The success of digitised crowd financing heralds the start of a new age, with an active global citizenry gaining voice and influence that the current set of power wielders in the world may find hard to ignore.

Crowd financing is the mode of funding a project or venture through monetary contributions from a large number of people, typically via the internet. This tool is gaining currency slowly but persistently around the world, as people grow sceptical of the traditional structures and weary of bureaucratic paperwork.

In Pakistan, some start-ups and art practitioners have tried the tool with varied levels of success. But never in the past did it succeed in garnering support and raising funds at the level that the Bonded Labour Liberation Front (BLLF) did, over the past fortnight, with the help of an American humanist, Brandon Stanton.

The bond trader-turned-photojournalist and blogger post-financial crisis, Brandon, whose work is currently followed by 14.6m Facebook users around the world, met labour activist Syeda Ghulam Fatima through his associates in Pakistan during his visit to Lahore last month. He photographed and interviewed Fatima for his popular Facebook page ‘Humans of New York’.

Inspired by her work, he launched a fundraiser for BLLF in mid-August to support the movement to end the menace of bonded labour in Pakistan. At the time of writing this report, 75,758 people had collectively donated $2.3m for the cause.

Fatima, the BLLF’s general secretary, was overwhelmed by the response and saw it as a global endorsement of the struggle. Talking to Dawn, she said her organisation would use the funds judiciously to make bonded labour a thing of the past in the country.

“We are thankful and feel accountable to all the people out there pitching in for our cause to break the cycle of modern day slavery. As the organisation lacks the capacity to handle resources of this magnitude, we intend to engage experts for guidance on the eventual modus operandi of accessing the funds and putting in place systems to use them efficiently,” she said confidently over phone from Lahore.

“The projects have yet to be finalised but we do not intend to use this money to pay projected debts, as we believe that they have been repaid many times over by the labourers. We would like to enable and empower them through counselling, education and rehabilitation, and equip them with capacity to throw away the yoke of slavery themselves and break free of the bondage.”

Fatima is passionate about creating ‘freedom centres’ for an estimated 75,000 families associated with 20,000 brick kilns in the country.

However, Mehr Abdul Haq, the general secretary of the All Pakistan Brick Kiln Owners Association (based in Kasur), views the whole exercise as a conspiracy to defame Pakistan and kill the brick-making industry. He questioned the credentials of the labour activists involved.

“It is their profession that affords them a luxurious living. They sell made-up stories of misery in their self-interest. The same breed of people killed the football and carpet industry and now they are after brick kilns,” he asserted over phone. He was also critical about the legal definition of bonded labour.

“Which industry does not give advances to its work force? If it is permissible elsewhere, why are we targeted,” he asked.

Government officials approached were either unaware of the phenomenon or unable to offer an insight into the issue.

A State Bank of Pakistan official saw the activity in a positive light. “I see no reason to ring alarm bells. We need to be monitoring ‘funny money’ changing hands. Online transfers are among the most transparent modes of financial dealing,” he said.

“It is great if compassionate people across the world are contributing for human causes. It would actually be better if the government keeps out of this. I hope it works,” he said, requesting anonymity.

Saad Amanullah, former president of the American Business Council who left Gillette Pakistan’s top position to promote innovation and social causes, saw crowd financing as a powerful tool for generating social impact.

He, however, emphasised the need of regulatory insight to ensure the prudent use of the resources raised. “It is very important that the people’s mandate is not flouted and the money is used for the purpose it has been collected for,” he said.

“People are ahead of governments and other pillars of the global power structures in their use of social media. This digitised democracy has empowered them. It is great that they are experimenting with the possibilities and opportunities to collectively create a better world, instead of waiting for the government and top-heavy multilateral agencies to do it for them,” commented another expert.

There is ample evidence of old, long-trusted structures crumbling. The yuan’s surprise depreciation and the long shadow of a feared slowdown in the pace of growth in China has put global investors under great pressure.

Last week saw the fear factor hit the capital markets. International finance has failed to restore its credibility as a dependable pillar of the global economic structure. The liberal use of fiscal stimulus and monetary easing is said to have, at best, bought some time but not resolved the crisis of the old financial order.

“Everyone knows that the traditional methods are misfiring and that the institutions established to deal with systemic failures appear to be too preoccupied with containing the crisis to care for the future. It is hard for anyone to speculate, but the fact is that this vacuum in decision-making will be filled by the tech-savvy global citizenry, which will assume a bigger role in blazing the path to socioeconomic progress,” a market watcher commented.

Published in Dawn, Economic & Business, August 31st, 2015

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