Bonded Labor – kasur, Punjab, Pakistan
Bonded labor is a very common problem of Pakistan especially in remote areas. In this system, the poor take loan from some brick kiln owner or a landlord and whole of the families of poor get stuck in this brutal system. They keep working for their landlords day and night, for generations but cannot repay the loan whole of their lives apart from their hardship.
This particular documentary video is a story of such a family who is stuck in this system where bonded labor is taken by them and whole of the family including young toddlers are forced to work at a brick kiln. This lady named as Martha tells her story that she works on the brick kiln of Rana Younas. She has been working on this kiln for the past seven years.
She tells that the kiln owner asks her to do forced labor and if she refuses to do so, he demands the loan taken by her to be returned on daily basis. Unable to do so, she comes to work with all her children accompanying her as she has to feed herself, her husband and children and needs money for that. Her husband got a leg fracture a year back while working on the kiln and cannot work since then. The owner of the kiln has not helped the suffering family in any way possible.
Martha and her children describe their misery by telling that they cannot go to school and get any education. They are not paid the legal wage rate and get a deduction of 125 rupees daily as a loan repayment of 60,000 rupees. So, they are left with just 300 rupees daily as their wage which is definitely not enough to cover the basic necessities, education and health facilities of a big family like that of Shareef and Martha.
There are many families who have a somewhat same story as that of Martha and many poor souls are working as slaves and getting poorer with time.
This particular documentary video is a story of such a family who is stuck in this system where bonded labor is taken by them and whole of the family including young toddlers are forced to work at a brick kiln. This lady named as Martha tells her story that she works on the brick kiln of Rana Younas. She has been working on this kiln for the past seven years.
She tells that the kiln owner asks her to do forced labor and if she refuses to do so, he demands the loan taken by her to be returned on daily basis. Unable to do so, she comes to work with all her children accompanying her as she has to feed herself, her husband and children and needs money for that. Her husband got a leg fracture a year back while working on the kiln and cannot work since then. The owner of the kiln has not helped the suffering family in any way possible.
Martha and her children describe their misery by telling that they cannot go to school and get any education. They are not paid the legal wage rate and get a deduction of 125 rupees daily as a loan repayment of 60,000 rupees. So, they are left with just 300 rupees daily as their wage which is definitely not enough to cover the basic necessities, education and health facilities of a big family like that of Shareef and Martha.
There are many families who have a somewhat same story as that of Martha and many poor souls are working as slaves and getting poorer with time.