Pakistan
BONDED CHILD LABOUR IN PAKISTAN
Anti-Slavery International
Sakina* is 12 years old and works with her family as a bonded labourer for a landlord in Umerkot district in Sindh Province, Pakistan. Her family needed money and accepted wages in advance from a landlord. Over time they became trapped, and now work just to pay a debt that grows each year.
"I pluck cotton and chillies, harvest wheat and other crops and do whatever is asked by the landlord...They beat me and keep us hungry. They say they will not give us food if we do not work... I can't leave or my parents will be beaten and where will I go?"
In previous years Anti-Slavery International has highlighted the situation of bonded child labourers working in the carpet industry and in brick kilns in Pakistan. However, far from being confined to the industrial sector, bonded labour is deeply rooted in agricultural areas as well. There are thousands of children working as bonded labourers on farms in Sindh Province, in southeast Pakistan. More than a year after taking office,
Pakistan's Muslim League Government has done nothing to reduce the number of children exploited in virtual slavery.
Many of the children come from ethnic minorities, formally pastoral Hindu tribes that have a very low social status and are subject to gross discrimination. Whole families can be trapped for generations working to pay the high rates of interest on a loan taken from the landlord. They receive no wages and the only way they can buy medicines or meet other daily expenses is to ask the landlord for a further loan.
Unable to read or write, the labourers are at the mercy of their landlord (known as zamindars in Sindh). The zamindars often use trickery to inflate the debts and make sure they are never repaid, ensuring a steady supply of cost-free labour to work their land.
If he needs extra hands the zamindar can buy up the debts of bonded labourers on other estates; if he needs cash he can sell on debts and pass the labourers on to work for a new master. In this way the system becomes one of virtual slavery.
At dawn each day 10 year-old Kanji* is kicked awake by the field managers and made to give fodder to the cattle. He works all day herding cattle. "I experience a lot of heat, hunger and tiredness. If I am lucky I find a piece of stale bread, otherwise I pass the whole day without food."
At night he is locked in a dirty cell with a tattered blanket as his bed. "I have never been paid for my labour because I am a slave and their property. With my own eyes I have seen my mother and father tortured mercilessly by the zamindar and his henchmen. But I could only remain silent. I too have suffered beatings and filthy abuse. Children my age are playing with other children, and I would rather die than lead this awful life."
Child Bonded Labour
Kemi* comes from a tribal community and her family has been enslaved for over five generations. She remembers working for two years for a landlord in Mirpurkhas District but she was sold along with her father to another landlord where she has been working for the last three years. She does agricultural work cutting sugar cane and taking care of farm animals. She works 12 to 14 hours a day with no holidays or rest days and she has never been paid for her work. At night she is locked up in a hut to stop her from running away. She is 10 years old
Children are the most vulnerable victims of the bonded labour system, not least because they are forced to work from a very young age. The children's labour is taken for granted by their landlord and through their formative years young boys and girls are subjected to the same mistreatment, humiliation and lack of food as their parents. They are not allowed to go to school or have time off to rest or play, and so grow up knowing no other life. Their rights as children are totally disregarded.
Ramjee* is 12 years old and works for a zamindar in Sanghar district. His master keeps hundreds of bonded labourers, and they are beaten if they do not work hard.
Many of the men, women and children on the estate are kept in chains and under constant watch in case they try to escape. Even if they can afford it, access to medical treatment is very difficult under such conditions. Kesro is haunted by the memory of his brother and sister.
"I still remember the faces of my dying brother and sister. They died because my father didn't have money to buy medicines and was not allowed to take them to the doctor".
When the parents die or become too old to work it is usual for the obligation of repaying the debts to be passed on to their children. Sometimes, however, the children are forced to take on the full burden of the debt from a much earlier age and a child's labour is pledged directly in order to obtain an additional loan of money or goods. Families may also be separated and the parents sold on to another landlord, leaving the children with no adult protection and extremely vulnerable to abuse.
At 12 years of age Mohan* is too young to understand why he is detained and forced to work on his landlord's estate. He is only told by his landlord that he was purchased as a slave. There is no one else he can turn to for an explanation.
"I have not seen the faces of my mother, father, sister and brothers for three years. I moan for them. Whenever I ask about them they [the landlord's agents] beat me with sticks and clubs."
He works from dawn to dusk all year round but has never been paid a single rupee.
What the Law Says
Bonded labour is illegal in Pakistan. When the Muslim League was previously in power in 1992, the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act was passed prohibiting bonded labour and obliging local government officials to investigate all reports of bonded labour and liberate both the adults and children involved. However the Act remains unimplemented.
It seems incredible that such abuse can go on without any actions being taken against the landlords. However in reality the landlords in Sindh count among their number some of the most powerful individuals in Pakistan and are well able to resist attempts to liberate the bonded labourers on their land. Their control often extends to the local police and administration and they operate with impunity.
Previously Ramjee's family had worked for a zamindar in Umerkot where they were routinely beaten and kicked. His uncle explained that the zamindar also regularly sexually abused and raped women and girls on his estate. When his family made an application under the Act to the authorities to be freed, they were sold immediately so that they could not be interviewed.
Even where landlords are caught red-handed with bonded labourers they still manage to escape justice. In one case, reported in the Frontier Post (26 June 1996) a powerful landlord, Mureed Khan Maree, was raided by police and found to be holding over 100 bonded labourers. Not only was Mureed Khan Maree never prosecuted, but he was even able to go to the local police station, recapture the labourers from police custody, and transport them back to his estate.
The Government of Pakistan ratified the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention No.29 Concerning Forced Labour (1930) in 1957. In 1997 the ILO Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations reported on the prevelance of bonded labour in Pakistan and repeated its hope that the necessary measures would be taken by the Government to ensure the effective enforcement of the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act. However, nothing has been done.
*The names of the children have been changed to protect their identity.
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