Slavery in City of Lights

A villager Razzaq in the interior of Sindh received an SOS call from his younger brother, Haji, employed by a milk trader in Karachi, asking for refuge from police as he had knocked down a girl in an accident last week.
He rushed to the dairy farm in Cattle Colony, where Haji used to work, for his rescue despite the fact that he was not much familiar with the City of Lights. He could not find him there and inquired from the labourers at the farm who told him that Haji might be with the milk trader at his shop in Ranchore Line, off M.A. Jinnah Road.
He got on the truck, transporting milk from the farm to the shop, and reached the shop. The employer told him that since police and the deceased victim’s family were after his brother he not only provided him a safe hideout but also gave Rs30,000 as compensation amount to the family and Rs5,000 to hush up the police.
Forbidding Razzaq and Haji to meet the aggrieved family, the employer bound them to pay off the debt within two weeks or work for seven months without salary. However, Razzaq sensed something fishy in the trader’s narration. He could not believe that the trader could give so big amount without prior consultation or striking a deal with any one of them.
Haji, meanwhile, told his brother that he was not sure if the girl had really died as he was riding a cycle when he had hit her. Razzaq managed to get it checked out from the duty officer at the police station concerned who confirmed that there was no accident of such nature. Wondering how the villager could believe that anyone could die this way, the policeman said, “At least in six years of my service I have never heard of any such accident.”
Now the two brothers were sure that the trader had made a mountain out of a molehill to cheat them and get bonded labour. Instead of going into any dispute with the trader, the poor villagers left for their hometown silently without any fear of arrest.
Though the trader failed in his evil designs and the two brothers were fortunate enough to find their way back, luck does not favour everyone every time and many do fall prey to such traps. This incident is just the tip of the iceberg as over 1.7 million haris remained in bondage across Sindh, according to a study of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.
With growing poverty and joblessness bonded labour is taking roots in the multinational companies and the booming media industry as well though there the bonds are not lifelong. Such bondage is more common among the haris of Sindh where poverty and illiteracy of workers are exploited. The landlords are too willing to advance a loan to their workers, albeit on phenomenal rates of interest. The loan as such never gets repaid and the indebted worker as well as his family is bonded for life.
Sometimes the bond is passed on from one generation to the next and from one landlord to the other. Not being able to read and write and entirely at the mercy of their creditors, the workers get bonded without understanding the implications of their action.
Women and children have to share the burden of the credit and are obliged to work without remuneration for their work. It is psychologically crippling for them to know that they have been robbed of their freedom. Worse still they are subjected to abuse of all kinds — sexual, verbal and physical. They are also kept in chains and private jails. This is the price they have to pay for their poverty and ignorance. They do not have NICs and very little recourse to legal intervention. Local police turn a blind eye to such practices due to their strong ties with landlords and the politicians do not emphasize implementing the relevant laws, after all getting a bonded worker’s vote is easier than a freeman’s independent vote.—HA