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Iqbal's Struggle; Not All Heroes Wear Capes

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Iqbal's Struggle; Not All Heroes Wear Capes

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This website talks about Iqbal's tough times when he worked at a carpet factory as a child labourer.

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In the mid-1990's, a bright young youth made a global impact on child slavery. Iqbal Masih's life was cut short just shy of 13 years but his powerful and eloquent speeches encouraged thousands of bonded laborers and child slaves to follow his example. He brought awareness and promoted education so that others could stand up for their rights and end the injustice in sweatshops around the world.

In 1983, Iqbal Masih was born in the poor community of Muridke outside of Lahore, Pakistan. His family was financially burdened, and his father Saif Masih decided to leave when Iqbal was young. When he was 4 years old, Iqbal's mother Inayat needed funds to pay for his older brother's wedding. Because the family was already in debt, she took out a loan in Iqbal's name from a local businessman. However, when their debt went unpaid for two years she was forced to "loan" Iqbal as a laborer to pay off the debt.

Iqbal became one of the many child bonded laborers at the carpet factory. Despite working 14 hour days six days a week, Iqbal never earned enough money to pay off the debt, the cost of his "apprenticeship", his tools, his food, fines for his mistakes or the rising interest. Though considered "debt-bonded" he was really like millions of other children who were enslaved to their employers without hope of earning their freedom. Bonded labor, child labor, and slave labor were all outlawed in Pakistan. However, it ran rampant due to a corrupt government and a police force that was living off the bribes of local businessmen.

"Children should have pens in their hands not tools" - Iqbal Masih

When Iqbal was 10 years old he made up his mind to escape. He had endured hot, cramped conditions, air filled with wool debris and countless whippings, beatings, and cuttings whenever his work slowed. Though stunted by malnutrition and weakened by lack of exercise, Iqbal and a few of his friends escaped. He ran to the local police and explained how the employer was beating the children and keeping them as slaves. Unfortunately, the police officer was more willing to receive the "finder's fee" for escaped slaves and returned Iqbal to Arshad, Iqbal's owner. At the direction of the police officer, Iqbal was chained to the carpet machine and Arshad forced him back to work with a combination of physical abuse and starvation.

At the age of 12, Iqbal found a way to attend a freedom day celebration held by the Brick Layer Unions. There, Iqbal heard about his rights as a laborer and that debt slavery was outlawed a few years before. In addition to the law against slavery, the government had canceled all debts with businesses so they could, in turn, free those indebted to them. However, very few businesses actually released their slaves. When others were asked to speak before the crowd Iqbal volunteered. After hearing Iqbal's story, one of the union leaders named Ehsan Ullah Khan organized an effort to free Iqbal from bondage. After much convincing about the illegality of his factory, Arshad freed Iqbal and some of the other child slaves.

The 12-year-old Iqbal became a prominent leader of the anti-slave movement in Pakistan. He attended the Bonded Labour Liberation Front (BLLF) School for former child slaves and quickly completed a four-year education in only two years. As his understanding of labor laws and human rights grew, he began using his energetic personality to speak on behalf of the enslaved workers. He would sneak into factories and begin asking the children about their experiences and if they were slaves. Even though this was an incredibly risky job, his malnourished body and stunted growth made him appear to be only around six years old so he was rarely perceived as a threat.

The BLLF sent him to speak at businesses and demonstrations all over Pakistan where bonded slavery was known to exist. With his powerful personality, he educated the slave laborers and encouraged them to escape. Despite death threats from the organized business mafias that dominated the communities, Iqbal continued to speak against their practices with confidence and eloquence. It is estimated that over 3,000 Pakistani Children escaped their owners after visiting rallies, hearing speeches and attending meetings put on by the BLLF that year.

Because of his powerful story, Iqbal Masih began visiting other countries, raising awareness of child slaves and advocating for their freedom. Everywhere he went he inspired others (especially children) to become involved in the mission to end child slavery.

