IDSN input on the Worst Forms of Child Labour for UN SR Slavery 2025 report

Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery IDSN input on the Worst Forms of Child Labour – taking stock of progress and remaining challenges

TAINTED GARMENTS THE EXPLOITATION OF WOMEN AND GIRLS IN INDIA’S HOME-BASED GARMENT SECTOR (Berkeley – Blum Center 2021)

Child labour in the primary production of sugarcane (ILO)

International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour Safety and Health Fact Sheet Hazardous Child Labour in Agriculture – Cotton (ILO, 2025)

Cottonseed survey found ” 87% of the families of working children came from lower castes such as tribal people and dalits … Cotton seed producers usually employed children on a long-term contract basis by paying advances or loans to their parents. A survey of 320 chil- dren working on cotton seed farms revealed that about 95% of the children were in debt bondage: the children were effectively working off their parents’ debts in conditions of near slavery”

Factsheet: Caste-based Gender Violence Against Dalit Women and Girls (AIDMAM-NCDHR)

Data Analysis of the National Crime Records Bureau of India 2014-2022.

Report of the Working group on the UPR India 4th cycle 2022

The Working Group on the UPR reviewed India in November 2022 and the outcome report was adopted at the Human Rights Council 52 March session in 2023. This report includes recommendations on Dalits, caste, hate speech, racism, water and sanitation, women and girls' rights and many more.

Contemporary forms of slavery affecting persons belonging to ethnic, religious and linguistic minority communities Report of the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences, Tomoya Obokata

The report is focused on contemporary forms of slavery affecting persons belonging to ethnic, religious and linguistic minority communities. In that context, the Special Rapporteur identifies the main causes of contemporary forms of slavery affecting these groups and the main manifestations, such as chattel slavery; forced and bonded labour; domestic servitude; sexual slavery; child and forced marriage; and child labour.

Provincial Consultation: Health, Safety, and Job Security of Sanitation Workers in Sindh

The Sindh Human Rights Commission organised a one-day consultation with key stakeholders at Hotel Avari Towers, Karachi, on August 18, 2022. The purpose of the consultation was to identify the gaps in the legislation covering labour rights of sanitation workers and build a consensus to gear efforts toward driving legislative interventions for the inclusion of sanitation workers in the labour laws. The event was organised in technical partnership with The Knowledge Forum.

Child Labour, Caste Discrimination Closely Interlinked In India: UN Report (NDTV)

No education for the forcibly converted

How violation of the fundamental rights of a citizen dents our entire society is often ignored by the power structures in the country. This is especially so when it translates into marginalization in education of children belonging to persecuted communities that endure gross discrimination and systemic exploitation.

Seen, But Not Heard: Exploring Intersections – Climate Change Adaptation, Gender and Adolescents

This report is an attempt by Dasra and the India Climate Collaborative to draw attention to the unique space that girls and women occupy in the climate crisis today.

Mauritania: UN expert encouraged by progress but says more work needed to fully eradicate slavery | OHCHR

Tomoya Obokata, the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, today welcomed progress in strengthening Mauritania’s legal framework and building the political will to combat slavery, but cautioned that much work still lay ahead.

Manual Scavenging Is Continuing Unabated in India – and Even Children Are Forced Into it

This is part of a 24-part series starting next week, covering the sanitation crisis in each Indian state. Each part will be accompanied by a visual documentary on the specific state, highlighting the effects of the Swachh Bharat Mission and the continuation of manual scavenging in India.

UN report: One third of India’s Dalits remain poor (IDSN)

The most recent Global Multidimensional Poverty Index includes caste as an important indicator of poverty in India. According to this method of measuring poverty, progress has been made, but Dalits and Adivasis are still disproportionately poor and women and girls are lagging behind.

In India, 5 out of 6 multidimensionally poor are from lower tribes or castes: UN report | India News – Times of India

UNITED NATIONS: Five out of six multidimensionally poor people in India are from lower tribes or castes, according to a new analysis on global multidimensional poverty released by the United Nations on Thursday.

Examining the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child through the Lens of Caste- and Descent-Based Discrimination (Chapter in Oxford Handbooks)

This chapter, written by Philip E. Veerman, reviews and critiques the work of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child through the lens of caste- and descent-based discrimination. The chapter explores both the promise and the limitations of the work of the Committee in addressing discrimination that is, in many cases, fundamentally woven into the cultural and the religious practices of a society. In particular, it explores the promise and limitations of the Committee’s work in India, Nepal, and Mauritania to combat caste- and descent-based discrimination, inter alia, through its Concluding Observations. The chapter calls attention to the rights of children who are considered ‘untouchables’ or ‘outcastes.’ The chapter shows the challenges the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC Committee) confronts in addressing such discrimination. The chapter concludes by exploring ways the CRC Committee further the potential of the CRC to be an instrument of change.

The never-ending plight of Dalits

According to the latest census, conducted in 2017, approximately one million people were counted from the Dalit community in Pakistan, most of them living in Sindh, especially Tharparkar. A chunk of these – approximately more than 15,000 of them are dwelling in Karachi’s dilapidated, ramshackle houses in the Hindu Para locality of Chaneser Goth.

Leeds woman who fled a forced marriage aged 16 calls for caste-based discrimination to become an offence | ITV News Calendar

At just eight years old, Jasvinder Sanghera was already promised to an older man who she had never met before. One day after school aged 14, her mother sat her down at their home and showed her the picture of a man they'd decided she would marry. Ms Sanghera refused, and fled home at just 16-years-old with a man outside of her caste. Her conservative Sikh family disowned her and she has now been estranged from them for 42 years.

Modern slavery in India: Patterns of patriarchy, politics, and “progress” – The Norwegian Human Rights Fund

Indian authorities continue to stifle dissent and persecute activists despite pandemic surge – CIVICUS – Tracking conditions for citizen action

Indian has been battered by a severe COVID-19 second wave. On 3rd May 2021, India reported more than 300,000 new coronavirus cases for a 12th straight day to take its overall caseload to just shy of 20 million. India's total infections stand at 19.93 million, while total fatalities rose to 218,959 according to health ministry data. Hospitals have run out of beds and states have run out of oxygen cylinders, Remdesivir, ventilators and vaccines.