Thursday, January 26, 2017

India Republic Day: Largest Democracy Tops World Slavery Charts

India, often described as the world's largest democracy, is home of 18.3 million slaves, the highest number of people trapped in modern slavery anywhere in the world, according to Global Slavery Index 2016 report.

Global Slavery Chart
The report says ten countries with the largest estimated absolute numbers of people in modern slavery include some of the world’s most populous countries: India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Uzbekistan, North Korea, Russia, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Indonesia.

In terms of percentages, North Korea (4.37%) tops the slavery list followed by Uzbekistan (3.97%), Cambodia (1.6%), India (1.4%), Qatar (1.3%), Pakistan (1.1%), Democratic Republic of the Congo (1.1%), Sudan (1.1%), Iraq (1.1%), Afghanistan (1.1%) and Yemen (1.1%).

The Global Slavery Index defines modern slavery as a situation where “a person cannot refuse or leave because of threats, violence, coercion, abuse of power or deception, with treatment akin to a farm animal.” Others in the category of modern slavery include victims of human trafficking, forced labor, debt bondage, forced or servile marriage, and the sale and exploitation of children.

In addition to the 18.3 million slaves in India, there are hundreds of millions of Indians trapped in abject poverty in one of the most unequal societies in the world today.  Depth of deprivation in India can best be judged by Multi-dimensional Poverty Index (MPI) that comprehends 10 indicators, with equal weighting for education, health and living standards. Indian farmers are among the worst affected with a farmer committing suicide every 30 minutes. An OXFAM report on inequality released by the World Economic Forum 2017 at Davos, Switzerland, said the richest 1% of Indians own 58% of the country's wealth.

In spite of India's serious socioeconomic problems of slavery and poverty, the country now boats the world's third largest military budget. India's leader Prime Minister Narendra Modi is flexing his nation's military muscles with nuclear missiles, fighter jets, attack submarines and helicopters on Republic Day celebration in New Delhi today.

While India ranks 3rd in the world in military spending, it spends just 0.72% of GDP on social safety net,  ranking lower than its neighbors Pakistan (1.89%) and Bangladesh (1.09%), according to the World Bank.



In the new Trumpian world of "alternative facts", India stands out as a leader in "post-truth" era described by Indian writer Ranjit Goswami, Vice Chancellor of RK University in Gujarat, India. Here's an excerpt of what he recently wrote in "The Conversation" journal:


"....as the US and UK wake up to this new (post-truth) era, it’s worth noting that the world’s largest democracy (India) has been living in a post-truth world for years. From education to health care and the economy, particularly its slavish obsession with GDP, India can be considered a world leader in post-truth politics. India’s post-truth era cannot be traced to a single year – its complexities go back generations. But the election of Narendra Modi in 2014 can be marked as a significant inflection point. Ever since, the country has existed under majoritarian rule with widely reported discrimination against minorities. India’s version of post-truth is different to its Western counterparts due to the country’s socioeconomic status; its per capita nominal income is less than 3% of that of the US (or 4% of that of the UK). Still, post-truth is everywhere in India. It can be seen in our booming Wall Street but failing main streets, our teacher-less schools and our infrastructure-less villages. We have the ability to influence the world without enjoying good governance or a basic living conditions for so many at home. Modi’s government has shown how key decisions can be completely divorced from the everyday lives of Indian citizens, but spun to seem like they have been made for their benefit. Nowhere is this more evident than with India’s latest demonetization drive, which plunged the country into crisis, against the advice of its central bank, and hit poorest people the hardest. Despite the levels of extreme poverty in India, when it comes to social development, the cult of growth dominates over the development agenda, a trend that Modi has exacerbated, but that started with past governments. The dichotomy of India’s current post-truth experience was nicely summed up by Arun Shourie, an influential former minister from Modi’s own party. He disagrees with the prime minister, just as many Republicans share sharp differences of opinion with President Trump. Shourie said the policies of the current administration were equal to his predecessors’ policies, plus a cow."

https://youtu.be/OzdGIgV7edE




Related Links:

Haq's Musings

Inequality in India and Pakistan

India's Military Budget is World's 3rd Biggest 

Modi's Demonetization Disaster

India Home to World's Largest Population of Poor, Hungry and Illiterates

Abject Poverty in India

Grinding Poverty in Resurgent India

Farmer Suicides Continue Unabated in India

18 comments:

Dawood M. said...

