Freeing Modern-Day Slaves in South Asia

A particularly brutal set of slave owners we recently encountered in South Asia held more than twenty slaves in a rice mill. They and their thugs beat the slaves, sexually assaulted the women, even doused one slave’s arm in kerosene and set it afire as punishment. They were the ones who mobilized the attack on our investigators Peter and Jivaj. But at the end of the day, a simple word of truth from Sandana—a twelve-year-old slave girl—brought down these monsters, and the slaves were released. 

The story unfolded this way. After IJM secured the safety of its investigators, we were able to mobilize a police raid on the rice mill and get the slaves before a magistrate to tell their story. But as these terrorized slaves stood before the magistrate, they were too afraid to tell the truth. Their owners had forced the slaves into silence about what was happening to them and threatened to kill them if they tried to escape. 

One by one, the defeated slaves denied that they were being forced to work or being abused. Bit by bit, my IJM colleagues watched helplessly as the black cloud of lies descended over the proceeding and began rolling the slaves back into the abyss.

That is, until little Sandana found the courage to do what the bullies most feared: she spoke the truth. To her parents’ horror, Sandana explained that her daddy couldn’t tell the truth, that the owner beat her daddy and that they were all afraid to say what was really happening. 

Struck by the raw power of innocent truth, the magistrate said he thought a child would not lie about such things. Emboldened, Sandana’s father and the other slaves now confirmed the story one by one—in fact, they explained that there were still other slaves held at the rice mill who were hidden away during the raid. 

Immediately, the magistrate ordered official emancipation proceedings for the slaves standing before him and sent a second police detachment that secured the release of the remaining slaves. Because of Sandana’s simple testimony, all of these former slaves are now free, the children are in school, and their families are now building independent lives under IJM’s long-term rehabilitation program. And the slave owners are now facing just what they feared: the dogged pursuit of IJM’s attorneys and the justice of the Indian authorities.

When held in slavery, Sandana and the millions of other slaves in our world do not need someone to bring them food or shelter or medicine or microloans. Right now, they need something different. They need freedom. This is the new thing Christians must bring. And as we do, we make it possible for education and economic rehabilitation to follow.