October 7, 2003	Tuesday	Sha’aban 10, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Oct 6: State Minister for Law, Justice and Human Rights Raza Hayat Hiraj on Monday said the successive governments had failed to fulfil their responsibilities towards curbing “bonded labour” in the country.

He was speaking as chief guest at a seminar on “Bonded Labour and Social Responsibilities”, here at a local hotel. The event was organized by the Society for Human Rights and Prisoners Aid (SHARP).

“It is the sole responsibility of the government that human rights are not violated, however, unfortunately, we have failed to secure a prosperous future for our young generation and more and more children are being drawn into this menace,” the state minister said.

When asked as to what steps the government was taking in this regard, Mr Hiraj said a bill had already been moved in the National Assembly, whereby local governments would be entrusted with the responsibility to oversee that there were no human rights violations in their respective constituencies.

Speaking to the participants, he said private sector had to play a supportive role in this regard, hence private-public sector partnership was of critical importance.

Saima Imran of SHARP made a presentation on the state of affairs regarding bonded labour in the country. She said according to a survey jointly conducted by the government and ILO, 8.3 per cent of children, between the ages of five to 14 years, are working in the country.

The child labour force found to be predominantly male — 73 per cent — and rural area based — 71 per cent. Similarly, 60 per cent of child labourers in the country hail from the Punjab province.

Bonded labour has long been attributed to brick kilns, carpet industries, agriculture, fisheries, stone/brick crushing, shoe-making and power looms.

According to Bonded Labour Liberation Front estimates, she said, eight million children were bonded in Pakistan, and half a million of them were allegedly working in the carpet industry alone.

The main causes of bonded labour are cast and radical discrimination in the society, feudal system that mainly prevails in rural areas and in agricultural communities, unawareness and illiteracy, environmental degradation, lack of political will to bring about the effective social change, inadequate legislative framework and ineffective enforcement of policies, insufficient wages are some of the root causes of the bonded labour.

SHARP chairman Syed Liaquat Banori, in his welcome speech, put the number of bonded labourers at 1.7 million and asked the participants to join hands for eradication of the menace.