LAHORE: The Bonded Labour Liberation Front (BLLF) says there are several cases of children not being sent to school and their parents being harassed and threatened despite the promulgation of the Punjab Prohibition against Child Labour at Brick Kilns 2016.

Ghulam Fatima, secretary general of the organisation, told journalists at the Lahore Press Club on Wednesday that the situation was dire and in response to the owners’ continuous threats and protests against the new law, it’s time the worker unions came up with a course of action.

“The truth is that the kiln workers’ children are not being sent to school. It has been reported to us by workers at the kilns that a few children from nearby villages are the ones enrolled. Meanwhile, the kiln owners do not spare any expenses or facilitate the children of the workers being sent to schools,” she said.

Labour body hints at movement for fair wages

She said although the DCOs of various districts were with the worker unions on this issue, the lower staff of the labour inspection teams and police did not bother to investigate the situation properly.

“For some reason, unknown to us, they are not allowed to go into the kiln area and talk to the workers,” she said. She said that either it was sheer inefficiency or there was a deeper problem. The kiln owners, she said, had been protesting against the new law.

Hayat Masih, who is a worker at Fayyaz Bricks, Kot Radha Kishan, says they are not paid according to the government rate of Rs962 per 1,000 bricks. “Owners have paid us per 500 bricks because according to them we need to pay off our advance loans, and now to put pressure on us they are paying us per 300 bricks only,” he said.

“We have serious problems of social security cards not being given to us. Owners claim to have registered some workers but these are villagers from nearby places,” he said.

Mahar Safdar Ali from the BLLF said there were 2.3 million workers in Punjab and only 8,000 social security cards. The EOBI registration, he said, was mandatory for any formal industry but not even one kiln worker was registered under it.

He said according to the Factory Act 1913 brick kilns are part of a formal industry. “We want the government to amend the law. We want the age limit of children at the kiln to be increased from 14 years and we want them to reduce the amount of loan that a worker can take,” he said.

One family (four to five people) makes 6,000 bricks in a week, he said, and should be paid according to Rs962 per 1,000 bricks. Despite what they should be getting the owners deduct exorbitant amounts of money on the pretext of receiving payback of loans, and workers claim this payback is never ending.

“I have worked 22 years on the same kiln and still have been unable to think of making my own house,” says Ejaz Masih.

“These workers had put their necks on line to come to our protest, but they are still abused and forced to sign documents saying they will not file cases against the owners. Their women are harassed and beaten up, sometimes sexually abused too. For 15 days they have not been given any money, and they have to live in constant debt including borrowing from shopkeepers,” said Ghulam Fatima.

According to the Supreme Court Order of 1988 and a 1992 law against abolition of bonded labour, the directions were to not loan an amount more than two weeks of pay.

In the meantime the owners, she said, were trying their best to pressure the government and the workers to have the law changed and they were also trying to have cases filed against the parents for letting their children work.

The BLLF announced that soon they would be holding a meeting in Town Hall and would be starting a movement against the brick kiln owners.

Published in Dawn, March 3rd, 2016