India tops Slavery Index with 1/3rds the population under the hood

India has gained the dubious distinction of having the highest number of people living in conditions of slavery. According to the Global Slavery Index 2013 of Walk Free Foundation (WFF), about 14 million Indians are living in the slave-like conditions 1st Marishania(1st) and least ranked by Iceland(160) There are close to 30 million slaves worldwide with India housing nearly half of them. The Global Slavery Index 2013, the first of its kind which ranked 169 countries, estimates that there are 13.9 million people living as slaves in India. China is a distant second with 2.9m slaves, followed by Pakistan with 2.1m, Nigeria 0.7m, and Ethiopia 0.6m. However, when the number of slaves as a proportion of the country's population is considered, top is Mauritania, a West African nation, followed by Haiti, Pakistan, India and Nepal. Mauritania has the highest proportion of its total population engaged in slavery which is estimated at 4 per cent of its 3.4 million population. According to the report, India, China, Pakistan and Nigeria have the highest number of people living in slavery-like conditions. Nearly 30 million people around the world live in slavery-like conditions. Behind the Index The WFF, which compiled the Index, is an Australian rights organisation. The WFF defines modern slavery in the forms of human trafficking, forced labour, and slavery or slavery-like practices such as debt bondage, forced or servile marriage, and sale or exploitation of children including in armed conflict. According to the BBC, the index has backing of various global leaders including former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The index was compiled by using a combined measure of three factors: the estimated prevalence of modern slavery by population, a measure of child marriage and data from human trafficking in and out of a country. The Index also identifies factors that shed light on the risk of modern slavery in each country and examines the strength of government responses in tackling this issue. Walk Free Foundation:  The Walk Free Foundation is an organization attempting to end forms of contemporary slavery. The organization was founded by Andrew Forrest and Nicola Forrest. Its current CEO is Nick Grono. Global Slavery Index 2013:  Global Slavery Index 2013, is a widely cited report prepared by Walk Free Foundation. It gave an estimate of 29.8 million people in slavery across the world.

What: India tops Global Slavery Index When: 17th October 2013 How: With 14 million population falling in the category.