Bonded labour has been illegal in the country since 1992, but abuses are reportedly rife in Punjab, Pakistan. According to the region’s ministry of labor and employment round about 20,000 Brick kilns are working in Pakistan, 9,288 brick kilns are located in the province, approximately half the country’s total.
Slavery concerns about two million people in Pakistan nowadays. The awareness of this issue is limited. Pakistan is among the countries with the highest number and highest percentage of forced labour In Pakistan; about two million people are in bounded labour. Even though slavery is illegal in Pakistan but despite of this a big number of populations are suffering because of this curse.
Pakistan ranks are 3rd in the list of 167 countries where human slavery is most sever Global Slavery Index (GSI), compiled by Australia-based campaign Walk Free.
According to the report released worldwide, Pakistan not only ranks three in terms of the prevalence of modern slavery, it is host to the third highest population of enslaved people in the world. Some 2 million Pakistanis – roughly 1.130% of the country’s population – especially children and bonded labourers, are thought to be enslaved, according to the report. The factories, owned by powerful landlords, are notorious for thriving on “bonded labour”. Hundreds of thousands of people have remained locked in a cycle of debt and poverty for decades. Rights groups call it a MODERN- DAY SLAVERY
This Modern-day slavery have been killed so many precious Christians lives. Brick kiln laborers spend their lives in very harsh working conditions. BBC reports https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-29956115 that apart from hard labor, many of them are injured by fire and sometimes even lose their lives. No medical treatments are available to them from kiln owners or the government as they are not considered government employees who get social security.Kiln workers are often supposed to live in quarters on the kiln site, where hygienic conditions are very poor. Children are either not allowed to go to school or parents cannot afford to send their children to school. Salaries are often so meager that laborers can barely survive. Kiln owners put all family members to work, including women and children. Sexual exploitation of female workers is common and in many cases male members of the family feel they cannot react against this.
Most brick kiln workers are virtually made ‘slaves’ through the paishagee (Advance) system in which an amount of money is given as an advance, and the employee cannot leave until he returns that money. Often kiln owners keep increasing the amount of the loan or bond, by charging exorbitant interest rates and by ‘fudging’ the numbers. With meager salaries, bonded laborers remain enslaved, even for GENERATIONS. Any attempt to escape from the kiln results in severe violence, humiliation, increased debt and even a criminal case.
The 1992 Bonded Labour System Abolition Act orders that “No person shall make an advance” and that “every obligation of a bonded labourer to repay any bonded debt … shall stand extinguished.” However, this practice of giving advance money continues unabated.
Poverty
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan believes that bonded laborers number between three million and eight million. Human Rights Watch report titled Contemporary Forms of Slavery in Pakistan notes “”Relative to their percentage of the total population, a high proportion of bonded brick-kiln workers in Punjab are CHRISTIANS.” according to BBC Report
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