Heidi Boutros: Bonded Slavery in India and Methods of Intervention
The following abstract was adapted from Heidi Boutros's full-length paper, which was submitted to The Forum on Education Abroad.
After reading Good News about Injustice by Gary Haugen, the founder of the International Justice Mission, Heidi Boutros became interested in bonded slavery. “The book brings to life the abuses that bonded slaves in India face and tells stories of their rescue,” she writes. “Unlike many other publications I had read on human rights abuses, which left me despairing about mind-numbing statistics of horrific abuse, this book left me with a sense of hope and optimism.”
Inspired by the stories of rescue, Heidi went to Chennai, India to assist with the International Justice Mission’s bonded slavery rescue efforts. “My primary concern in India was positively impacting the lives of bonded slaves; my research questions grew out of a desire to see greater effectiveness and efficiency in organizations’ efforts to secure the release of bonded slaves,” she writes.
Bonded slavery refers to the situation in which a debtor is forced to work for a creditor in order to repay an advance. In a state of financial emergency, individuals in need of a loan may be compelled to go to a local moneylender who will give them a loan in exchange for their labor or that of their children. Bonded slaves are forced to work 12 to 14 hours a day, six to seven days a week with little or no compensation, and many are beaten for failing to meet their owners’ unreasonable quotas. Because owners, called mudalalis, often charge exorbitant interest rates and require that the loan be repaid in a lump sum, many people spend their entire lives in bonded slavery.
“Although bonded slavery has received little media attention, it is one of the most horrific and prevalent abuses of our day,” writes Heidi. “Low-end estimates suggest that there are at least 10 million bonded slaves in India alone. Despite the insidious nature of this form of oppression, little has been written about the abuse and even less has been done to combat it.”
Over the course of two trips to Southeast India, involving meetings with bonded slaves, government officials, police officers, and leaders of NGOs, Heidi gathered information about bonded slavery, intervention methods, and obstacles to effective intervention.
“India has numerous obligations under international and domestic law to eradicate bonded slavery, yet its government has failed to take significant steps toward this end,” writes Heidi. “Thus, the burden for the release of India’s bonded slaves now lies with non-governmental organizations.”
However, she soon discovered deeply rooted institutional obstacles that impeded various NGOs’ efforts to release the slaves and decided to research other methods of combating bonded slavery in hopes of finding a more effective procedure. With little scholarship and few articles on the topic, she focused on writing a paper that accounted for the prevalence of bonded slavery in India, examined the weaknesses of current intervention methods, and suggested modifications of intervention strategies.
Her research experience inspired her to dedicate her life to rescuing victims of oppression. “Through this and other experiences in the human rights field, I have learned that the degree to which international human rights standards are respected depends on the quality of local law enforcement. Most countries have aligned their domestic laws with international laws, and domestic laws will only be effective insofar as local police enforce them,” writes Heidi.
Heidi Boutros graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 2004 with a major in Plan II Liberal Arts Honors and Government and a minor in French. She studied abroad in Bethune, France as a sophomore in high school. While in college, she interned in Russia, the Netherlands, and India, and conducted thesis research in South Africa.