“In what can best be described as a dramatic shift against slavery, the Tamil Nadu state government rescued 333 forced labor slaves from a brick factory last week. This is the second-largest rescue operation IJM has ever assisted.”

333 forced laborers is an incredible rescue. The International Justice Mission’s two other largest rescues were also from this district of India and also from brick factories. The IJM is calling this a game changing moment for India’s government.   The IJM article reports that they had trouble with law enforcement either not knowing about the forced labor or refusing to admit it existed when they first began operations in India over a decade ago. This rescue was a massive and willing movement of law enforcement. One of reasons this type of slavery is able to occur is the existence of bonded labor, paying a debt with labor. With the near non-existent pay the workers can never earn enough to free themselves and their debt carries on with their children. As part of these operations the police give the victims certificates of freedom, which declares them debt free. This is given to the adults and children that are victims of the bonded labor.

“India has the highest number of forced or “bonded laborer” slaves in any country today—between 10.7-12.7 million (according to Siddarth Kara, a leading scholar on modern-day slavery).”

“‘Freedom finally came to all 333 people thanks to one man’s desperate call for help. The man found a phone number for a local government office and called on Wednesday, February 11. He shared his dire plight but was unable to explain exactly where they were located.

The head of that district, Rahul Nadh, mobilized police to track the call and go with his team to investigate the location. It turned out that the caller was inside a brick factory that was operating without a license.”

Full Article HERE also check out their largest operation HERE

End It Movement/Stand For freedom

Here in Feb. The end it movement is having the day to shine a light on slavery, 2/27. They are asking for donations of 7 dollars per person and also to share the event to increase the awareness and funds raised. Feel free to join the end it movement under this page’s team (link HERE) or start your own.

April 6-10, the IJM is also hosting an event called Stand 4 Freedom, they are asking for signatures on a not available yet petition and also for volunteers to commit one day -24hours- to stand and advertise freedom. Many college campuses have chapters of the IJM that will be hosting events.

#ENDITMOVEMENT
#stand4freedom