Reminds me of an old quote:)

" What has the color of Alice's hair got to do with price of tea in China"

Riaz Haq said...

Dawood: "Reminds me of an old quote:) " What has the color of Alice's hair got to do with price of tea in China""

So parading expensive military hardware as the 3rd biggest military spender on Republic Day is all about defending India's freedom? What about freedom for millions of Indians held as slaves or hundreds of millions living in abject poverty?

Dawood M. said...

Indeed yes, each country has the absolute right to build a defense force proportionate to the threat levels it face or perceives. .

Social problems are a country's internal issue and they are well equipped to solve them.

Riaz Haq said...

Dawood: "Indeed yes, each country has the absolute right to build a defense force proportionate to the threat levels it face or perceives. .
Social problems are a country's internal issue and they are well equipped to solve them"

So India has a right to perpetuate enslavement and abject poverty of its citizens and others don't have right to point it out and write about it as a human concern?

What kind of logic is that?

Dawood M. said...

There is no logic involved here. It is their own money and they can spend in whatever manner they see fit.

Are we now going to start asking our neighbor as to why he or she just bought that Ferrari instead of sending money to their poor or enslaved relatives in the interest of "human concern"?

Riaz Haq said...

Dawood: "There is no logic involved here. It is their own money and they can spend in whatever manner they see fit. Are we now going to start asking our neighbor as to why he or she just bought that Ferrari instead of sending money to their poor or enslaved relatives in the interest of "human concern"?"

Please don't trivialize it as buying a Ferrari. That's cruel when millions of lives are at stake. It's a huge humanitarian concern when hundreds of millions are condemned to live in slavery and abject poverty in a country with the world's largest population of poor, hungry and illiterates who still defecate in the open

http://www.riazhaq.com/2010/08/63-years-after-independence-india.html

Riaz Haq said...

India is the second most unequal economy in the world, according to an Oxfam report released recently at the World Economic Forum. Oxfam India CEO Nisha Agrawal tells Himanshi Dhawan that demonetisation has only aggravated this inequality with no significant long-term benefits.

http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/the-interviews-blog/57-billionaires-control-70-of-indias-wealth-india-is-second-most-unequal-economy-after-russia/

Oxfam’s new report ‘Economy for 99%’ claims that since 2015, eight men own the same amount of wealth as the poorest half of the world. In India, the richest 1% control 60% of the total wealth. Your comments?
In 2016, India is the second most unequal economy after Russia. Inequality is fracturing our economy and the reality is that today 57 billionaires control 70% of India’s wealth. Even International Monetary Fund recently warned that India faces the social risk of growing inequality. As per IMF, India’s Gini coefficient rose to 51 by 2013, from 45 in 1990, mainly on account of rising inequality between urban and rural areas as well as within urban areas.
India is currently too dependent on a regressive tax structure of indirect taxes and should move towards a more progressive taxation system that raises more tax revenues from the wealthy to fund more public expenditures on health and education to create a more equal opportunity country.
What have been the reasons behind this growing inequality? Would you say successive governments have failed to address the concerns of the 99%?
Over the last 25 years, the top 1% has gained more income than the bottom 50% put together. Far from trickling down, income and wealth are being sucked upwards at an alarming rate. Like many other countries, in India too policies have not focussed on raising the incomes of the poorest. India’s liberalisation in the early 1990s has seen an explosion in inequality since it created opportunities in a few high end sectors such as banking, IT, telecom and airlines that only created a handful of jobs for the highly skilled and educated. Not many policy reforms have happened either in agriculture or labour intensive manufacturing that could have created millions of jobs and raised incomes of the poor. Furthermore, not much effort has been made to raise more revenues and spend on basic education and health so that the poor could benefit from the opportunities being created.

Ras S. said...

Methinks that Riaz’s human concern on poverty wakes up only when India is concerned!



Pakistan has fewer such problems because it has approximately 1/5th of the population.

Riaz Haq said...

Ras: "Methinks that Riaz’s human concern on poverty wakes up only when India is concerned! Pakistan has fewer such problems because it has approximately 1/5th of the population."


Every one of my posts highlights problems in Pakistan as well. This report on slavery includes data on Pakistan as among the top slave-holding nations.
It's a concern that I have written about for years.

And your apologetic defense of slavery in India as due to its large population is based on ignorance of a basic reality...that of the caste apartheid.

