“SLAVERY is a weed that grows in every soil,” said philosopher-politician Edmund Burke in the 18th century. In every soil and in every age, it seems.

Even today, as space probes land on comets and synthetically bioengineered body parts are implanted into patients, slavery — that most wretched of human conditions — continues to hold millions in thrall.

According to the 2014 Global Slavery Index, nearly 36 million men, women and children live in circumstances that can be defined as ‘modern slavery’.

Also read: Modern slavery affects 35.8 million people: report

These include debt bondage, forced labour, prostitution, forced marriage, etc. The report, by an Australian human rights group called the Walk Free Foundation, presents a ranking of 167 countries. Its findings reveal that the concentration of slavery varies greatly: 71pc of the world’s slaves are to be found in 10 of the countries surveyed.

India tops the list where numbers are concerned, with 14 million enslaved individuals, followed by China (3.2m) and Pakistan (2.1m). In terms of percentage of total population, Mauritania leads the ranking with 4pc, while Pakistan with 1.13pc comes in at number six.

Much of that 1.13pc — or two million plus — of our population toils every day under inhuman conditions in brick kilns, in fields, in factories etc across the country, deprived of even the most basic rights, in order to render the lives of the rest more comfortable.

It is not that Pakistan lacks legislation to address the issue. Its Constitution prohibits slavery, forced labour and child labour. A law banning bonded labour, the most common form of slavery in Pakistan, has been in force since 1992.

There also exists legislation against practices such as forced marriage. The problem, as always, is that of powerful lobbies who profit from the fruits of slavery, and the cultural acceptance of ‘traditions’ such as child marriage; this, coupled with widespread poverty and lack of awareness, allows the privileged to exploit the weak.

For, in the words of former slave and renowned abolitionist Frederick Douglass: “Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave.”

Published in Dawn, November 19th , 2014