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Children may also be recruited for work or kidnapped from their families and used forcibly in places like brothels. They work unseen in homes of people, are given barely adequate food or health facilities. They are exported as prostitutes or camel jockeys, forced into beggary or raised as criminals by force. This problem is limited to uneducated people, the very poor or the socially neglected or unseen. Often poor families are lured to believe the false promises of the contractors in return for money. They have no better option than to take on the debt. Children are also sold by families or given away to work as domestic workers. While being handed over to the contractors, the children are made to believe that these lords are their Mahi Baap (Everything) from that time onwards and have to be obeyed in all circumstances. Often children are mentally prepared from the time they are babies that they will one day have to leave and work for the landlords/contractors for the rest of their lives.
Debt bondage, regardless of whether parents have contracted a debt that is to be paid off by their own labour or by pledging the services of their children, places children ultimately at the mercy of the landowner, contractor or money-lender, where they suffer from both economic hardship and educational deprivation. The main difference between adult and child bonded labour is that children have not themselves contracted the debt – it was done on their behalf by adults. The link between child labour and the inter-generational perpetuation of poverty could hardly be clearer. Bonded child labour flourishes in different parts of the globe; not only in South Asia with which it is most commonly linked, but also in Latin America, Africa and South-East Asia.
Debt bondage is increasingly linked with trafficking of children for labour exploitation. Rural poverty, coupled with population growth and rapid urbanisation, leads some parents to place their children with agents, not only in exchange for money but also in the hope that the child will receive education or training at the point of destination. In other cases, children themselves make the decision to leave their home. The child victims, who may end up in commercial sexual exploitation, domestic work or sweatshops, may never know the amount of debt they are working to pay off or the terms of repayment.
Why Does Bonded Child Labor Exist?
Poverty and the existence of people prepared to exploit the desperation of others are at the heart of debt bondage. Without land or the benefits of education, the need for money for daily survival forces people to sell their labor in exchange for a lump sum or loan. Parents are driven to accept money in exchange for allowing their children to work outside their village, often in the hope that their child will be better off working for a more affluent family. Caste, discrimination along ethnic, religious and gender lines and continuing feudal agricultural relationships are also key to the existence of bonded labor and in allowing it to thrive.
The Situation of Bonded Labor
In Pakistan, bonded labor has long been a feature in brick kilns, carpet industries, agriculture, fisheries, stone/brick crushing, shoe-making, power looms, and refuse sorting.
Sadly, feudals and landlords take pride in having bonded laborers, especially if they are young children. They treat them as their property, and the poor children seldom have a chance to meet their parents. It is the cultural tragedy in Pakistan, like other South Asian countries, that bonded labor is accepted by the society. There is lack of political interest and social concern for the elimination of this problem. The feudals, generally the powerful segment of society, resist initiatives to free the bonded laborers, as they do not want an end to the bonded labor system from which they benefit.
There are few countries where studies have been carried out to find the numbers of bonded laborers. The government of Pakistan does not keep statistics on the number of bonded workers. The Bonded Labor Liberation Front in 1992 estimated that eight million children were bonded in Pakistan. Half a million were allegedly bonded in the carpet industry alone. Some of these children reportedly came from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Burma. These figures are outdated and no recent figures are available to determine the number of children who are working as bonded labor. The United Nations estimates that there are millions enslaved as bonded laborers in Pakistan. Incongruously, these bonded labors live in a country that has several laws specifically banning bonded labor.
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KARACHI, Oct 27: Parents of 18-year-old Tasleem Solangi, who was killed in an extremely inhumane manner allegedly by some elders of her tribe, have appealed to President and Sindh Chief Minister to provide them protection as “killers are still at large and have not been arrested because of their connections with police”.
