Weaving All Day: Shadir's True Story of Slavery

Traffickers lure victims in a number of ways, but one common technique is to promise a job opportunity, often abroad. But what seems at first like a good job where one can make good money, can quickly turn into slavery.  This is the story of Shadir, from the U.S. Department of State Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.

Shadir, a boy of 15 years, was offered a job that included good clothes and an education; he accepted. Instead of being given a job, Shadir was sold to a slave trader who took him to a remote village in India to produce hand-woven carpets. He was frequently beaten. He worked 12 to 14 hours a day and he was poorly fed. One day, Shadir was rescued by a NGO working to combat slavery. It took several days for him to realize he was no longer enslaved. He returned to his village, was reunited with his mother, and resumed his schooling. Now Shadir warns fellow village children about the risks of becoming a child slave.