manual: women workers' rights and gender equality - International ...

How to make the circle of debt:
Exercise
Step 1
• Explain that this session deals with the subjects: loans, debts and forced labour.
• Discuss with the group the concepts of bonded and forced labour, using the following
questions:
- What is forced labour? (Explain if they do not know)
- What is bonded labour? (Explain if they do not know)
- Does one of these forms occur in their neighbourhood?
Step 2
• Use the pictures to explain the “circle of debt” and bonded labour.
• Start with introducing the woman (give her a name) and place the picture at a place where
everybody can see it clearly.
• Explain that she lives in a rural area and likes to start her own business. She borrows money
from a money lender in the village to start her own business. Place the card showing the
money lender under the woman and draw an arrow pointing from the woman to the money
lender (see the circle of debt sample under ‘materials’).
• She needs to work on the rice fields of the money lender to pay back the loan. Place the card
showing the woman working on the rice fields under the money lender and a bit to the right
(see sample) and draw an arrow pointing from the money lender to the woman working.
• Unfortunately a family member becomes ill and she has to use the money for his treatment
instead of for her own business. She does not earn any money now. Place the card showing
the money with a cross under the woman working and explain that it means that she does not
get paid. Draw an arrow pointing from the woman to the “no money” card.
• The family member is seriously ill and the money is already finished, the woman has to go
again to the money lender to ask for a new loan. Place a card showing the money lender and
draw an arrow from the “no money” card to the money lender.
• The woman gets a new loan and needs to work on the land even more because her debt has
increased. Place the card of the woman working even harder above the money lender. Draw
an arrow from the money lender to the woman.
• Still no cash is coming in because the woman works to pay back the loan. Place a “no money”
card and draw an arrow from the woman to this one.
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