The slaves of today

Slavery is widespread across Pakistan & comes in many forms, with bonded labour being the most obvious & high-profile

As has been noted in these columns recently, the problem of slavery is not a thing of the past in our country. It is very much alive and present in Pakistan. It is widespread across the country and comes in many forms, with bonded labour being the most obvious and high-profile. Agricultural slavery is virtually invisible to anybody who does not live in a rural environment. Domestic slavery is also rife, with children being sold into families where they may be used as child-minders, sweepers and cleaners or as virtual prostitutes when they are abused by members of the household that owns them. These types of slaves are seen every day trailing behind men and women in shopping malls or elsewhere — they are seen but rarely recognised as slaves, and their owners operate under the delusion that they are doing them a favour by ‘employing’ them.



The brick-making industry is conducted using perhaps as many as two million bonded labourers. They are indebted to the owners of the kilns, often for sums that are relatively small, but they have little or no chance of escaping from their debt as the ‘wage’ they are paid is eroded by the debt payment coupled with the deductions for food and housing that goes on top, leaving little or nothing to pay off the interest on the capital sum. Debts are incurred for everything from wedding dowries to food and medical treatment or medication. Trade unions are gradually beginning to seek to influence the employers, urging kiln owners to raise wages to around $5 a day, but progress here is slow and a lot more still needs to be done.

Needless to say the employers are not supportive of the efforts of trade unions because slaves have no rights, and no union has ever succeeded in freeing a bonded labourer. Indeed, in some cases they are so dehumanised that they are known by numbers rather than their given names. Campaign groups such as the Green Rural Development Organisation seek relief for slaves from the courts but it is a Sisyphean task. Slavery is only going to disappear with a change in culture. It is going to be a long wait.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 5^th,  2014.

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