In April 1995 the murder of a boy renowned for campaigning against child labour, Iqbal Masih, received international publicity. He had spent 3 years making hand-knotted luxury carpets for export to Europe and North America. Worse than that, he had been sold into slavery by his destitute mother, into what is known in Pakistan as "bonded labour" and the United Nations calls "debt bondage". She had taken a loan of some 12,000 Rupees (about £240) from an employer in return for pledging Iqbal to work until the loan was repaid. Iqbal was one of many such child slaves in Pakistan.
Hundreds of thousands of bonded labourers in various parts of the world are tied to their employers and places of employment because of loans which they or their parents have received. In March 1992 Pakistan's Parliament passed a law banning this practice, the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act. However, the Government has not taken action to enforce the law. As a result, many thousands of children are still "bonded" in Pakistan, along with countless adults.
After Iqbal's murder, Pakistan Government officials deflected criticism away from the issue of bonded child labour by focussing on the problem of child labour in general and attributing this to what were called " the backward economic conditions common to most developing countries". They claimed the law abolishing bonded labour was resulting in prosecutions and that a series of "Vigilance Committees" had been set up all over the country to monitor the enforcement of the law. Sadly, neither claim is accurate.
Pakistan's 1992 law contains four important mechanisms to make the law work, which the Government has not put into effect (see Box for details). These may seem like "technicalities", but while they remain unimplemented the law is little more than a statement of intent. Almost four years after Pakistan banned bonded labour, it is high time the Government was held to account for its failure to enforce an important law to uphold the human rights of Pakistan's most exploited inhabitants.
WHAT YOU CAN D0
Please write politely-worded letters to the officials named below, expressing concern that the Government has not taken the steps necessary to implement the 1992 Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act and calling on the Government to take action as required by Sections 9, 15, 16 and 21 of the Act.
- Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto
- Office of the Prime Minister
Islamabad
Pakistan
fax (+92) 51 821 835
- Mr Nabi Dad Khan
- Minister of Law and
- Justice
- Government Secretariat
- Islamabad
- Pakistan
please send copies to:
- HE Wajid Shamsul Hassan
- High Commissioner for
- Pakistan
- 35 Lowndes Square
- London SW 1 X 9JN
- to empower judges under Section 16 of the 1992 Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act to try both employers who "bond" labourers by giving them advances, and any parents or other relatives who take a loan in exchange for sending a child out to work.
- to instruct local officiais, Known as "District Magistrates", to investigate possible cases of bonded labour; to order the release of bonded labourers; and to ensure their rehabilitation (under Sections 9 and 10 of the 1992 Act).
- to establish "Vigilance Committees" in every district in the country within a specific time (under Section 15 of the 1992 Act). These are supposed to give advice on enforcement of the law and help rehabilitate bonded labourers: they should be composed of prominent local people and district officials, but few cornmittees have been set up.
- In addition, the Federal Government should tell local orficials how the law should be implemented (by issuing "Rules" under Section 21 of the Act), so they know what to do.