FAISALABAD, Nov 16: Functionaries of the government seem to have never ever pondered over the miseries faced by labourers who are forced to work under inhuman circumstances in the fields to feed themselves and their children with the necessary foodstuff.

The back-breaking manual rice harvesting on a barter system is still in the rage and landowners ‘facilitate’ labourers with rice instead of cash payment.

This barter system is a source of food for numerous families against labour and Abdul Sattar's family is also among such labourers, who have been struggling a lot to keep the wolf from the door.

Bleary-eyed, perhaps for lack of sleep, Sattar, a worker at a local bakery, said he got a contract of rice harvesting about a week ago. He was at work in the field in Thekkariwala along with his wife Rukhsana and two children Irum, 6, and Falak Sher, 10. “With the help of my family I will be able to accumulate a few kilograms of rice for the whole season”, he said.

Sattar said scores of his relatives and their children were also engaged in a tough and grueling job of rice harvesting only to make both ends meet.

“Four to five kilogram rice of every 40kg was the return of our hard labour and landowners are not ready to enhance the ratio set years ago. We dare not to demand raise in our share lest the landowners show us the door”, he said.

Sattar said the rice harvesting was major expertise of thousands of villagers which they passed on to their wards to steer clear them of financial crunch in future.

“Nowadays I am on two-month leave to harvest rice that will enable my family to enjoy this edible throughout the year’, he said.

An old woman, Hameedan Bibi, who was working in the field, said in her trembling voice that the poor people were working like slaves and those at the helm of affairs have no pricks of consciousness.

She held the government responsible for the poor economic condition of the rice harvesters who were finding it difficult to get along with their meager resources.

“During harvesting days we have to leave our homes only for getting some share of this crop against labour. We are much concerned about the education of our children because their long absence from schools greatly affects their performance”, she said.

Another worker, Akram Ali, said though loading of crop on vehicles was an additional job, the landowner never paid them in cash and compensated them with only few kilograms of rice.

He said the poor labourers could not protest against this injustice for fear that landowners did not offer them contract in the future.

Falak Sher, who was also looking worn-out, said the rice harvesting was a painstaking job and he was considering quitting it in future. He said he was suffering from cough due to his continuous engagement in harvesting.

Dr Iftikhar Ahmed, the faculty of agriculture dean of the University of Agriculture Faisalabad, said that most of the landowners still employed labourers for manual harvesting instead of using contemporary harvesters.

Lamenting the employment of children for rice harvesting, he said the pesticide used in the fields could cause health problems for the children.