Daily Times

“This injustice I face is not my fate” — Veerji Kolhi (advocate/social activist, involved in bonded labour for four years.)
Bonded labour is an extensive form of slavery. It is a system of forced labour, under which a debtor enters or is presumed to have entered into an agreement with the creditor for doing work in consideration of a said amount, which sometimes is of a substantial nature. As defined by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), “A bonded labourer refers to a worker who renders service under conditions of bondage arising from economic considerations, notably indebtedness through a loan or advance. When debt is the root cause of the bondage, the implication is that the worker (or dependents or heirs) is tied to a particular creditor for a specified period until the loan is repaid.” Bonded labour exists in all areas of Pakistan in one way or another. It exists in agriculture with farmers working in the fields, brick kilns and even in factories and mines.
“Ten years ago, we had drought in our village, Koya Nagarparkar, and we had to migrate to Umarkot to a feudal lord’s farm. The feudal lord offered us work and good wages, so we started working there. His men followed us while we worked and made our lives very hard, especially for our young unmarried girls. The men who married women from other villages were told that the feudal lord would consummate the first night of marriage because he bore the expenses of the wedding. Men and women used to work separately and we did not see our men for six months in the rainy season. Many people were killed and buried in the fields where they would run over the remains with a tractor at night removing any trace of the corpse. They also made life very hard for my husband. One day, they called him to the meeting area and offered him money. For two days nobody knew where he was and on the third day we received his dead body” – Punni (documented by Mehrgarh, a centre for learning)
Bonded labour is deeply rooted in the exploitative feudal system, which operates on power hierarchies, absolute control over people’s true democratic rule and elected democracies, and has been further worsened by the recent devastating economic situation in Pakistan that has pushed countless people below the poverty line. From taking loans for marriages and medical assistance to simply surviving and feeding oneself, individuals not only pledge themselves but their entire families into bonded labour. Illiteracy has played its part in worsening the situation as people with financial needs are tricked into taking loans that are impossible to pay off in the given time frame and, therefore, are passed on down in the family.
High interest rates, low wages and the employers’ negligent attitude towards labourers are just some of the reasons a loan is impossible to pay off. In a majority of the cases, the employer tampers with loan records and coerces the labourer to work indefinitely or face the consequences. The debt accumulated is passed down from generation to generation thereby creating an irreversible cycle of slavery. Bonded child labour is also a result of the peshgi system where a family member takes advance payment from an employer and in return pledges the child to work until the loan is paid off. The landed aristocracy has either maintained strong ties with elected assemblies or are sometimes even a part of them. Similarly, as a controlled mechanism, they have kept strong ties with the law enforcing agencies and have left little room for them to operate on their own.
The imbalance between the economic and social structure mainly leads people into bonded labor, as on one hand there is high concentration of ownership, power and influence while on the other hand there are people with no ownership or means of production, neither any social standing or security.
“We were like slaves that they have purchased. I cannot even tell you how we suffered. They used to do whatever they felt like doing to us. We were only given enough food to keep us alive. If we died, they would lose their labourers and the work would stop.” – Wakeelan Rajput from Khanewal (activist/president of the brick kiln union, Azad Nagar).
There have been anti-slavery laws but when the ILO and Asian Bank conducted a survey, the results showed that about two million people were involved in bonded labour. The issue was raised and the Bonded Labour Abolition Act 1992 was introduced. The law was passed in 1992 and its rules in 1995 so it was not used for three years. This law states that an individual living in a society cannot be bound under any circumstance or agreement, and if any loan is granted under any agreement, after the enactment of this law, it would be considered invalid. Most importantly, a district vigilance committee was to be made in every district to monitor its implementation but, unfortunately, from 1995 to 2015, we cannot be certain that even one such vigilance committee has been made in every district. There was one set up in Hyderabad but limited initiatives have been taken under it.
Regrettably, this law has hardly been used for charging violators and, despite the declaration of bonded labour as a crime under the Pakistan Penal Code, no violator has been charged with any punishment. The only result of these cases has been the liberation of slaves from bondage but the crimes reported by the victims like imprisoning them, putting them in chains, rape of women and murder of their family members, have gone unacknowledged. Several reasons have been used to justify non-implementation including the change in the third tier of governance through local bodies where magistrates cease to exist and an alternative term comes up. The federal law minister sent out instructions to cover this change in each law through a notification; a generic notification was sent to cover any act to change the terminology to match the local body system but still did not help in its implementation.
After the 18th Amendment, the provinces are expected to take charge of their portfolios. It is recommended that the Bonded Labour Act 1992 get implemented first and then the provinces can take their own decisions on its amendments. Federal and provincial government should ensure the enactment of this law and make sure that conviction for violators sets a precedent. It is their duty to take this legislation seriously and properly notify the relevant authorities for its implementation. It is also recommended that the election commission disqualify political candidates who are engaged in the practice of bonded labour on their lands. The government must work in close collaboration with civil society, which has collected data and information to play a greater role in the proper allocation and distribution of the funds for their rehabilitation.

The writer works in the development sector