Servitude happens because of brands seeking to lower their production costs.

It happens to vulnerable populations such as migrant workers.
It happens when workers are subjected to recruitment fees leading to debt bondage.
It happens in factories where trade unions are banned.
It happens where people are displaced through conflict or environmental disaster.
It happens when manufacturers subcontract work.

And it will grow with Covid 19 pandemic.

Fashion should not cost lives and it should not cost us our planet, our mother earth. Yet this is what is happening today.
As we know Fashion is an industry of industries: it is very closely connected to agriculture for the production of raw materials such as cotton, to the chemical industry for dyes, and to the garment-manufacturing industry in a vast array of developed and developing nations. A garment could have been through five different countries, all with different legislation and definitions of modern slavery before it ends up on the shop floor. With that level of complexity, it should not be surprising that there are issues.

Globalization, fast fashion, economies of scale, social media, and offshore production have created a storm for cheap, easy, and abundant fashion consumption with no signs of slowing down.

Fast Fashion has generated a need for companies to produce garments at a cheaper price. In order to respond more rapidly to fashion’s latest trends, manufacturers need to make more clothes but at a cheaper cost and that happens by not paying employees a fair wage. Billion-dollar companies are able to generate a greater profit when we buy from these companies. Thus, supporting their exploitative practices.

Fashion is one of the most labor-intensive industries directly employing millions of people.

Modern slavery, though not defined in law, can refer to situations like forced to work overtime without being paid, children being forced to pick cotton when they should be in school, women being threatened with violence if they do not complete an order in time, and workers having their passports taken away until they work off what it cost for their transportation to bring them to the factory, their living quarters and food.

The poorest people on the planet and their cheap labor are exploited to make fashionable clothing.

These workers work overtime, sometimes without pay, and return home to contaminated toxic waterlogged streets from their factories. They suffer from diseases caused by living in devastatingly polluted areas.

Producing cheap has resulted in garments becoming very cheap for consumers, which has created a situation where smaller fashion brands also have to outsource to become competitive. A ripple effect that has severely removed for brands, the option to produce in their own countries – basically because manufacturing has faded. And as consumers, indirectly we are supporting modern slavery through the choice of clothing. 

Fuelled by western demand for fast fashion and the need to meet tight buyer deadlines, managers compel workers into "forced overtime", and those who protest may be fired and blacklisted from the industry.

It has been seen that the consumers in the western world when finished with fashion, they export unwanted clothing to the poor nations of Asia and Africa. These “donations” destroy these communities by filling up their landfills and deteriorate the local economies as local artisans and businesses cannot compete with the cheap prices of the discarded donations.

More than half of “fast” fashion produced is disposed of in less than one year. A truckload of clothing is wasted every second across the world.

Even in the present-day and age, men and women, and children all over the world remain victims of modern slavery. They are forced to marry against their will and provide labor under the guise of “marriage” or “contributing in the house income,” working inside unfit for purpose factories on the promise of a salary that is often withheld or toiling under threats of violence. They are forced to work on construction sites, in factories, or on farms.

This labor extracted through force, coercion, or threats produces some of the food we eat, clothes we buy and wear, and the mobile phones we use.

Unethical recruitment agencies often take advantage of poor, desperate people. False promises to children of free education in exchange to work long hours, to securing men and women jobs in exchange for exorbitant recruitment fees, which will come out of the salary. They may hold worker’s official documents until fees are paid and if they compound interest on the fee, a worker may never make enough to pay it back, rendering them a lifelong slave.
Migrant workers are particularly vulnerable to being exploited since they do not have strong social support systems such as families and friends who can protect them. And due to the lack of unions, they may also not understand their rights or how to report grievances.
According to the Global Slavery Index, the fashion industry is one of the biggest promoters of modern-day slavery in the world. Clothing is the second-highest product at risk of being made by modern slaves.
Slavery in the fashion world can appear in a variety of forms from harvesting the cotton for a tee-shirt, spinning the fiber to yarn, sewing the garment, and modeling the final product to satisfy the demand of consumers in Europe, the USA, and beyond.

In Uzbekistan, for example, children are employed to transfer pollen from one plant to another or even to pick the cotton. They are subjected to long working hours, exposed to pesticides, and are often paid below the minimum wages. It has been seen that children work in Bangladesh factories right through to the different phases of putting garments together.

Fundamentally, our rampant consumerism continues to drive slavery.

And the plot thickens. In response to COVID-19, leading fashion brands canceled their prior factory orders and never paid for them, leaving in their wake financial devastation for the manufacturing workers themselves. Giant labels, like Nike, Gap, Levi's, Primark, Urban Outfitters, Topshop, Fashion Nova, Forever 21, and many more canceled orders as well as changing and delaying terms, therefore forcing many factories in Bangladesh and elsewhere to close. Millions of garment workers lost their jobs and were never even paid for the orders that got canceled.

So, how did we end up here? There are a few reasons. 

The culture of picking up cheap clothing in an era of throwaway trends is well-established among shoppers in wealthier, developed countries. 

Global fair-trade agreements have made it easier for brands to make their products where labor is cheaper. The need for an ever-revolving runway of must-have new-season looks never dies. 

And high-street brands offering catwalk-worthy clothes at a fraction of the price prevail. With demand picking up and competition getting fierce, brands have therefore looked to reduce costs across the board and essentially ended up with globally complex and opaque supply chains.

Transparency and Traceability by companies are key. Transparency involves openness, communication, and accountability. 

Many of us today are, at least in some way, aware that the fashion industry is a cruel mistress. 

The True Cost, the 2015 documentary on fast fashion is an eye-opener.

RELATED TOPICS:#Apparel,Sanjay Lal