Word.ws English Dictionary

peshgi

peshgi noun: a form of debt bondage where an advance loan by the employer is to be repaid by bonded labour.

Noun

peshgi (uncountable)

  1. (India, Pakistan) A form of debt bondage where an advance loan by the employer is to be repaid by bonded labour
    • By drawing on an analysis of the football-stitching and bangle-making industries it disputes the notion that the presence of peshgi inevitably leads to a relationship of debt bondage between employer and workers.2010, Ali Khan, “Peshgi Without Bondage: Reconsidering the Links between Debt and Bonded Labour”, in Cultural Dynamics, volume 22, number 3
    • The bonded labour system uses ‘peshgi’, a vernacular for an advance, to bind those in destitution to a life of servitude through a seemingly voluntary contract.2017, Syed Abbas Ahsan, “Bonded Labour in Pakistan – Impact, Challenges and Role of Government”, in Social Science Research Network, page ii

Origin of peshgi

Borrowed from Hindustani पेशगी (peśgī) / پیشْگی (peśgī, “advance”).

Questions about peshgi

What does peshgi mean?
Peshgi means a form of debt bondage where an advance loan by the employer is to be repaid by bonded labour.
What part of speech is peshgi?
Peshgi is a noun.

Words near peshgi in the dictionary

  1. peshcashes
  2. peshcush
  3. peshcushes
  4. pesher
  5. peshers
  6. peshgi
  7. Peshito
  8. Peshitta
  9. Peshitto
  10. peshkabz
  11. peshkar

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: peshgi (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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