A 2011 World Bank report titled "Perspectives on poverty in India : stylized facts from survey data"
discusses various causes of high poverty and higher inequality in India, particularly discrimination against certain castes and tribes who make up most of the poor. It describes exclusion based on caste (SC or scheduled caste) and tribes (ST or scheduled tribes) and describes it as follows:

"The Hindu hierarchy is said to have evolved from different parts of the body of Brahma—the creator of the universe. Thus, the Brahmans, who originated from the mouth, undertake the most prestigious priestly and teaching occupations. The Kshatriyas (from the arms) are the rulers and warriors; the Vaishyas (from the thighs) are traders and merchants. The Shudras, from the feet, are manual workers and servants of other castes. Below the Shudras and outside the castesystem, lowest in the order, the untouchables engage in the most demeaning and stigmatized occupations (scavenging, for instance, and dealing with bodily waste)."

Similarly, the scheduled tribes are also referred to as the Adivasis. .... we use the terms SC and ST, as these are standard administrative and survey categories. In the text we use the terms Dalits and Adivasis or tribals interchangeably with SCs and STs, respectively.

http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/103691468041447795/Main-report


Here's a post from 2009 on the subject of slavery in Pakistan:


http://www.riazhaq.com/2009/11/slavery-survives-in-south-asia.html


The return of democracy in Pakistan last year has once again put feudal political elite firmly in charge of the nation's affairs. Both major parties, the PPP and the PML, are heavily dominated by the country's biggest landowners, who are reliability voted into power by their poor landless peasants making up the majority of the electorate in Pakistan. \

Anonymous said...

http://www.the-american-interest.com/2017/01/24/the-eight-great-powers-of-2017/

Thakur said...

Regarding the Global Slavery Index, it is also important to know what the government response is and the vulnerability. In other words, is the outlook for the country better or worse. Pakistan vulnerability score (62) is 3rd highest (higher = more vulnerable), much higher than India (51) in Asia Pacific Countries and governmental response grade of CCC compared to India's B. The Index applauds India, for thorough evaluation in 15 states but more response measures are ongoing.

The story behind statistics is usually more important than the number itself!

Anonymous said...

Four Muslims are listed among the top 100 rich Indians in the ranking for the year 2011, released by Forbes on 26th October 2011. Azim Premji (3rd) from IT industry Wipro, Yusuf Hamied (30th) from pharmaceutical Cipla, Habil Khorakiwala (80th) Chairman of generics maker Wockhardt and Irfan Razack (87th) from the real estate industry Prestige Estates are among the richest Indians.

Riaz Haq said...

Stratfor: Why #India will continue to misfire against #China and #Pakistan. #kashmir #NSG

https://www.stratfor.com/sample/geopolitical-diary/can-ambitious-india-seize-moment

discussion of India's ambitions must be measured against the reality of its constraints. India's fiscal limitations stymie investment into the infrastructure projects it needs to spur growth. It is weighed down by an unwieldy parliamentary system that struggles to channel the demands of its billion-citizen polity into coherent policies. And it must contend with the persistent security threat from archrival Pakistan, which has prompted it to commit resources to support a strong military presence in Indian-held Kashmir, in turn undercutting the integration of South Asia's economies.

India also suffers from demographic shortcomings that limit its economic development. About 70 percent of Indians live in rural areas, and up to a quarter of the population is impoverished. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's efforts to grow India's manufacturing base and employ more of its large pool of semiskilled labor remain hamstrung by the lack of land and labor reform in the country. Even if India could implement land and labor reforms, however, it would still struggle to develop a globally competitive manufacturing sector in this era of increasing automation. For India, then, a further embrace of multilateralism could give it a path not only to compensate for those shortcomings and earn the investments it needs to bolster the economy but also to help it place a check on Pakistan.

Even as Jaishankar alluded to the uncertainty that colors New Delhi's view of U.S. intentions under President-elect Donald Trump, he sees an opportunity as the new U.S. administration takes power for India to increase its international engagement as a way to overcome its limitations. Sensing that Washington will grow more reluctant to throw itself into the affairs of distant nations, India wants to fill the vacuum by assuming a greater global leadership role of its own.

