My research in India shows that being “rescued” in no way guarantees freedom. Many of the people I spoke with had been forced to return to the exploitative working conditions that they had supposedly been freed from.

So what is it actually like to be “freed”?

I spoke to 31 people who had been “rescued” by NGOs from bonded labour in a variety of environments from construction sites and stone-cutting to domestic and sanitation work. They told me of a devastating gap between the promises of liberation and the harsh realities they faced.

For all of them, genuine freedom has remained elusive.