The trend of bonded labour in agriculture of Pakistan

Agriculture is a major economic activity in Pakistan, employing about 45 percent of the total labor force. It generates about a quarter of the national GDP. Skewed landownership and exploitative production practices remain significant factors in perpetuating this uninspiring agricultural performance.

The trend of bonded labour is possibly the most obvious example of prevailing exploitation within agriculture. At the onset however, it is realized that this issue of bonded or forced labour is not only highly politicized as well as being lying on the front to suppression in all the four provinces of Pakistan. The existence of national laws such as the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act 1992 also did little to change the situation on ground.

Functioning or lack of interest concerning this practice can be attributed to a lack of empirical knowledge regarding the issue, combined with insufficient institutional capacity to take suitable action, as well as socio-cultural approval of this phenomenon within the context of a highly stratified social set-up which exists across the country.

The disgusting form of human exploitation is also linked to the persistent challenges of widespread poverty and growing income inequalities, and lack of adequate employment opportunities. Before discussing what had been done over the past decade or so to contend with this problem, and what else may be done, let us take a closer look at the complex realities surrounding this issue.

Forced labour in Pakistan, mainly in the form of debt bondage, is found most commonly amongst agriculture workers. A high incidence of bonded labour is found in brick kilns, domestic service (particularly women and child labour), carpet weaving and mining. In the above sectors apart from mining, women feature as a major labour force. Since no written contract exists the worker is vulnerable to all forms of exploitation. Bonded labourers are mostly from socially excluded groups, including minorities and migrants who suffer additionally from discrimination and political disenfranchisement.

Studies conducted by reputable agencies like the Asian Development Bank (ADB) reveal that Pakistan has a large rural-urban gap in terms of social and economic indicators of development. The dominant economic characteristic of the agricultural labour force in Sindh and Balochistan is extreme poverty and low social indicators of development.

Poverty is enveloping and deep, especially in rural areas. Landlord and tenant relations in rural Pakistan also continue to exhibit traditionally feudal dynamics. Poor tenants do not only rely on their landlord for access to land, and food but also for agricultural inputs, which in turn obligates them. Inevitable expenditures on social occasions such as marriage, death and feasts also lead poor people to accumulate debts taken from landlords where these landless farmers work. Often, these loans are given with high rates of interest, which keeps compounding over time.

Bonded labourers within the agricultural sector are not allowed to leave landlord’s farm till their debts are repaid and sometimes till their death. Lack of education to calculate how much money they owe to the landlord, and how much of it is being deducted every month from the overall money made by their labour, these loans often keep unfairly accumulating so as to compel generations into forced labour.