Let’s Defeat Slavery Not Just Physically But Mentally Too!

Today is the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and Its Abolition. Slavery has been one of the darkest acts of the humankind. People were objectified, families were destroyed, and all we were left with were some heartbreaking tales of the past. The United Nations on 23 August 1998 declared that this day would be celebrated as The International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and Its Abolition, to rekindle the fight against slavery. This is the day when we remember the horrific deeds of the past just to understand how serious this issue is and how important it is that the past is not repeated.

It would be entirely wrong to say that slavery has been completely abolished in the modern period of time; even today slavery exists and even flourishes in some parts of the world! This has been termed as modern slavery or neo-slavery. The Global Slavery Index (2018) estimated that roughly 40.3 million individuals are currently caught in modern slavery, with 71% of those being female, and 1 in 4 being children.

Modern slavery exists in many forms like human trafficking, forced labor, child labor, bonded labor, slavery of children, early marriages. Human Trafficking is considered as the biggest form of modern slavery. Many estimates show that around 25 million people have been driven into human trafficking.

According to Global Citizen, India has the most number of slaves, the total estimate equals to an astonishing 18,354,700, which is 1.4% of our total population! According to Scroll, this number is in between 14,00,000-18,00,000. These physical aspects of slavery have posed a major challenge to humanity!

Another aspect of modern slavery is something that no one considers a threat; it’s an aspect for which you will not find any data on the internet. Many psychologists have termed this as mental slavery or the slavery of the mind. This is something which millions of people are facing, but only a few are aware of this. It is one of the most dangerous kinds of slavery because it exists inside you and you create it yourself!

You often see people saying that they worked very hard yet they failed in life. Timothy Ferris, a world-renowned author says that 99% of the world is mediocre, only 1% of people are successful in life! What is the major difference between the majority and the minority? The simple answer is that the people who succeed rule their self; they do not let their mind control them. They have the basic understanding that they are more than their mind!

The basic operation of our mind is existence, it is purely designed for survival, and it doesn’t care if you are happy or sad, it’s you who determines this and if you let your brain rule you, then you are writing your own script of failure. All the sorrow of this world is just a byproduct of this silent slavery. It can be overcome easily. Acceptance is the first step towards reform, we first need to ask ourselves that are we free, or are we slaves of our mind? And accept whatever result your self-analysis indicates. Automatically you will start recognizing many instances when you would tell yourself that things aren’t how you earlier used to see them! You will start finding this world a much much better place to live in!

On this International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and Its Abolition, let’s pledge that we will fight against slavery, because as Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “I think we must get rid of slavery, or we must get rid of freedom.” Freedom is the birthright of all and it should be provided to not only every citizen of India but to every habitant of mother Earth. Let’s demolish slavery, let’s finish this ill practice, let’s fight against slavery not just physically but mentally too!