such workers are recruited by intermediaries who usually demand the payment of an advance and the settlement of wages at the end of the contract in exchange for their intermediation. Neo-bondage is similar to traditional forms of bondage, in the sense that the men, women and children vulnerable to such practices mainly belong to marginalized communities. 17. Women and children often become trapped in situations of bonded labour because of debt contracted by an authoritative member of the family or as a result of the family’s status. Children can also enter into bonded labour by inheriting a debt from a parent or other family member or they can be pledged individually to work in various sectors. The individual pledging of children has been identified as a phenomenon characterized by the recruitment of children through intermediaries who give their parents an advance. Such women and children are often vulnerable to physical and sexual abuse from employers. Cases of abduction of family members have been reported as a result of labourers seeking help to achieve release from bondage. 13 Indirect bondage is prevalent in sectors such as agriculture and the brick kiln industry, in which women and children are reportedly bonded through the male household head.14 Women and children can also often be bonded in their own right, for example in domestic work, fish processing, silk farming, bangle production, or carpet making and weaving. 18. In India, debt bondage is geographically widespread and has been reported to be prevalent in sectors such as the brick kiln industry, stone quarries, mining, manufacturing of beedi (Indian cigarettes), carpet weaving, construction, agriculture, power looms and cotton handlooms, as well as fish processing.15 Such practices are reported to be present in 10 11 12 13 14 15 GE.16-11363 In South Asia, this term includes those categorized as “tribals” (also known as adivasi) or, by Indian law, as “scheduled tribes”. Anti-Slavery International, Arrested Development: Discrimination and Slavery in the 21st Century, pp. 5 and 6. Kevin Bales and Peter Robbins, “No one shall be held in slavery or servitude: a critical analysis of international slavery agreements and concepts of slavery”, Human Rights Review, vol. 2 (JanuaryMarch 2001), pp. 34 and 35; and Shikha Sethia, “Bonded labourers”, India Exclusion Report 2013-14 (Books for Change, 2014), p. 206. Available from www.indianet.nl/pdf/IndiaExclusionReport2013-2014.pdf. Submission from Anti-Slavery International. ILO, A Global Alliance Against Forced Labour: Global Report under the Follow-up to the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work 2005, p. 32. Available from www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@ed_norm/@declaration/documents/publication/wcms_081882. pdf. Supreme Court of India, Writ Petition (Civil) No. 3922 of 1985. Available from http://supremecourtofindia.nic.in/outtoday/3922.pdf; and 7