A little over 18 million people—equal to the entire population of Chile—are victims of modern slavery in Asia’s third-largest economy, according to the Global Slavery Index (pdf), published by Australia-based human rights group Walk Free Foundation. Such persons are often engaged in domestic work, construction, farming, fishing, manual labour, forced begging, and in the sex industry...Across the world, nearly 46 million people are held as modern slaves, the report said. Of these, 58% are currently in India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Uzbekistan...The survey underlined that domestic helps in India are a particularly vulnerable group, as “work takes place in private homes and largely out of the reach of regulation.” The survey, however, also praised the Indian government for its recent effort to curb the scourge.