The dynamics of bonded labour

Despite legislation, problem of bonded labour continues to persist, affecting not only men, but also women, children.

The bonded labour phenomenon is aptly described as modern-day slavery. Many poor workers around the world keep falling victim to debt bondage, usually by taking advance payments in lieu of employment, or else they are trapped into working off debt incurred by other family members. Bonded labour also remains rampant across South Asia as well, including in Pakistan.

The Constitution of Pakistan clearly prohibits all forms of forced labour as enunciated in Article 11. Our federal legislature also passed the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act in 1992, which declared illegal exploitative labour or service arrangements resulting from preconditions tied to loans or advances. Yet the problem of bonded labour continues to persist, affecting not only men, but also women and children.

Some estimates place the number of bonded workers across the country to be over one million. But since comprehensive or reliable data on bonded labour is not available, the estimates vary widely. Moreover time-series data is not available, so it is also not possible to say with any level of certainty if bonded labour has increased or fallen.

The most widely and deeply affected forms of bonded labour in Pakistan remain prevalent amongst landless sharecroppers (haris) and brick-makers (patheras). Incidents of agricultural bonded labourers kept in confinement by landlords are not uncommon, nor is the sight of entire families being subjected to work on brick kilns to pay off insurmountable debts hard to find. Recent assessments of bonded labour across Pakistan have also begun pointing out that elements of coercion and debt bondage are not necessarily confined to a couple of specific sectors or geographic areas.

Destitute and desperate families have begun taking advance payments and are thus being obligated to work for low wages in several professions, including domestic work, tanneries, glass bangle-making, mining and in manufacturing sweatshops around the country. Children working in auto-workshops as apprentices or in small restaurants can also become trapped into bonded labour, if their elders have taken advance payments from their places of employment. Besides indebtedness itself, the extraction of work through the use of coercive threats is also present in illicit activities such as prostitution or in begging mafias.

Furthermore, it is suspected that disasters, including both natural catastrophes and man-made crises, are exacerbating bonded labour. While there is again a dearth of reliable data available, it is quite probable that a major earthquake, recurrent floods and ongoing internal displacements due to conflict in the northern areas have led to a spike in bonded labour over the past few years.

Several cases are brought to the courts each year, especially in Sindh, where bonded haris or brick kiln workers are freed from debt obligation, without taking any significant action against those who have subjugated them into bondage. But there is an overall lack of institutional capacity to realise the declared policy and legislative intention to eradicate bonded labour. District Vigilance Committees were to be set up under the Bonded Labor System (Abolition) Act 1992 to monitor the bonded labour problem, but they have not really been activated in many districts, and even where they exist, they have not been able to effectively monitor or curb bonded labour. The changes implied by the devolution process, its reversal and then introduction of the 18^th Amendment have further complicated matters.

Ultimately, a phenomenon like bonded labour is a symptom of broader labour exploitation and desperation of the workforce. A range of contributing factors include low wages and the absence of protective social or state organisations to protect workers, especially in the informal sector, from being so glaringly exploited. The government must strengthen its labour inspection capacity, take stricter action against those engaging in bonded labour and simultaneously offer increased protection for the exploited workforce, through the provision of social security and access to other social safety nets such as the Benazir Income Support Programme.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 20^th, 2011.