"I would like to do what Abraham Lincoln did... I would like to do it in Pakistan" -Iqbal Masih

After a visit to speak in the United States in December of 1994, Iqbal returned home to Pakistan. He would spend his last few months of life attending school in hopes of becoming a lawyer to fight on behalf of bonded laborers.

On Palm Sunday, (the 16th of April, 1995) Iqbal was assassinated after being shot in the back with a 12 gauge shotgun. He was riding home on a bicycle with some friends after attending mass earlier in the day.

The official police report claims that it was an accidental firing by a local farmer named Ashraf Hero. They claimed he confessed to the accident after hours of being tortured. Because Iqbal was a prominent enemy of the local Carpet Manufacturer Mafia, The Pakistani Human Rights Commission looked into the murder but quickly agreed with the police story. Despite the official report, most everyone believes that Iqbal Masih was assassinated by an agent of the Carpet Manufacturer Mafia who already held influence over the police and that Ashraf Hero was framed for the murder.

Iqbal Masih is our hero because he took courageous action on behalf of child slaves and bonded laborers in Pakistan and around the world. Despite his short life, his passionate and powerful message encouraged thousands to seek freedom and inspired many more around the world to join in his efforts. There are still an estimated 75,000 slaves in Pakistan Today. One organization, Free the Children was started by a Canadian youth named Craig Kielburger who had heard about Iqbal's story and wanted to help make a difference.

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In the mid-1990's, a bright young youth made a global impact on child slavery. Iqbal Masih's life was cut short just shy of 13 years but his powerful and eloquent speeches encouraged thousands of bonded laborers and child slaves to follow his example. He brought awareness and promoted education...

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This website talks about Iqbal's life and family background prior to getting sold into child labour.

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Baby Iqbal, unaware of what dire conditions his family suffered with, was taken care of by his sisters and played in a vast field outside his small house. However, his childhood bid its farewell to Iqbal at the age of 4, when he tasted 'real life' for the first time. In 1986, the family needed money for his older brother's marriage celebration and borrowed Rs. 600 from a local carpet weaving business owner. In return, he took Iqbal as a bonded labour until the debt was recovered.

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Who was Iqbal Masih? Everything You Need to Know

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Baby Iqbal, unaware of what dire conditions his family suffered with, was taken care of by his sisters and played in a vast field outside his small house. However, his childhood bid its farewell to Iqbal at the age of 4, when he tasted 'real life' for the first time.

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A 12-year-old fought for his rights and the rights of his fellow child workers.

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Pictured below is Iqbal, with Ehsan Ullah Khan, the man who freed Iqbal .

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In 1994, Iqbal Masih, appeared on American TV networks, a thin, malformed child crushed by child labor. He told his audience that he would like to become a lawyer so that he could devote his life to liberating children from forced labour into which they are sold by their parents. On his return to Pakistan, his award was paid in rupees totaling three lakhs.

Iqbal Masih entered a school in Lahore run by the Bonded Labour Liberation Front and passed his four grades in two years instead of four. The American institutions were so impressed that they awarded him a scholarship to go to school in the US. He was to leave for an educational programme at Brandeis University in a few weeks when he was brutally murdered.

On Easter morning, he asked the chief of the Bonded Labour Liberation Front, Mr. Ehsanullah Khan, for permission to spend Easter at home in Hadoke, near Muridke. Iqbal then took the wagon and was home in 25 minutes. His mother asked him to stay overnight, but he was worried about missing his treatment from a doctor for his growth problems inherited from years of bonded labour in the carpet-making industry.

At five in the afternoon, Iqbal took a wagon for Rakh Baoli with his maternal relatives. They were to get off at Baoli while he was to catch a bus for Lahore. The relatives insisted that he go with them to Rakh Baoli and spend the night there, but he wanted to get back to Lahore. But once he was in the bus, he felt like being with his kin, and got off at Ravi Rayon bus stop, crossed the railway crossing and reached his mother's family house in Rakh Baoli.

