bonded labor
Work repaying debt
Bonded labor is a form of forced work in which a person is compelled to labor to repay a debt, often under terms that make the debt impossible to satisfy.
The arrangement traps workers—sometimes across generations—in perpetual servitude.
Though illegal in most countries, bonded labor persists in agriculture, brick kilns, and domestic service, particularly in South Asia: Millions remain trapped in bonded labor despite laws against it.
Persons owned as movable property
- indentured servitudeContractual unfree labor for term
- serfdomFeudal bound labor
- plantationLarge-scale farming operation
- abolitionFormal discontinuation of practice
emancipation · transatlantic · coolie · convict leasing · sharecropping · encomienda · villeinage
Formal binding contract
- peonageDebt-based forced labor
- usuryExtortionate money lending
- creditorOne owed money
- debtorOne who owes
collateral · loan shark · repayment · advance · wage deduction · interest · obligation · pledge
Criminal trade in people
- coercionPressured compliance through threats
- servitudeCompulsory labor under masters
- abuseCruel or violent treatment
- violationBreaking of rules
sweatshop · brick kiln · carpet weaving · quarry · agriculture · domestic work · sex trafficking · migrant workers
Forcing into submission
- dominanceSuperior influence over others
- controlAuthority to direct
- coercionPressured compliance through threats
- intimidationDeliberate fear-inducing pressure
caste · hierarchy · landlord · patron · master · powerlessness · entrapment · victimization
Release from legal bondage
- liberationRelease from constraint
- freedomAbsence of constraint
- rescueSave from harm
- rehabilitationRecovery from injury/addiction
advocacy · activism · awareness · convention · ILO · anti-slavery · NGO · raid
chattel slavery
Persons owned as movable property
- indentured servitudeContractual unfree labor for term
- serfdomFeudal bound labor
- plantationLarge-scale farming operation
abolition · emancipation · transatlantic · coolie · convict leasing · sharecropping · encomienda · villeinage
indenture
Formal binding contract
debtor · collateral · loan shark · repayment · advance · wage deduction · interest · obligation · pledge · surety
human trafficking
Criminal trade in people
- coercionPressured compliance through threats
- servitudeCompulsory labor under masters
- abuseCruel or violent treatment
violation · sweatshop · brick kiln · carpet weaving · quarry · agriculture · domestic work · sex trafficking · migrant workers
subjugation
Forcing into submission
- dominanceSuperior influence over others
- controlAuthority to direct
- coercionPressured compliance through threats
intimidation · caste · hierarchy · landlord · patron · master · powerlessness · entrapment · victimization · vulnerability
emancipation
Release from legal bondage
- liberationRelease from constraint
- freedomAbsence of constraint
- rescueSave from harm
rehabilitation · advocacy · activism · awareness · convention · ILO · anti-slavery · NGO · raid · prosecution
- workersworkers, employee, employees, wage earner, breadwinner
- social issuesinequality, racism, poverty, illiteracy, homelessness
- child laborchild workers, hazardous work, hazardous occupations, factory work, domestic work
- slaverychattel slavery, enslaved, slave, enslavement, slave traders
- exploitationexploit, predatory, sex trafficking, take advantage, human trafficking
- labor systemschattel slavery, indentured servitude, manorialism, peonage, plantation system
bonded laborat-will employment
Job without guaranteed duration
voluntary work · free agency · self-employment · freelance work · gig work
bond, labor, bonds, laborer, bonded, bonding, laboring, laborers, bondage