SPARC has always been interested in the issue of bonded labor with special reference to children. It sees it as a worst form of human rights violation, and a worst form of child labor in the context of children. Consequently, despite not being funded by any donor, it took out a brochure in English and Urdu titled “Bonded Labor: Free to Starve”, and distributed 10,000 copies of each of the two versions throughout Pakistan. This brochure highlighted the salient features of the Bonded Labor System (Abolition) Act 1992, and the criminal laws, and the Constitutional provisions that forbid bonded labor. Recently, the brochure has been re-printed in Urdu and Sindhi, with the cooperation of Trócaire, and more than 40,000 copies are being distributed throughout Pakistan, particularly Sindh, where the problem is acute.
Together with Trócaire, SPARC in October 2004 launched a project to create awareness about the issue amongst the legal community. The project is being carried out in Sindh, and the Punjab. In this regard, SPARC’s teams are addressing various bar associations in the interior of Sindh and the south of Punjab, and are also trying to activate the vigilance committees. There is a constant endeavor on SPARC’s part to create awareness about the existence of bonded labor in Pakistan, as there is a constant denial of this problem by the authorities.
Despite measures taken by the government, there has been little improvement in the bonded labor system: vigilance committees remain dormant, the Fund established for the rehabilitation and welfare of freed bonded laborers remains unutilized, and there have been no major arrests or convictions under the law.
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The lack of implementation and enforcement of the law suggests a low level of awareness amongst the legal community as well as the general public, weaknesses in the legal provisions and an overall strong feudal hold over the law enforcement and bureaucratic elite of the country.
There is a need to identify these weaknesses, take a fresh look at the protection measures offered by the federal and provincial governments, and devise new recommendations and changes in the current system and strengthen the positive, but inactive provisions of the current law and policy.
SPARC’s project is based on the assumption that this can be best achieved through engaging the stakeholders, the lawyers, policy makers, bonded labor activists and the bonded laborers themselves in a consultative process through which these new recommendations will emerge. And on the basis of these recommendations, a strong case can be put to the policy makers at the federal level for renewed thought and action.
SPARC has also been a member of the CWA (Child Workers in Asia) South Asian Task Force on Bonded Child Labor since its inception in 2000. In a recent meeting held in Lahore in March 2005, SPARC was elected as the convener of this Task Force with effective from January 2006.
Bonded Child Labor in Pakistan
Bonded labor, also called debt bondage, is defined as a form of slavery by the Abolition of Forced Labor Convention 1957 (No 105), and a form of forced labor under ILO Forced Labor Convention 1930 (No 29).
Millions of children remain bonded in South Asia simply because their parents are bonded to their masters or landlords due to debts or loans. Almost all South Asian societies bear this burden. However it is more prevalent in India, Pakistan and Nepal.
Bonded labor, also called
debt bondage or peshgi, is a form of slavery in which
poor workers, instead of taking wages in exchange for
their work, take advance payment from an employer at exorbitant
interest rates, and in return pledge themselves, or one
or more members of their family to work until the loan
is paid off.
Universally recognised as slavery, the debt bondage of
children and adults has been proscribed in international
laws on slavery and forced labour for many years. Most
recently, child debt bondage has been defined by the International
Labour Organization (ILO) as a ‘worst form of child
labour’ – and therefore is to be considered
an unconditional priority for eradication.
A person can also become a bonded laborer when he or she is tricked into taking a loan. The person is forced to work long hours for little or no pay, often for seven days a week in order to repay the debt. The loan seldom gets paid back mainly due to the high interest rates, and passes from one generation to another. As a result entire families and future generations are held in bondage, working for the employer, with little hope of escaping the debt trap. Threats and violence are used to prevent people escaping from this form of Contract labor is another form of bondage in which a parent or employer contracts the labor of a child or employee to someone else in return for a cash advance. The peshgi is paid to a parent or guardian, who then provides the child to work off the debt.
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| • | Violation of Rights |
| • | The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that no one shall be held in slavery or servitude. |
| • | The ILO Forced Labor Convention 1930 (No. 29), which requires the suppression of the use of forced or compulsory labor in all its form. |
| • | Was the only Pakistani NGO to submit an Alternative Report to the Committee on the Rights of the Child in 2003, when the Committee was considering Pakistan’s Second Report; |
| • | The ILO Minimum Age Convention 1973 (No. 173), which prohibits the employment of children in hazardous work and employment. |
| • | The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989, which requires countries to provide for the protection of the child from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous to or to interfere with the child’s education, health, physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development; to take all measures to prevent the abduction of, the sale of or traffic in children for any purpose or in any form; and to protect the child against all forms of exploitation prejudicial to any aspect of the child’s welfare. |
| • | The ILO Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labor (No 182), which lists three absolute categories of Worst Forms of Child Labor: all forms of slavery, use in illegal activities and hazardous works. |
The phenomenon of child labor is embedded
in the socio-culture of South Asian societies. It is due to illiteracy, poverty, traditional beliefs, values, customs and attitudes that child bondage persists. These children are denied their basic human rights, including education, basic health facilities and often they are forced to work long hours in unhealthy working conditions. They are sometimes treated cruelly and denied any pay. Children are the most vulnerable of all workers and they are sometimes bonded or forced to work alone, separated from their families.Home | Bonded Labor | 1) | 2) | 3) |