Historically, Indian policymakers have generally honored the call by Jawaharlal Nehru, the country's first prime minister, to avoid entangling alliances. But the country has grown discontented with remaining aloof. In the past year alone, it has demonstrated the scope of its vision by engaging with every major region in the world. To wit, India hosted both the India-Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit and the BRICS summit and ratified the United Nations climate change protocol in Paris. Modi addressed a joint session of the U.S. Congress in June and embarked on a four-nation tour to Africa in July. He also hosted British Prime Minister Theresa May in what was her first visit outside of the European Union since taking office, and on Jan. 26, he will host Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nuhayyan, Abu Dhabi's crown prince, as the chief guest for India's annual Republic Day parade..

Yet for all of its diplomatic fervor, India bickers over foreign policy with its northern neighbor, China. Despite protestations and support from Washington, India has been unable to persuade China to place Masood Azhar, the leader of the Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad, on a U.N. blacklist. Similarly, an 11th-hour diplomatic pitch in June and support from Washington failed to earn India a vote needed from China that would have allowed it to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group, a 48-member body whose members share nuclear technology with one another. At the Raisina conference, Modi took a jab at China, saying that if Beijing wants its regional connectivity projects, including the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which runs through Kashmir, to be successful, it must respect India's sovereignty.


Source: http://defence.pk/threads/stratfor-why-india-will-continue-to-misfire-against-china-and-pakistan-got-dealt-a-bad-hand.473401/#ixzz4X7kP32mA

Riaz Haq said...

#Pakistan steps up #missile tests to counter #India #defence push https://www.ft.com/content/a66fdc8c-e6b1-11e6-893c-082c54a7f539 … via @FT

Pakistan is ramping up nuclear missile tests in response to India’s drive to modernise its armed forces, increasing already heightened tensions between the two countries, military and political analysts warn.

Islamabad last week conducted its first flight test of the surface-to-surface Ababeel missile, which has a range of 2,200km and which officials and analysts say marks a significant step forward in the country’s ability to target locations in India. The move followed Pakistan’s first ballistic missile launch from a submarine earlier this month.

“Taken together, these tests prove Pakistan’s ability to go for an outright war if war is imposed on us,” a senior Pakistani foreign ministry official told the Financial Times.

Relations between the two nuclear-armed neighbours have been tense ever since the partition that followed independence from Britain in 1947. They have fought three major wars, largely for control of the disputed state of Kashmir.


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“If Pakistan has a ‘second-strike’ capability, it could make it more assertive and potentially more willing to launch a first attack against India,” said Rahul Roy-Chaudhury, senior fellow for South Asia at the International institute for Strategic Studies.

Pakistani officials last week warned they were ready to use nuclear weapons against India in the event of an invasion by its neighbour. This followed an admission by Bipin Rawat, head of the Indian army, that the country had a plan to send troops across the border if it suffered a terror attack believed to originate in Pakistan.

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Tariq Rauf, head of the disarmament programme at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, said Pakistan’s response was a reaction to the build-up of India’s conventional military forces.

“If you look at deployment of India’s forces which can seize and hold territory, 75 per cent of the forces are within reach of the border [with Pakistan],” he said.

Ikram Sehgal, a prominent Pakistani commentator on defence and security affairs, said: “Pakistan cannot match India’s planned spending on conventional arms. The route that Pakistan is taking is to build up its strategic forces for a credible response if the Indians ever cross over [into Pakistan].”

After its submarine-based missile test, Islamabad said: “The successful attainment of a second-strike capability by Pakistan represents a major scientific milestone. It is manifestation of the strategy of measured response to nuclear strategies and postures being adopted in Pakistan’s neighbourhood.”

An official described the Ababeel missile — the first in Pakistan’s arsenal able to launch multiple warheads at different targets — “the successful completion of our deterrence”.

While most experts believe the threat of nuclear war between the two neighbours remains low, some warn about the risks of an accident caused by trigger-happy military leaders.

“Unlike the old days when the Soviet Union and the United States did not share a common border, India and Pakistan share a land border,” said one senior western diplomat with responsibility for monitoring the two militaries. “The risk of one side accidentally going to war is higher.”

Riaz Haq said...

#Modi government advised to ‘discredit’ #slavery research that shows half of the world's slaves are in #India. #BJP

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/05/indian-government-advised-to-discredit-slavery-research

Prime minister Narendra Modi pressured to condemn Australian report on modern slavery over fears it could tarnish India’s image

The government of India has been advised to launch a campaign to “discredit” research into the country’s modern slavery problem because it has the “potential to substantially harm India’s image and exports”, according to an Indian news report.

