Article on Hindus bondage labours in Sindh,Pakistan

By Hindunet.org

A Tale of A Pakistani Hindu Family

   * To: ghen@netcom.com
   * Subject: A Tale of A Pakistani Hindu Family
   * From: Sanjai Kukreti <av482@freenet.toronto.on.ca>
   * Date: Fri, 21 Jun 1996 00:58:42 -0400 (EDT)
   * Resent-Date: Mon, 24 Jun 1996 11:23:54 -0700 (MST)
   * Resent-From: Ajay Shah
   * Resent-Message-Id:
   * Resent-To: ghen@netcom.com

    _________________________________________________________________

                   PAKISTANI FARM WORKERS TOIL IN BONDAGE
  __________________________________________________________________________
                                   
     Copyright &copy 1996 Nando.net
     Copyright &copy 1996 Reuter Information Service
   


  MATLI, Pakistan (Jun 20, 1996 9:01 p.m. EDT) - Pakistan legally banned
  forced labour four years ago, but human rights activists say thousands
  of farm workers are still trapped in feudal servitude.

  In the southern province of Sindh, about 1,200 landless labourers who
  have escaped or have been released from the clutches of their landlord
  masters live in a temporary settlement at Matli, about 160 km (100
  miles) east of Karachi.

  "For the last 10 years my family and I tilled 12 acres of my
  landlord's sugarcane fields," Karman (one name), who belongs to a
  Hindu minority tribe of Kholi, told Reuters.

  "In return we were given a monthly ration of a maund (37.32 kg) of
  flour and a few grams of red chillies and that was all."

  Karman, who cannot read or write, has no idea how his family debt grew
  to the 400,000 rupees ($11,400) claimed by his master.

  He does remember that his previous feudal lord paid his wedding
  expenses, adding 2,000 rupees to the family debt.

  "Whenever I asked them to show me the accounts, the kamdar (foreman)
  would give me a figure much higher than the last time I had asked
  him," he said. "If anyone dared argue, they used to strip him, tie his
  hands to a pillar and beat him with sticks."

  Karman and his family are among 31 bonded labourers released in an
  April raid by authorities on the landlord's estate.

  A series of swoops on farms and private jails, launched by local
  officials with the backing of human rights activists, has freed
  hundreds of captive workers in the past year.

  Some escaped to cities or to refuges arranged by welfare groups. In
  Matli, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) is using land
  provided by the local Catholic church as a temporary settlement for
  freed labourers.

  "We decided to escape from the lands of our landlord after four of his
  kamdars gang-raped me in front of my husband and sons," said Seta (one
  name).

  She wept as she spoke of her teenaged children who failed to get away
  and are still in the hands of the landlord and his men.

  "They gagged me and when I resisted they beat me up with sticks," said
  Seta's husband Kanio. "When I fell on the floor they raped my wife."

  The couple had fallen into bondage when Kanio borrowed 1,400 rupees
  from a previous landlord, who later sold him to another one.

  Seta accused the landlord of raping her on three earlier occasions.

  "After each incident, his wife assured me that it would not happen
  again," she said. "But after the gang-rape my husband went to the
  landlord. Instead of taking action against his men, he asked my
  husband to pay his debt, which had increased to 28,000 rupees, or sell
  me to his kamdars."

  Seta and Kanio said they had heard that their children were being
  starved and beaten in reprisal for their own escape.

  The HRCP has taken the lead in trying to prise bonded labourers out of
  the grip of Pakistan's powerful landlords.

  "We had been spreading awareness about this issue for many years. Last
  year we decided to take an active part in securing the release of
  bonded labourers," Shakeel Pathan, coordinator of the HRCP's special
  task force for Sindh, told Reuters.

  In June 1995, a 16-member HRCP team visited the sugarcane estate of a
  landlord in Sindh province and later persuaded the authorities to raid
  his farm and release 67 people.

  Freed labourers recount similar experiences of being chained, beaten,
  raped or sold by one landlord to another.

  However, human rights activists say few landlords have been prosecuted
  or punished according to the law.

  Instead, the landowners, many of whom are prominent members of Prime
  Minister Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party, are pressing local
  administrators and police to halt the raids.

  They are said to have demanded that the government return freed
  labourers or pay their alleged debts.

  One deputy commissioner, who asked not to be named, said the
  government had advised local administrators to ease up on landlords,
  especially those who are members of parliament.

  "Lack of will on the government's part is delaying the release and
  rehabilitation of the peasants," said Pathan.