Silent Chains: How Modern Slavery Still Thrives Among Us

Immediately after I read the prompt topic description, my mind went straight to the many histories of the olden days of slavery told to me by my grandma. Those days when people were being bought and sold, like trade by barter, as if humans were properties.

I remembered the kind of slavery people experienced those days according to Grandma, but I was happy then, telling her, "Thank God it's over; no more slavery in our world today as it was in their own time." BUT, honestly, with what is happening here and there and stories flying up in many places, I wonder if those olden-day slavery were really abolished or if they were refined to fit our modern world. Why? Because many people are still under slavery, suffering silently.

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Let's not even go far; I have personally worked in a place that looks like slavery. A very harsh work condition that made me sick every month; apparently my body couldn't handle such pressure, and I was going down gradually. I remember my neighbor asking me if I started taking slimming drugs because what manner of look was that, like someone suffering from a terminal disease?

The moment I receive the so-called #30,000, I am spending 10k to 15k of it for medications. The transportation fee is still inside the 30k, and I wonder what manner of job that was. The fear of no job in our country will make most people go for any job with unworthy salaries, and upon that, the owner will use the staff's blood and drain their energy and water in their body indirectly due to excessive workload and unfair treatment. It is pure exploitation, overusing your workers for one peanut to enrich yourself because you feel they have no choice.

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What about some house helps in various homes who are maltreated endlessly like animals? I once shared a story of a house help treated terribly like a slave by her madam and how I traced her family until that girl was rescued. There are some things I can't overlook, and I can take risks for, and that innocent slave girl was one of them. People see themselves as mini gods and are using their little power to oppress others badly. It's unfair, and we say we are out of slavery?

This modern type even hurts more. My girlfriend; a wife, had been suffering mental slavery at the hand of her husband. The man changed her SIM card, shut down every communication from her family and friends, always locked their gate and went to work with the keys, and installed CCTV cameras in their homes, including her bathroom, where he monitors her every minute from his office. She was in such a toxic relationship for years until she decided to jump out through the fence one hot afternoon with her only son, came to my home, and then ran away from here until she connected with her family. Can you imagine that? That was pure slavery in which a fellow human being subjected another in the name of security in marriage.

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People can be walking on the street, but are they truly free? Until when can they live their life freely, devoid of fear or any atom of exploitation by their fellow humans who are silently still practicing modern slavery in one way or another. Human beings are really their own problems.

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Overall, I don't really think this can be entirely eradicated because humans and their greedy nature are something baffling. However, we can personally start by treating others nicely, correcting anyone we see mistreating fellow humans if we can, and ultimately, creating awareness. Perhaps it can go a long way in curbing this situation in our society today.

This is my response to the #HiveLearners community contest on the topic titled, MODERN DAY SLAVERY.

Images were taken from canva