At seven in the evening, his cousins Liaquat Masih and Faryad Masih, aged 10 and 17 respectively, got ready to take their uncle Amanat Masih's supper to the fields where he was working late. Iqbal decided to go with them, and the three set off on a bicycle. They had hardly gone half a mile when they say two shadows by the wayside. When they approached. they discovered that the servant of a local landowner, Zaki Hussain, was mounting a she-ass in an unnatural sexual act. Mohammad Ashraf alias Hero was involved with a donkey belonging to the boy's family.

Faryad Masih stopped the bicycle, his brother got off from the pillion, as Iqbal remained perched on the front bar. Faryad reprimanded Ashraf Hero for what he was doing, but Ashraf was ready for the emergency. He had with him a twelve-bore shotgun which he took out without delay and fired at the boys. Both Faryad and Iqbal fell to the ground under the impact of the shot. After that, Ashraf Hero absconded, leaving the she-ass tied to the rope.

Iqbal died on the spot; Faryad sustained buckshot injuries. According to the post mortem report, Iqbal Masih received 72 pellets from his legs to the left side of the chest, which was enough to kill him. Faryad Masih received 6 pellets on his left arm and two on his left hand. A cartridge called number "four" had been fired from the shotgun.

The killer threw his weapon in the courtyard of Mohammed Hussain Meher in the nearby settlement. Police station Ghulam Bari, headed by sub-inspector Feroze Wallah, registered the FIR and took down the statement of Faryad Masih as eyewitness. He booked Ashraf Hero under Section 303\324 for murder as well as under Section 12\7\79 for bestiality.

In 1986, Iqbal Masih's father sold him to the carpet-makers for a sum of Rs 13,000. For six years Iqbal worked in the carpet factory of a local employer who took 16 hours of hard work from him daily. (Muridke has a large number of carpet looms running on child labour.) During this labour, Iqbal's body stopped growing and he was threatened with dwarfism.

In 1992, after the Supreme Court held child labour in the carpet-making industry as illegal, Iqbal Masih took out a 3000 strong procession of children against the carpet makers. The Bonded Labour Liberation Front of Ehsanullah Khan freed the children from their backbreaking routine, and Iqbal was taken to Lahore by the Front so that he could be educated and his dwarfism treated. He was admitted in the Front's own school where his progress was so rapid that the International Bonded Labour Foundation gave him the Reebok prize for outstanding performance.

Now the situation is very different. The killer is at large. Cases of murder and bestiality are being "investigated" against him by SI Feroze Wallah. The SI has gone to Ashraf Hero's home in Nain Sukh village and arrested his blind mother and father and brother Arshad. He has let off the parents after preliminary "karwai" but has retained Arshad in jail. When the writer of this story went to the police station with Feroze Wallah on Friday, he saw that the overcrowded jail also contained, beside Arshad, Zaki Hussain and Ali Hussain of Rakh Baoli.

"Samindar" Zaki Hussain had kept Ashraf Hero as his servant at his "dera." He told TFT: "I admit that Ashraf was my servant and that he had stolen my licensed gun and used it on Iqbal under provocation, but how am I to blame for it? The police have subjected me and my brother Ali Hussain to torture. We have no contact with the killer and don't know where he is."

Ashraf Hero's brother Mohammad Arshad, who is a "rehri" vendor, said: "my brother Ashraf was a heroin addict which Zaki Hussain supplied him so that he would work at this farm. My parents and I have been arrested, and I have been beaten mercilessly at the police station. My brother has been an addict for the past two years, and has worked for various masters to satisfy his urge for heroin. He is no longer a part of our home and we don't know where he can be found."

SI Ghulam Bari told TFT that he was pursuing the case with utmost honesty. The Police were conducting raids at various places to unearth the killer. As to why he was subjecting all these other people to cruel thrashings, he had no convincing answer.

