LAHORE: Participants in a seminar on the Anti-Slavery Day on Friday demanded comprehensive labour reforms to eradicate forced/bonded labour from the country.

The seminar, at Alhamra Hall, by the Bonded Labour Liberation Front (BLLF), was attended by brick kiln workers, representatives of civil society and trade unions and lawyers.

BLLF General Secretary Syeda Ghulam Fatima said most of the kiln workers had yet to get minimum wage from their masters as government institutions were also not taking action against them.

She said although the Punjab government had allocated funds for the brick kiln workers but poor planning had spoiled the whole effort. She said the government also did not have data on brick kiln workers and demanded that data be collected so that funds could be utilised on workers.

She demanded that district vigilance committees be strengthened for the implementation of the Factories Act in the brick kiln industry.

She said the government was not taking action against the brick owners violating child labour laws.

She said there were more than 450,000 brick kiln workers in the province but the superior judiciary did not take action against those involved in exploiting workers.

Ms Fatima said that recently some brick kiln owners had beaten female workers but no action was taken against them.She also criticised the practice of booking workers through giving them advance money, and registration of fake criminal cases against the workers.

Pakistan Medical Association’s representative Ashraf Nizami said that class-based system was the mother of all problems.

He said social workers should challenge the class system which had destroyed the lives of millions of people around the world.

MPA Mian Rafiq said that with the passage of time the slavery had been changed into bonded and forced labour. “We should have to take measures to end the new form of slavery,” he added.

He said the country needed wide and comprehensive legislation to end forced and bonded labour.

The participants in the seminar also presented resolutions demanding the implementation of minimum wage at brick kiln, formation of association CBA unions, abolition of child and bonded labour, registration of brick kiln workers through Nadra, ratification of the ILO Protocol of 2014 to combat forced labour and trafficking, implementation of Bonded Labour Act of 2012, amendments to the controversial sections of the Punjab Prohibition of Child Labour at Brick Kiln Act of 2016, setting the minimum wage at Rs1,500 per 1,000 bricks, effective labour inspection system, implementation of the ILL decent work agenda, establishment of a commission for investigation into criminal cases against the brick kiln workers, mandatory inclusion of labour issues in the agenda of political parties, special measures to deal rape cases of women workers at brick kilns and provision of water and sanitation facilities at brick kilns.

The participants also took out a procession from Alhamra to the Lahore Press Club and chanted slogans against the bonded and forced labour.

Also, the Labour Education Foundation held a seminar on under age marriage of brick kiln women workers. The participants demanded the implementation of minimum wage at brick kilns and also provision of social security, education and health and other basic facilities at the brick kilns.

Published in Dawn, December 9th, 2017