Modern slaves

The plight of Pakistan’s workers is something we often return to, an issue that one government after another has continued to ignore. The worst situation amongst workers is the one faced by those who work in various forms of bonded labour in the country. Pakistan ranks sixth out of 167 countries in terms of the number of ‘modern slaves’ in the country. The numbers alone are shocking. Around 2.2 million people in Pakistan are said to be living in bondage and other forms of modern slavery. Despite the illegality of the practice, there is no commitment to ending these practices across the country. Modern slavery has continued to persist in a number of sectors, including domestic work, carpet weaving, mining, fisheries, agriculture and brick kilns. It should not be too hard to take on slavery in some of these sectors; mining, brick kilns and fisheries are sectors where the physical location of work is fairly easy to determine. Sixty percent of the labour in these industries is vulnerable to modern slavery.

With a small number of sectors identified for where modern slavery continues, the intervention of district administration and labour inspectors should be able to end the practice. The government could choose to legislate the criminalisation of using slave labour as well as expanding the definition of what constitutes as modern slavery. The situation has led to Pakistan being ranked as the lowest in the Human Development Index within South Asia. Provinces do not keep records of modern slaves in the country. Pakistan’s laws banning bonded labour make no provisions for rehabilitation. There also seems to be little interest from social activists to take on the issues of bonded labour. There are a few victories on the legislative front, such as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Child Labour Policy 2018, but the implementation is yet to be seen. In fact, Pakistan has barely seen the implementation of minimum wage laws in the formal economy. Business owners in sectors known for bonded labour practices are able to rely on political support from local and national politicians. The issue of bonded labour is one where we see much verbal agreement on the part of government officials – but there is little seriousness in ending such an abhorrent practice.