After NGOs try to hurt India’s image, Govt sends out strong rebuttal

The IB in its note had told the Prime Minister’s Office that the report would harm India's image and hence there is an urgent need to counter it and also discredit the information.

After the Intelligence Bureau red flagged a slavery report prepared by an Australia based NGO, India has shot off a strong note to the International Labour Organisation.

Recently the International Labour Organisation, Walk Free Foundation and a United Nations Agency released the "Global Estimates of Modern Slavery: Forced Labour and Forced Marriage."

The IB in its note had told the Prime Minister's Office that the report would harm India's image and hence there is an urgent need to counter it and also discredit the information. The IB said that there are several corporations abroad which specifically fund NGOs to focus on alleged slavery in South India's textile industry. This amounts to 40 per cent of India's textile exports and such reports could damage the country's reputation.

The report specifically focused on the global documentation on slavery. The IB said that the document shows India as the home to the highest number of slaves in the country. A strong campaign to change the narrative and more importantly discredit the information is needed, the IB said.

In a strongly worded rebuttal to the report, the Labour Ministry said that the there is no specific finding, barring a mention that 17,000 people were interviewed for the survey. Further the ministry also said that neither the central government was consulted, nor was its authenticity established.

We would like to know the basis on which the data has been verified for credibility when apparently it has been neither verified with any official data source including that of ILO nor any national governments have been consulted regarding the survey methodology.

The next step by the government would be to counter this report on the international level. Further the government also plans on conducting its own survey.

OneIndia News