The Walk Free Foundation, an anti-slavery organisation established by Australian mining magnate Andrew Forrest, was specifically singled out in a memo reportedly prepared by the Intelligence Bureau (IB), an Indian security agency, and obtained by the Indian Express.

It was produced days after the release of a report last month by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and Forrest’s Walk Free Foundation that estimated the global population of modern slaves at 40.3m in 2016.

India was not specifically mentioned but successive research has estimated the number of modern slaves in the country to be between 14m and 18m people –the most in the world.

Modern slavery refers to people involved in forced labour, people trafficking, debt bondage, child labour and a range of other exploitative practices affecting vulnerable populations.

According to the Indian Express, the Indian security agency wrote to the prime minister’s office and other high-level government departments advising them to “discredit” the September report and to pressure the ILO to disassociate itself from Walk Free.

The foundation was established by Forrest, one of Australia’s richest men, in 2012. It produces an annual estimate of the number of slaves worldwide, lobbies governments to strengthen and enforce labour laws, and invests in frontline social programs.

The intelligence memo claimed that researchers were increasingly “targeting” India as a modern slavery hub, according to the news report.

It said estimates such as those produced by the ILO and Forrest’s foundation had “potential to substantially harm India’s image and exports and impact its efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 8.7” – a target for eradicating forced and child labour, and human trafficking.

The security agency also said the scale of India’s modern slave population was based on “questionable statistics”, citing the fact the ILO-Walk Free survey interviewed 17,000 people in India but only 2,000 in countries such as Russia, Bangladesh and Pakistan, the report said.

Riaz Haq said...

India is one of the world’s most unequal countries: James Crabtree
In an interview with Mint, journalist and author James Crabtree talks about the rapid rise of India’s ultra-rich and the crony capitalism and inequality that have accompanied such concentration of wealth


https://www.livemint.com/Companies/FeRwRFEQJu8mKx7wcVN5FL/India-is-one-of-the-worlds-most-unequal-countries-James-Cr.html

You argue in your book that the Left in India approaches the issue from the same angle. They care largely about how people at the bottom are doing rather than inequality per se.

This, I thought, was interesting. The totemic intellectual debate in India’s recent past has been between Jagdish Bhagwati and Amartya Sen. In a sense, neither of them places inequality front and centre. For Jagdish, it’s growth that matters, everything else can follow. For Amartya, what matters is the condition of the people at the bottom. Neither of them is really looking at the gap between the top and the bottom. That means you’re missing an important component of what makes a successful growth model.

Inequality isn’t just about the billionaires, it’s about the fact that the top 10%, and particularly the top 1%, have done disproportionately well. The vast mass of everyone else, including those who you’d consider to be middle-class, although in absolute terms they’re doing much better, in relative terms they’re doing much worse. That’s not how you build a successful country. It’s pretty clear that very unequal countries find it much harder to modernise. Look at Latin America, that’s the classic middle income trap. Countries that have managed to break through to become rich countries either have fantastic natural resources—like the oil emirates, and they’re not the ones you want to follow—or they’ve managed to create a kind of social and economic model that takes everyone along with them.

What happens if India continues on this path of the top pulling away from the rest? What does that mean for modernisation and reform?

Reforms are complicated, they require winners and losers. You have to have a sense that the winners will look after the losers. Farmers, for instance. This is not a good time for them. A lot of them are going to have to work somewhere else because India desperately needs a much smaller and more efficient farm sector. But if the sense is that everyone’s in it for themselves, then that makes it much more difficult to create the coalitions that you need for such changes.

Riaz Haq said...

IMF commends BISP’s contribution to fight poverty in Pakistan

https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/394178-imf-commends-bisps-contribution-to-fight-poverty-in-pakistan

A delegation of International Monetary Fund (IMF) visited Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), as part of their on-going visit to Pakistan to assess the economic and financial challenges faced by the country here at BISP headquarters on Thursday.

The IMF delegation was led by Harald Finger, Advisor and Team Leader and Ms. Taline Koranchilian Deputy Director Middle East and Central Asia, whereas Chairperson BISP Dr Sania Nishtar and Secretary BISP Omar Hamid Khan BISP along with senior management represented BISP.

Mr. Harald Finger, Advisor and Team Leader IMF in his brief remarks not only appreciated the BISP performance and contribution towards the National social protection and helping the vulnerable to fight poverty while addressing the issue of malnutrition and stunted growth.

