A Supreme Court commission that had been formed on 2 January to investigate bonded labor in Pakistan has reported that none of the brick kilns in Islamabad are registered with the government.
The commission filed its report based on information collected during visits to kilns in the federal capital and the interviews of kiln owners, and kiln laborers and their families by its officials.
A statement by the commission read:
Some of the brick kilns are clustered in a particular area but some are located far away from each other. Scattered and far-away location of brick kilns has some serious consequences for the prevalence of bonded labour practices.
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A news report highlighted that the probe had noted the following discrepancies:
- The responsibility of the prevalence of the bonded labor system rests entirely on the brick kiln owners.
- None of the brick kilns are registered with either the Labour Department, the ICT, social security institutions, or government authority.
- The brick kiln laborers are not registered with either the Labour Department, the ICT, or a social security institution. There is also no legal mechanism in place for the registration of their contracts with any department.
- Most of the laborers do not have identification documents like identity cards or B forms.
- The laborers’ wages are not paid on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis; a complex accounting system that is beyond their comprehension is used instead.
- Most of the bonded laborers reside at the kilns with their families.
- Laborers without families are usually seasonal workers and work in debt bondage, but their bondages end at the end of the season.
- The working conditions at the kilns are hazardous and laborers are not provided protective equipment (other than gloves) to perform dangerous tasks like igniting the coal and retrieving the bricks from the kilns.
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Suggestions made by the commission:
- The laws should deal with the practice of ‘vicious debt’ with an iron fist.
- The Labour Department should ensure the registration of all the brick kilns.
- The NADRA should issue CNICs to the brick kiln workers and register their families.
- No family of laborers is to work as a single unit.
- Children below the age of 14 are to be banned from working at the brick kilns.
Commission highlights via Samaa News.
Islamabad’s brick kilns have been built mostly on agricultural land acquired over a covenant that is valid for 20 to 30 years. The government is currently devising strategies to regulate the brick business, subject to the approval of the concerned authorities.
