Kiln workers’ demonstrations

Kiln workers carry out different demonstrations across country to force kiln owners and govt to increase their wages.

I recently had the chance to meet a few female bonded labourers from Jia Bagga, a small village near Lahore, where they have been forced into slavery by kiln owners who hardly pay them 500 rupees for 1,000 bricks. These women could barely make 500 bricks a day. Out of 250 rupees which they receive daily, up to 150 rupees are deducted as loan reimbursement for the money they had taken throughout the year for medicines or for daughters’ dowry. These people are forced into this slavery for decades as debts are carried forward from their forefathers who were slaves of kiln owners as well.

Kiln workers carried out different demonstrations across the country in Faisalabad, Lahore and other parts of the country to force kiln owners and the government to increase their wages — a story reported in various newspapers over the weekend, but often buried in the inside pages.

During my conversations with a number of kiln workers, I realised that quite a few of them missed the charismatic leader Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, whose death anniversary will be observed on April 4. The workers will regard this day to be the darkest day in Pakistan’s history as the leader who was always there for them, who gave them a voice, was executed by former military dictator Ziaul Haq in 1979.

Bhutto gave the poor masses, kiln workers and labourers his famous slogan ‘roti, kapra aur makan’ and is reputed to have burnt the midnight oil in achieving it for them. But unfortunately, in the materialistic and heartless society we have today, there are no leaders of the like anymore.

The government has labour laws, sure, but barely any heed has been paid to their enforcement – as it is with several other pieces of legislation. It is the need of the hour that the government as well as law enforcement agencies enforce these laws. Indeed, Labour Day is celebrated every year on May 1 and is a public holiday for labourers, which political leaders spend in attending various events and making emotional speeches. But the time has come to cater to some practical welfare measures for these poor labourers who are finding it difficult to even provide food and shelter to their families because of prevailing inflation and economic crunch.

I feel that this is an excellent time for the present PML-N government and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif – whose vision does resemble Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s – to also follow the leader’s footsteps in doing something practical for the poor kiln workers by addressing their economic issues and giving them respect as equal citizens.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 2^nd, 2014.