BONDED labour is modern-day slavery. It exists in Pakistan as a system of generational exploitation sustained by abject poverty, debt, and feudal power. The recent praise for Pakistan from the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights for raising the minimum marriageable age to 18 is, no doubt, welcome. It follows the committee’s review of Pakistan’s second periodic report. But questions about the high numbers of child brides and bonded labour eclipse the compliment. Underage marriage is enslavement, while the purchase of bricks produced through debt bondage by construction companies and government groups continues to sustain the curse of bonded labour. Lifespans rarely outlast the loans driven up by interest charges. Generations inherit a cycle of debt and abuse.
The scourge does not spare children, who begin life in inhuman working and living conditions. Entire families slog for pathetic sums far below the legal minimum wage.The Constitution outlaws all forced labour and slavery; the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1992, criminalises the practice. Yet, the failure to enforce the law and insufficient efforts to bridge the distance between constitutional rights and their fulfilment have forced poor people into a life of bondage. Punjab has over 210,000 documented kiln workers while more than 2,900 victims of forced labour were recorded last year. According to The State of Peasant Rights in Sindh, 2025, 1,311 labourers in the province were rescued from brick kilns and the farm sector. Patterns of enforcement are reactive and often set off by media attention or judicial intervention. Injustices — verbal abuse, beating, murder, and torture — prevail because spot inspections are absent. As per the National Commission for Human Rights, women routinely experience sexual abuse and forced marriages. Law enforcement and political quarters are notorious for protecting the perpetrators, instead of ensuring legal implementation. Systemic coercion will keep Pakistan from becoming a humane state.
Published in Dawn, November 6th, 2026
