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Development! Development! Development! Yes. This is what the ‘so called’

pretty rhythm of present mankind. But my question to you is, how can we

achieve development? I am Sure not by hiring cheap labours. It is a crying

shame that companies like Nike; Coca-cola, Adidas has the distinction of

employing the largest number of cheap overseas labours in most inhospitable,

hostile and inhuman surroundings, and then comes the breaking news.

Strike by labours against the laws.

Children exploited as cheap labour in Myanmar.

Illegal migrants living and working in slave like conditions.

Prisoners forced to work in exploitive and life threatening conditions in China.

These were the headlines which surely have left every workers heart horror

stuck. Is this how we will achieve development? The reality that workers are

compelled into coerced labour brings us unavoidably to the debate that ‘is it

immoral to use cheap overseas labour’? Well! I say yes.

The present world has become a difficult world for the common person who

finds it increasingly impossible to make both ends meet. With liberalisation and

globalisation, there has been an increased entry of multinational and other

corporate giants into our country. The spiralling prices do not have any impact

on the elite sections of society. It is the middle class and the people living below

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the poverty line who are hardest hit. The government should ensure that the rich

do not enjoy these services at the cost of the poor.

Many migrants from neighbouring countries leave abode in search of a more

honourable life, but leaves up at nothing but more horrible and terrifying life.

Often, the mobilized men are the only family breadwinner. Their absence

divests entire families of any generator of income during weeks. Many migrants

are betrayed by fake promises of employment overseas by interlocutor, agents,

or informal or deplorable networks. To pay off the recruitment fee, they are

compelled to acquire loans from friends, family or their official and future

leader. Upon arrival, after subtraction of amplified costs of food,

accommodation and other requirements, the remaining salary is not enough to

lay aside money to pay off the loan, let alone to send remittances home as many

had been planning to do from the beginning. These scurrilous practices keep

migrants workers adhered to their employer and drive them to keep exploiting

for the same, under one-sided imposed conditions. Workers terminating up in

forced labour are not necessarily unregistered or irregular workers. Many get

into the country legally with a work permit or were country natives from the

beginning

Workers in forced labour are subjected to discrimination, their Abode condition

is potential to harm their right to freedom of association and collective

bargaining and in some cases they might even be under mature. The conditions

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are exploitative, harmful and sometimes life threatening. The workers require

bringing their own stuff and food and are subject to sexual assault, beatings and

murder. Other rights misdemeanour is likely to include non- or late defrayment

of salaries, wages below the prescribed salary, violations of safety and health

prescriptions, social security claims, etc. All these factors are different aspects

of trafficking for labour victimization.

Workers in Indonesia live under savage conditions and hardly earn $39 a month

for making thousands of products worth a few hundred dollars. In North Korea

and China captives are forced to work. Aboriginal peoples on distant farms in

the Paraguayan Chaco or in the Amazon forest in Brazil are working in debt

slavery because the Government deficient’s the institutional capability or the

local presence to safeguard them. Abductions or forced subscription into

armies take place in Uganda, Sudan, Chad, etc. The list of contemporary

coerced labour is far too long. Traditional slavery even still persists in some

states in Western Africa. Many Chinese labourers especially, migrants from

poor rural regions, still seek to work as many hours as possible, regardless of

whether they are properly paid.

Forced labour is also a procedure more than a stable relationship. Workers do

not turn coerced labourers overnight, but are slowly, increasingly forced. (htt1)

Something has been done; a lot more need to be done. The government should

act like a watch dog to ensure equity, higher taxes should be levied on these

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companies and indigenously produced options encouraged. This will ensure a

minimum level of quality of life for the lower socio-economic groups. The

government should ensure that the rich do not enjoy these services at the cost of

the poor. Policy decision makers should keep the poor person in mind at all

times. (htt)

It’s high time, and we must realise that we are more efficient, better planners

and much more qualified and smart to solve any problem. If only we would quit

expecting from the government to solve everything and would handle it in our

own way.

Thus, from above arguments I strongly believe that it is immoral to use cheap

overseas labour.