The government has set up rehabilitation schemes, but landlords and officials carry out every kind of fraud and cheating imaginable. Shivraj's brother Munsi applied for a government grant to set up on his own. Munsi still works for his master, but now owes 35,000 rupees to the government. Leela has managed to get out of debt bondage through government training schemes and the gift of two oxen for helping as a midwife. However she and her husband sharecrop, giving half their produce to their landlord.
Children make up a large part of bonded labour.
As many as 45,000 work 12 hours a day in firework factories in Sivakasi in Tamil Nadu state, in exchange for a cash advance to their parents. Bales found that the practice of men selling their wives into prostitution to pay off their marriage debt is growing. She worked from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. without a day off and was regularly tortured. There may be as many as 3,000 household slaves in Paris and the situation is similar in other Western capitals. Much of modern slavery is hidden behind a mask of fraudulent labour contracts and made worse by immigration laws that reinforce the master-slave relationship.