HWA shows concerns over non-implementation of law against bonded labour

Showing its deep concerns for the non-implementation of the Sindh Bonded Labour System Abolition Act (SBLSAA) 2015, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown situation, Sindh’s leaders of the Hari Welfare Association (HWA) have said the lack of economic activities in rural and semi-urban areas of Sindh has pushed workers to become slaves and bonded labourers.

“In the given conditions, workers and peasants are going back to landlords to work on landlords’ conditions,” said HWA president Akram Ali Khaskheli, while chairing a meeting on Wednesday.

He said many worker and peasant families migrated to different districts for livelihoods and often returned to their homes with somehow meager resources. “But the current conditions have brought an end to their seasonal migratory movement for livelihoods, and have also pushed them to work for the landlords on nominal wages and shares.”

He said ineffective measures of the government to control the attack of locusts in Sindh had also rendered peasants and workers vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. “The attack of the insect will cause low production of wheat and other crops, meaning extremely low shares for the peasants, which would result in serious food insecurity, extreme poverty and hunger in rural areas,” he added.

Khaskheli said that to address the issue of slavery, the government should utilise the forum of district vigilance committees given in the SBLSAA, which should monitor the state of peasants/labourers and report to the authorities concerned to take immediate measures.

However, out of 29 districts, only in seven districts, the DVCs have been notified, which are dysfunctional and ineffective to play a role to address the menace of bonded labour in the districts, the HWA president said. The governments at provincial and district levels do not pay attention; thus, do not allocate any funds for the formation and activation of the DVCs, he said.

He urged the Sindh government to notify DVCs in the remaining districts and allocate funds for all the DVCs to ensure the monitoring of the SBLSAA and rehabilitation of the released bonded labourers.

He also asked that besides district labour inspectors, the government should appoint peasant inspectors for the monitoring of the implementation of the Sindh Tenancy Act of 1950 and the SBLSAA.

He added that peasants should be compensated for their loss as a result of any locusts’ attack on their crops.