Brick-kiln workers fight for their rights

On Ashura this year, Pakistan experienced another bloodbath. While sectarian tension was still burning, instead of discouraging sectarian outfits from holding rallies on November 22, the state machinery seemed keen on facilitating them. On the same day, a different rally took place in the textile hub of the country. Although it was a large rally, it neither got media coverage nor any facilitation from the administration. Rather, the state authorities tried their best to pressure us to cancel the rally. I can still feel the agony of the double standards of the Faisalabad authorities. Yet, I have no intention of blaming them for their strange behaviour. Instead, I will explain why we organised the rally and what we experienced on November 21-22.

The Minimum Wage Board of the Punjab government under law is bound to review minimum wages of unskilled labour at regular intervals. Brick kiln workers are required to be paid Rs740 for making 1,000 bricks. Not a single kiln-owner pays this rate because the Punjab government is not serious about implementing its own order. Interestingly, while the retail prices of bricks and food items have gone up enormously in the last five years, the wages of labourers working at kilns has risen by only a meagre amount. If someone wants to see slaves in the 21^st century, they should spend some time with these labourers. They can’t leave the kiln of their free will because they are bonded through the ‘peshgi’ system — advance. Note that under Article 11 of the Constitution, slavery, and under the Bonded Labour System Abolition Act of 1992, forced labour under the ‘peshgi’ method are punishable offences. In order to prevent these practices, the Punjab government had formed district vigilance committees and on July 17, the Supreme Court also ordered the Punjab Inspector General Police “to circulate the Court’s directive to all law enforcement agencies, especially the DPOs, to ensure that no case of bonded labour existed in their areas of jurisdiction”. Yet, the practice continues and no one is punished. Contempt of court perpetuates with impunity.

These labourers are also deprived of what should be their due, including social security and EOBI cards. Officials working with the labour and welfare department clearly don’t perform their duties in this regard. Where are the custodians of law and governance? This is the question I put to the Faisalabad commissioner — a decent, easygoing gentleman, right at the start of our meeting on November 22. The administration wanted us to call off the rally while we were insisting that it first notify the implementation orders. We were not demanding anything new; we just wanted implementation of laws and policies in letter and in spirit. After some discussion, he understood the problem and promised to issue a written order. About 4pm, the director labour and welfare department, along with other senior officials, brought the notification to us. By that time, 10,000 labourers had marched a distance of seven kilometres and were now sitting in front of the labour department. We read the notification, it covered all our demands but nothing was mentioned about bonded labour. We refused to accept the notification. With a little resistance and pressure, the administration agreed to rectify the matter. A new notification was delivered to us after 45 minutes. It was read out and explained to the labourers. Jubilance overwhelmed everyone.

For this small success, the labourers working at brick kilns had gone through hell. They were threatened, harassed and some even suffered beatings. Many kiln-owners refused to pay wages on the evening of November 21 because they wanted to stop their workers from participating in the rally. Despite these hurdles, about 10,000 men, women and children participated in the demonstration. A remarkable aspect was that this was a self-financed struggle. Everyone paid for their participation. Each female and male labourer made 100 and 200 extra bricks, respectively, to cover their travel and food costs for the rally. However, by December 11, the administration not only failed to implement its own decision as it bowed in front of the defiance shown by the kiln-owners, we also could not take any action against those harassing the labourers. What is going on in Faisalabad is happening all over the country.

Now consider this: “The state shall ensure the elimination of all forms of exploitation and the gradual fulfillment of the fundamental principle, from each according to his ability to each according to his work.” This is Article 3 of our Constitution. Now read Articles 37 and 38: “The state shall ensure inexpensive and expeditious justice … make provision for securing just and humane conditions of work … shall prevent the concentration of wealth and means of production and distribution in the hands of a few to the detriment of general interest and by ensuring equitable adjustment of rights between employers and employees, and landlords and tenants... .”

Is the defiance shown by kiln-owners not a rebellion? Is the state machinery not conniving with the rich in this rebellion? The late Professor Hamza Alavi, a renowned Marxist theoretician, in his seminal paper on “State and Class” rejected the modernist notion of the state. “The state is thought of as an entity that stands outside and above society, an autonomous agency … has the capability to initiate and pursue programmes of development for the benefit of the whole society.” Our Constitution and public policy is based on this theory. As his student, I remember that he would always reject this position and argue that in peripheral capitalist societies like ours, the state is not an autonomous entity; rather it is subservient to ruling classes vis-a-vis the working classes. The case of continued bonded labour of kiln labourers despite the Supreme Court ban, and denying them minimum wages substantiates his position. An alliance of working classes, women and lower middles classes is the only way forward to end class warfare and rebellion that is being imposed on us.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 24^th, 2013.

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