In Pakistan, a large section of the bonded labor actually lives in private prisons owned and operated by large landlords. Lalee was once such slave. Lalee and her family – including six children – had recently been freed from a private prison owned by a landlord in Sindh, owing to the efforts of advocacy groups working on slave labor.

That some slaves were freed from this private prison was itself an accomplishment. No charges were filed against the landlord. The manager employed by the landlord spent a few days in a Pakistani jail.

I met Lalee during the last few days of the Indian leg of the Indo-Pak Peace March from Delhi to Multan. She spoke about extreme physical torture perpetrated on the inmates of these prisons – mental and emotional torture does not even count. Often they were branded. Scars on her back bear testimony to the torture.

Lalee’s sister is still a slave, held by another landlord in Baluchistan. Mohammed Hussain, a member of an advocacy group working on slavery and bonded labor says that authorities have a fair idea where the prison is located. However, there is no political will to free the slaves from these prisons.

These prisons hold sometimes hundreds families who are slaves and provide labor for the landlords in Sindh and Baluchistan. The prisons take various forms. Sometimes they formed a ghetto of hutments that are surrounded by a fence. Slaves can go in and out, knowing that the rest of the family is inside the fence and will be dealt with severely in case of any attempt to escape. At other times, the prison takes the form of rooms where slaves and slave families are locked up.

Another story of a slave had received media attention in recent months when ActionAid organized a cricket match between Indian and Pakistani boys in Pakistan. All the kids had a meeting with the Pakistani Prime Minister Mr. Shaukat Aziz. One of the kids was in fact a slave who had run away from such a prison. His family continues to live in the prison. The boy pleaded with Mr. Aziz to help free his family. Mr. Aziz promised that the boy would find his family freed by the time he got home. It has been over 2 months since and his family is still enslaved.

While the prime minister’s office did send a directive to free the family, the note made its way to the local police station where it has since been gathering dust. Aslam Khwaja, a journalist from Karachi points to the nexus between the feudal structure that defines the landed class and the military that defines much of Pakistani administration. For one, children from these families hold great power in the military. In addition, the landlords are able to get the votes of their slaves for the political parties – there is little political will to free them.

As of 2005, despite general awareness of the presence of slaves and even knowledge about the location of these prisons, there has not been a single conviction vis-à-vis enslavement. Even members of advocacy groups are afraid of being murdered as they work in these areas. In fact, there are only estimates regarding the number of slaves held in such prisons – no real numbers exist.

The media has also taken an ambivalent attitude. The national Pakistani media has strongly criticized enslavement but has not attempted to address the problem systematically or in any sustained fashion. They have been content to raise the issue occasionally. The local media has almost completely ignored the issue – again presenting the influence that the landlords have in their communities.

It is also interesting to note that like in India, where most of the bonded labor is from the scheduled castes, in Pakistan, most of the slaves are from the Scheduled Castes of the Hindu communities. Lalee is from such a community and was quite eager to visit a Krishna temple during her visit to India as part of the Peace March.

Khwaja describes this as a class based discrimination rather than a result of religious difference. The upper caste Hindus in Sindhi, he says, are quite well respected. As evidence, he points out that there have been no incidences of Hindu-Muslim riots or killings in many years. The upper caste Hindus also treat the members of the schedule caste with similar disrespect.

Within such a swirl of political forces, slaves continue to exist with modern Pakistan. Despite President Musharraf’s claims regarding democracy and liberty, the administration has no political will in freeing this community. Advocacy groups believe that solution of this problem will have to include land reforms and the break down of the power of feudal lords in Pakistan – a process that is in fact counter to the interests of the powers that be.

There is little hope that this will happen in the near future. What is even more disheartening is the lack of support from civic society and the expatriate community available to advocacy groups and other institutions working on this problem.

Sanat Mohanty met Lalee when she joined the Indian leg of the Indo-Pak Peace March

Related Links
Indo-Pak Peace March
Bonded labour in Nepal
There Live Enslaved Children
Bonded Labor Laws Lack Enforcement