The word slavery evokes images from history from when slaves were driven by their masters like cattle and treated worse than animals. With the passage of time, this evil tradition has died down but its remnants still linger in many dark corners of the civilized and uncivilised world. There are institutions and research groups that regularly study the phenomenon and sensitise the world towards the complete abolition of this abominable practice. Walk Free Foundation (WFF), one of the many campaign groups working on this issue, publishes an annual study on the prevalence of slavery around the world. Bonded labour has been outlawed in Pakistan and most other affected countries in line with UN conventions on human rights. However, according to the 2014 Global Slavery Index, 2,058,200 people are enslaved in Pakistan. The WFF Index places Pakistan at third position in a list of 167 countries where the problem of human slavery is most severe. After India and China, Pakistan is considered to have the largest number of people living in conditions that can be described as belonging to modern-day slavery. It is reported that the combined number of such people found in India, Pakistan and Thailand are estimated to equal almost half of nearly 36 million people trapped in slavery globally. The report accompanying the slavery index identifies debt bondage to be the most common factor creating conditions of slavery. It says: “The provinces of Punjab and Sindh are hotspots of bonded labour, which is mainly found in the brick making, agriculture and carpet weaving industries. While official statistics are not available, recently it was estimated that the brick kiln industry employs around 4.5 million people across the country.” Bonded labour, also called debt bondage, is defined as a form of slavery by the Abolition of Forced Labour Commission 1957 and a form of forced labour under the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Forced Labour Convention 1930. A person becomes a bonded labourer when he or she takes or is tricked into taking a loan. Subsequently, the person is forced to work long hours for little or no pay often for seven days a week, in order to repay the debt. Sometimes the debt is never repaid and simply passes from one generation to the next. Intimidation and violence are used to prevent people escaping from this form of slavery. The United Nations estimates that there are millions enslaved as bonded labourers in Pakistan. Ironically, these people live in a country that has several laws specifically outlawing bonded labour but none of them of them are enforced. In Pakistan, bonded labour has long been a feature in brick kilns, carpet industries, agriculture, fisheries, stone brick crushing, shoe making, power looms and refuse sorting. Some civil society organisations estimated that eight million children are kept as bonded labour in Pakistan but these figures are outdated and no recent figures are available to determine the number of children who are working as bonded labour. However, the ILO estimates a minimum of 11.7 million people forced into bonded labour in the Asia-Pacific region while over one million men, women and children are employed as bonded labourers in brick kilns. Most of them are in debt bondage. The phenomenon of bonded labour is very common in the brick kiln sector, in all the provinces of Pakistan, with a majority of brick kilns located in Punjab. The workers in brick-kilns live and work in crowded conditions, with little or no access to basic nutrition, clean water and general hygiene. They are also exposed to pollutants, dust and disease. Pakistan has ratified a number of international covenants and conventions that proscribe slavery, forced labour and debt-bondage. The Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act of 1992 was introduced with the avowed purpose of abolishing the bonded labour system, with a view of preventing the economic and physical exploitation of the labour class in the country and for matters connected to it. Moreover, the Constitution of Pakistan, in Article 14, explains the dignity of man as inviolable and states that all citizens are equal before law and are entitled to equal protection of the law under Article 25. Article 11(2), in order to uphold this spirit, prohibits all forms of bonded labour and trafficking in human beings. Article 11(1) further states that slavery is non-existent and forbidden, and that no law should permit or facilitate its introduction in Pakistan in any form. Article 9 of Pakistan’s Constitution is also relevant in that it states that no person can be deprived of liberty save in accordance with the law. Article 15, dealing with freedom of movement, gives every citizen the right to remain in, and subject to any reasonable restriction imposed by the law in the public interest, enter and move freely throughout Pakistan and to reside and settle anywhere. However, bonded labour in Pakistan is widespread. While talking to Raja Abbas, the president of the Association of Network for Community Empowerment working for the rights of brick kiln workers, said: “We need to urge provincial governments to practically enforce the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act 1992, prepare provincial plans of action and take all other steps necessary to end this slavery.” He also said: “We demand uniform enforcement of the minimum wage for all bonded workers, acceptance of their right to hold CNICs and derive due benefit from old age benefit and social security schemes. I believe that the provincial governments must ensure that while implementing Article 25-A and extending facilities for compulsory free education to children, they will pay special attention to the rights and needs of the children of workers, especially bonded labour. Women, children and members of vulnerable communities among the bonded workers live under double jeopardy and the authorities must pay special attention to their security, welfare and economic rights.” I am of the view that the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act 1992 should be applied and amended further to penalise land lords maintaining bonded labour. Moreover, brick kiln workers should be recognised by law as workers and as citizens of Pakistan. Many brick kiln workers do not have legal documents such as identity cards and birth certificates. Without birth certificates their children cannot go to school because they cannot complete the admission documents and, when they grow up, they cannot get identity cards because, to get one, they need a birth certificate. And so the cycle continues. Different stakeholders have to understand the size and scope of this problem, contributing factors and existing response so that more effective action can be taken to end such brutal forms of human exploitation. The writer is a social and political activist based in Lahore and he can be reached at salmanali088@gmail.com