HYDERABAD, April 27: A frail Kailash and his wife Guddo bend their backs all day in the scorching summer heat to prepare 1,000 bricks so that they take home at least Rs400 to feed their family.

Kailash suffers from tuberculosis and at times when the work becomes unbearable for the couple their underage daughter lends them a hand in brick making at one of the kilns dotting Tando Hyder, a small town on the outskirts of Hyderabad city.

Though 1,000 bricks sell for Rs4,500 in the open market, Kailash and Guddo get only Rs400 for their back-breaking labour because they owe money to the kiln owner.

“Two years ago I took a loan of Rs10,000 as advanced payment. The owner tells me that it hasn’t been settled and I’ve to rely on his word”, says Kailash, as his wife tries to attend to their baby present at work with them.

Brick making — the second form of bonded labour — is a manual process and is not done my machines. Like agriculture labour (peasants), this working system is not recognised by the law, leaving workers at the mercy of exploitative loan systems and horrific working conditions. Most of the workers do not possess identity cards, let alone employers’ cards. Only a fraction of them manage to receive monetary aid via the Benazir Income Support Programme.

Though a major chunk of brick kilns are in Punjab, a good number are working in Sindh as well and most of them unregistered by the government. Out of around 3,000 kilns in Sindh, only 850 have been registered by the labour department and that too because of steps taken by the Society for Protection for Rights of Child (SPARC) and other organisations.

Be it kiln or farmlands, entire families work for 12 to 13 hours a day in making 1,000 bricks per day. Though the minimum monthly pay in Sindh is fixed at Rs8,000, these workers get paid between Rs300 and Rs400 per day only if they show up at work.

Vague promises

With a few decades of experience in dealing with trade unions, Karamat Ali of the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER) said that there was a disconnect between ground realities and the approach of political parties and government to solve fundamental issues of workers.

He pointed out certain things which needed to be remembered when discussing labourers or peasants. “Around 92 per cent labourers work in informal sectors or conditions while the parties only talk about the remaining eight per cent,” he said.

He said that structural reforms were needed. Though all political parties in their manifestos had talked about growth in the agriculture sector, none had conceded space to issues faced by agriculture labour or bonded labourers.

Even the outgoing PPP in its manifesto had resolved to ‘promote registration of workers in trade unions, including agriculture and general workers. Home-based, domestic, and, farm workers, and peasants would be allowed to register for social security after appropriate legal mechanisms are devised’. However, the PPP owes an explanation as to why it did nothing to register peasantry during the past five years.

Karamat Ali said that the parties had come up with vague commitments. “None of the parties have been clear on peasants’ issues and labour laws. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement talked about land reforms but, again, in vague terms. Another is the National Party of Balochistan but they too need to be clear on their policies.”

Linking peasantry to unimplemented land reforms, he said that agriculture sector was out of bounds for application of labour laws and when it comes to industrial workers the ‘contract system’ usually has a field day.”

Another problem, he said, was that political parties were not willing to declare that they would not ban unions. “While the PPP says it will fix minimum wages at Rs18,000 it doesn’t explain why the minimum wages of Rs8000 were not paid by this government,” said Karamat Ali. “

He said that agricultural output couldn’t be till lands were distributed among landless peasants. “Parties’ leadership comes from the landowning class. Even industrialists own large farmhouses and tend to maintain large landholdings in addition to their industries. Our parliament lacks representation of workers or peasants,” he said.

He said that unless political parties committed themselves for introducing labour laws in line with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions the issues of kiln workers and peasants would remain unresolved.

“We need to change our economic policies which exclude workers,” he stressed.

Legislative disconnect

Referring to the Agriculture Census 2011, Karamat Ali of PILER said that landlessness had increased in Pakistan. In 1951, 25 per cent people were members of labour unions in industrial and commercial sectors, while in 2013 the number has dropped to two per cent.

Although there are laws, albeit very few, but even they have not been implemented due to lack of political will. Some have also been amended but only to make matters worse.

The Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act 1992 defines bondage and peshgi (advance) payment as a crime but it was not enforced. When women peasants appear for court hearings after getting free, complain of sexual harassment by landlords and their henchmen.

Vigilance committees, part of the 1992 act, were not formed which could have helped curb sexual harassment. Likewise, the Sindh Tenancy Act 1950 — introduced after a hari movement by Comrade Hyder Bux Jatoi who had laid siege of the Sindh Assembly — is something government officials rarely turn to for settling issues of growers and haris.

“The Sindh Tenancy Act was recently amended but, surprisingly, recommendations forwarded by a group of civil society organisations including PILER were not incorporated in it,” said Karamat Ali.“Rather, ‘begar’ (forced labour) which has earlier been prohibited under the act is now allowed, even though it is prohibited in the constitution. Despite these laws the tenants do not have any rights.Then there are the kilns.”

Conflicting realities

According to the Sindh labour department, so far the kiln owners agree to get brick makers registered with the Sindh Employees’ Social Security Institution (SESSI). For this the owner has to pay the organisation a certain amount in exchange of access to health facilities for its employees.

The Factories Act 1934 applies to a workplace with 10 or more workers and some kind of manufacturing process. However, following the 18th amendment, Punjab is said to have passed the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act 1992 but Sindh still hasn’t.

According to an ILO official, Punjab had allocated Rs196 million in the current financial year for eliminating bonded labour but the performance of Sindh was dismal, where ‘such institutions lacked capacity and labour inspectors didn’t pay their visits’.