The brick maker enslaved for 18 years and counting

Ashraf has been in bonded labour since he took a loan to get married.

LAHORE:

For someone who makes bricks, the foundations of Ashraf’s life have been smashed to pieces.

Ashraf has been working and living at a brick kiln on the outskirts of Lahore for 18 years. He makes around a thousand bricks every day for the daily wage of 400 rupees – out of which 150 rupees is taken away from him as a payment against a loan he took from his employer, the brick kiln owner.

“I took Rs50,000 in 1993 to get married, but due to the interest payments on it I still owe Rs200,000 to the owner,” he says.

Ashraf does not work alone; his wife and seven children help him out. “I cannot make the required amount of bricks alone, so I need the extra help,” he says. Every month, Asif, who manages the brick kiln, makes Ashraf put his thumb print on a paper that states the amount of the loan still unpaid, and according to Ashraf the amount is always increasing. “I am not educated so I don’t understand it, but what can I do?”

“If I protest, I will be beaten by them, as they have done with others,” Ashraf says. He also alleges that the local police are involved in the bonded labour industry.

“Once a man tried to escape, but he was caught by the police and was booked for the charge of robbery and is in jail now, after which we never tried to do anything that may land us in trouble,” he adds. Along with low pay, Ashraf’s working conditions fall well short of decent standards. A Christian by faith, he says he is not allowed any off days, and cannot even go to church on Sunday for prayers.

Poverty a stepping-stone to slavery

While the son has been enslaved for 18 years, Ashraf’s father, Ashiq, a retired brick-maker now, is the guarantor of the loan his son took.

He says that even if Ashraf manages to escape from the owner, Ashiq may have to give up his only one-room house, which he made with his lifetime savings, as the brick owner knows where he lives.

“I was in debt too, but I was lucky enough to get out of it when the government took action in the case Asma Jahangir fought for us more than two decades ago. I got the debt written off,” he recalls.

Although Ashiq was freed from slavery, his children could not escape falling into the same trap. He says all four of his sons are enslaved at different brick kilns around the Wagha Border area, the location of many brick factories. All the sons are in debt, ranging from Rs40,000 to Rs200,000. “I told my children not to take loans but poverty forced them to,” he explains.

Implementing the Abolition of Bonded Labour Act 1992

For seven years Afzal Guraya has been the field coordinator for a labour group that fights for the rights of brick-kiln workers. He has fought more than 1,100 cases in different courts to free enslaved people, but says there has been not a single instance where the judiciary took action against the owner.

“Unless the owners are punished, things will not change. We have been able to free people from slavery but what use is it if the brick kiln owners are not punished either,” he complains.

Guraya says that during his visits he usually finds brick kiln workers refusing to talk to him about their plight, as they fear repercussions once he is gone. Like Ashraf, he also mentions police complicity: “It’s the nexus between the police and the brick kiln owner that needs to be broken.”

According to the International Labour Organisation, Asia accounts for by far the biggest share of the world’s forced labourers, with bonded labour systems a particular problem in South Asia.

In 1999, Human Rights Watch estimated that India was home to some 40 million bonded labourers. In Pakistan, over one million bonded labourers are currently enslaved in the brick kiln industry alone.

Slavery through generations

Ashraf says he knows that he is bonded in labour at the brick-kiln factory but he is powerless to change his situation. His owner, he says, is powerful – and Ashraf is fearful, although he does say he may be able to pay the loan back if he is allowed to work somewhere else.

“I don’t think I will be able to pay the loan in my lifetime; maybe my children will do so,” he concludes.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 2^nd, 2011.