Finger pointed out the overall economic challenges faced by the country and said that social protection is one of the key areas to be focused. He added that BISP has impressive engagement working model to address the wider canvas of social protection.

Secretary BISP Omar Hamid Khan briefed the delegation on various initiatives, programmes and activities of BISP as well as its national and international partnerships. BISP is contributing towards women empowerment by supporting 5.7 Million marginalized women of this country, through Cash Transfer programme (both conditional and unconditional transfers).

BISP strongly believes in imparting International excellence, utilization of modern technology and implementation of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) for the marginalized population, in line with international standards, he added.

Secretary apprised the delegation that BISP has state-of-the-art social researcher’s team from Harvard, MIT and LSE to develop Social Protection models. They were also apprised of the public private partnerships of BISP which have contributed towards innovative approaches of tackling poverty and providing opportunities to vulnerable women to seek socio-economic empowerment.

BISP Chairperson Dr. Sania Nishtar in her remarks said that her role is to address the issues of governance and policy matters related to the board meetings.

She said the organization has zero tolerance for corruption and her job is to make the organization efficient and transparent.

She foresees the growth of Data Engine of BISP through National Socio-Economic Registry (NSER) in the years to come as the sole source of information sharing to facilitate the national social protection work in the country on a massive scale.

Explaining further Secretary BISP said, that on average in Pakistan one out of every three children, is suffering from stunted growth. The case in Sindh and Southern Punjab is even worse. There are 2.5 Million women affected due to this every year.

The rate is all time staggering high and alarming, and demands immediate measures to respond.

The BISP has formulated the strategy to address the looming issue of stunted growth and related health problems.

It was also shared by the IMF delegation that to ensure the sustainability of the program financial support is also required on an assured basis to the programme.

Seniors officers of BISP also briefed about the broad contours of their programs related to NSER, Complementary initiatives and Cash Transfers. It was also conveyed to the IMF team that 2.4 million children have been enrolled in schools under the Waseela-e-Taleem programme.

They were also briefed on the future plans of BISP where it intends to bring in 8 million beneficiaries in its fold after update of the National Socio Economic Registry, thus contributing to the government agenda.

Riaz Haq said...

Young girls being sold in #India to repay #debt, says #humanrights body. #Indians living in many rural areas in India often have to borrow money from fellow villagers when a family member falls seriously ill and needs medical treatment. #poverty #slavery https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/28/young-girls-sold-india-repay-loans-human-rights?CMP=share_btn_tw

Young girls in the northern Indian state of Rajasthan are being sold as “repayment” for loans their parents cannot afford, the national body that protects human rights has said.

The National Human Rights Commission has issued a notice to the state government demanding a police inquiry and answers within a month to what it called an “abominable” practice.

People living in many rural areas in India often have to borrow money from fellow villagers when a family member falls seriously ill and needs medical treatment.

Local media reports say that in half a dozen districts around Bhilwara, if a family cannot repay a loan, the aggrieved creditor has complained to the “caste panchayats” or caste councils.

By way of “settlement”, the councils have ordered the family to hand over their daughter – sometimes more than one depending on the size of the loan – so that the creditor can sell her to a trafficker to recoup his money.

In its notice, the commission said that if the family refuses to sell their daughter, “their mothers are subjected to rape on the diktats of caste panchayats for the settlement of disputes”.

Among the cases highlighted by the commission is that of a man who borrowed 1.5m rupees (£15,800) from a neighbour who was forced by the panchayat to sell his sister and 12-year-old daughter to settle the debt.

In another, a man who borrowed 600,000 rupees (£6,300) when his wife fell ill and needed hospital treatment was unable to repay it. The panchayat compelled him to hand over his young daughter to the creditor, who later sold her to a trafficker in Agra. From there, “she was sold three times and became pregnant four times”, the commission said.

The commission has sent an official to Rajasthan to investigate the cases. The Bhilwara district collector, Ashish Modi, said the crimes were the first of their kind. “They are total illegal. The police are investigating and we will make sure the victims get justice and the guilty are punished,” Modi said.

Panchayats are often a profoundly regressive force in rural India, acting as kangaroo courts. They have ordered so-called honour killings of couples who have defied tradition by marrying into a different caste or faith or ordered brutal punishments for couples suspected of adultery.