Is Bonded Labor Voluntary? A Framework against Forced Work
- Document number
- 1956
- Date
- 2006
- Title
- Is Bonded Labor Voluntary? A Framework against Forced Work
- Author/publisher
- Espen Villanger, Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI)
- Availability
- View/save PDF version of this document
- Document type(s)
- Research/Study/Analysis,
- Keywords
- Human trafficking, Slave Labour, Sexual Exploitation, Slavery, Servitude, Forced Labour, Debt bondage, Labour exploitation, Domestic labour, Slavery-like practices; Agricultural labour;
- Summary
A natural starting point for assessing the voluntariness of bonded labor is to compare the situation of those who do not have a better option than to return to bondage, with those who were actually trapped in the relationship. Finding the mechanisms that lock the laborer to the landlord may give important insight into the nature of bonded labor. Our model highlights the difference between voluntary bonded labor contracts and workers in an unfree relationship with the landlord. We assume that there are different types of landlords, bondage landlords and normal landlords, and that this is not revealed to the laborer before the contract is agreed upon. The bondage landlord has an incentive for bonding a laborer while the normal type has not. In our set-up there will be situations where the bondage landlord offers a credit contract where the laborer pledges his future services as a servile laborer as collateral for the loan. We show that strategic moves by the landlord to make the laborer default on the loan can make the laborer permanently trapped in servility. The lack of contract enforcement mechanisms and alternative credit providers in the rural economy thus plays a crucial role in explaining bonded labor.
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