HYDERABAD, Nov 29: The federal secretary for Ministry of Labour, Manpower and Overseas Pakistanis, Farhat Hussain said that the federal government was committed to completely eliminating the curse of bonded labour from the country and stressed the need for cooperation between the employers, the employees, and the government to root out the exploitative system.

He said this while inaugurating a one-day seminar on “bonded labour”, which was jointly organized by the Federal Ministry of Labour, Sindh Ministry of Labour, and the International Labour Organization at a local hotel on Thursday.

He said that forced labour had been banned under the constitution of Pakistan as well as the ILO conventions which had been ratified by Pakistan. He said under the 1992 bonded labour (abolition act), a worker who had taken loan in advance from the employer had been exempted from the re-payment of loan and added that the violation of the 1992 act was punishable with imprisonment and fine.

He said the phenomenon of bonded labour had come to the fore when complaints were received about the kiln workers in Punjab, and added later some other areas where the workers were forced to work at nominal wages including the agricultural sector were also identified.

He said the federal government was fully determined to totally eliminate the curse of bonded labour. He said in furtherance of this objective the federal government had chalked out a national action plan for which a grant of Rs100 million had been allocated.

Mr Hussain stressed the need for the cooperation of the provincial government to make the plan a success and added that while the NWFP government had furnished the plan, the response from the Sindh government was still awaited, and added that the federal secretary said that this plan was aimed at the rehabilitation of bonded workers.

He said the exact number of bonded labour had yet to be determined, and added that the statistical department had been requested to determine the exact number of bonded labour.

He said the district vigilance committees were also being re-organized which will be headed by the Zila Nazim to monitor the whole situation about the forced labour.

He said another grey area which needed immediate attention was the registration of brick kilns and rehabilitation of the liberated workers, and added that it was a gigantic task and required cooperation and coordination at all levels.

He profusely thanked the ILO for financial help for organizing the seminar.

The ILO representative, Patrick Daru, chief technical advisor ILO, dwelt at length on the concerns and activities of the ILO on bonded labour issues in the South Asian perspective.

Using charts and slides, Mr Daru explained in detail the activities of the ILO in four countries — Nepal, Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan.