Debt bondage (forcing people to work to repay loans) is prohibited under United Nations, International Labor Organization, Indian, Pakistani, and Nepalese laws. While this legislation is a prerequisite for challenging bonded labor, it has not been enough to ensure that it is effectively eliminated. This is because those who keep and control bonded laborers are able to bribe officials to ensure that cases are not investigated or do not reach the courts. Also, intimidation, threats, and actual violence are used to prevent bonded laborers or nongovernmental organizations seeking their release through the law. And, because they are from Dalit (untouchable) and lowest caste groups, bonded laborers are subjected to discrimination and gross violation of many of their human rights. There continues to be considerable controversy regarding the number of people actually held in bondage. Although most official statistics cover male bonded laborers only, it is commonly found that other family members are also working to pay off loans from landlords and employers but are not included in statistics. In India, there are an estimated 40 million bonded laborers. In Pakistan, the official number is said by the government to be between 5,000 and 7,000 persons, but there is dispute that this is an unrealistically low number. It is estimated that in Nepal there are between 70,000 and 110,000 persons in debt bondage in just one area of the country. The issue has been consistently raised by Anti-Slavery International only to be told that legal and administrative arrangements are in hand to deal with the problem; the number of people in bondage is not a significant problem; and details of program initiatives that will resolve the problem. Recommendation is that the U.N. Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights inform the Governments of India, Pakistan, and Nepal that debt bondage is an intolerable form of slavery and must be eradicated. 5 references