Breanna Fehr, January 28, 2008. 4:20 pm. Labor Problems
Twelve-year-old Salamat Ahmed who wears a smile and wishes to become a cricket player bears burn marks from working up to fourteen hours a day in a brick factory. He describes how he has been doing this work since he was six years old, or helping his mother when he was even younger. He says that his family “belongs” to the brick kiln owner.
The International Labour Organization says that 1.7 million people that are bonded labourers in Pakistan. Even though there are laws that ban bonded labor forced labor often remains through debt bondage. This happens when owners advance money to the laborers to meet needs. Since the laborers make such low wages the loans cannot be paid back right away, in some cases it could take many years. The workers cannot leave the companies until they can pay off their debts. This is what Salamat Ahmed meant when he said his family “belongs” to the brick kiln owner.
PILER (Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research) did a study that showed that half of the workers at the brick kilns are women or children. Most of the children who work do not attend school, and when the female children are not working they are tending to domestic needs. Most children who work at the kilns do not go to school. Over the past three or four years social organizations have persuaded kiln owners to set up small schools working for them. Even though these schools are limited in what they can teach they give these children a ray of hope.
I think it is terrible that these families are so indebted to someone that they have to have their children work as well. Most of these families can not survive without their children working with them. It is terrible that these companies can get away with having such young children working such long hours even with the laws against it. It is a form of slavery; these people literally see themselves as belonging to these companies.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76296
2 comments:
Most people think that slavery is over in the world, but this just shows what a misconception that is. It might not be the large-scale institutionalized slavery people are used to thinking of, but this is clearly slavery, or at the very least indentured servitude, which isn't much better.
I also think it is sad that families are so indebted that they have to work for years to pay their debt off. It is even worst that children are going uneducated. This is just setting the cycle up to continue. Without education they can not better themselves. And that is the saddest aspect of it all.
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