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| PARTNERS IN GLOBAL ALLIANCE : MEDIA |
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The media is crucial in advocacy for the eradication of bonded labour. It acts as a driver of change both by exposing labour exploitation issues, and by informing and educating people about their rights at work. With the exponential increase in access to information through electronic media, the time when bonded labour within a supply chain could be hidden from public scrutiny is fast vanishing. What's more, the media is a major global industry in its own right, with its own social responsibilities for the equitable sourcing of its goods and services.
In South Asia, where access to decent employment is as much influenced by social as by economic factors, the media has a key role to play in destigmatizing socially oppressed groups. In common with other development issues, media coverage of bonded labour must be handled sensitively and responsibly. As with child labour, the possible consequences of media exposure for the people directly affected must be carefully considered ahead of time. For example, if no adequate compensation and rehabilitation measures are in place, workers can become even more vulnerable if the press demonizes an employer or identifies individual victims.
The media, in all its varied forms, must thus take its due part in the global alliance against forced labour, as a powerful catalyst for social change.
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