Back in Muridke in the house of Iqbal Masih, no one knows what the boy was doing. All they know is that Iqbal was with "Khan Sahib" the leader of Bonded Labour Liberation Front, and was studying there. They know that he had gone to the United States to get himself treated and to get his prize, and that he was to leave for the US again for higher education. And as for the three lakh rupees awarded to Iqbal, their answer is that they have no knowledge of it.

When TFT went to the offices of the Bonded Labour Liberation Front at Regal Chowk, Lahore, the reporter was informed that Mr. Ehsanullah Khan was in Geneva at a conference. The Front office-bearers thought that Iqbal had been murdered by the carpet makers because the boy had been receiving threats from them.

The Carpet Manufacturer's Association Lahore has denied in the Lahore press that they had any hand in the death of Iqbal Masih.

The legal chemical examiner has been sent the medical report of the she-ass involved, but so far no result has been handed down. The instrument of murder, the shotgun, is with the police, but the police want to nab the killer first, so that they can "produce" the weapon from his custody. This will be done in the presence of the magistrate, so that the police can avoid the "hard" part of the investigation.

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In 1994, Iqbal Masih, appeared on American TV networks, a thin, malformed child crushed by child labor. He told his audience that he would like to become a lawyer so that he could devote his life to liberating children from forced labour into which they are sold by their parents.

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This is a screenshot of a page from the 2009 Globe Magazine, where it talks about a prestigious award that he was nominated for.

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This website provides detail about the factory that Iqbal worked in, and the inhumane conditions.

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At 4 years of age Iqbal was sold by his father into bonded labour in a Pakistani carpet Factory in Punjab, in order to get his family a loan to pay for the wedding of Iqbal's oldest brother.

The debt incurred by the loan required that Iqbal weave carpets 12 hours a day, receiving one rupee for a full days work. However, due to the exorbitant interest of the loan, the loan just got bigger and bigger.

After he turned 10, Iqbal heard a speaker from the Bonded Labour Liberation Front (BLLF), a Pakistani community-based organization dedicated to freeing children from such child slavery. Iqbal obtained a copy of their Charter of Freedom, a pamphlet about the rights of children. Iqbal used this to get free. From that moment, he became an active campaigner against child slavery.

On 16 April 1995, at the age of 12, he was shot dead by the carpet mafia while cycling with his cousin in a village field.

DETAILS ABOUT IQBAL'S STORY
Iqbal is sold
In 1982 a baby boy was born to Inayat Bibi and Saif Masih. They named him Iqbal Masih. Sometime after Iqbal's birth, Saif Masih deserted the family. While Iqbal's mother worked, his older sisters took care of him and his older siblings. Iqbal did not go to school. Education was not compulsory or widely available in Pakistan. Very few poor children learnt to read and write. He spent his earliest years playing in the fields until he was ready to help his family by going to work.

By 1986 an older son of Saif Masih was about to get married. The celebration would include feasting and processions. Weddings are very important to the people of Pakistan. Wedding celebrations are often held even if a person is short of money or out of work. Saif Masih was no exception. He knew that as father of the groom, he had to pay for part of the festivities, even though he had deserted his family.

Like most impoverished child slaves, Saif had never been able to save much. No bank would give him a loan. He could not apply to the government for aid because there were few programs to help poor people. People such as Iqbal's father are forced to turn to local moneylenders, local employers, or landlords to get the money they need. In Muridke, many poor people simply borrow from a local thekedar, an employer who owns a nearby carpet factory. In return for the loan, the employer expects collateral, a guarantee of something of value to secure the loan. Said Masih's only valuable possessions were his children. Saif asked Iqbal's uncle to contact the thekedar. The thekedar was willing, probably only too happy, to lend Saif money. In return, one of Saif's children would go to work in this fast-growing business. Iqbal, a scrappy four-year-old, was considered ready to work. The uncle borrowed 600 rupees (approximately $12) from the contractor. Little Iqbal would weave carpets until all the money, including an undisclosed amount of interest and expenses, was paid back. This transaction is called a paishgee, a loan, and it ended Iqbal's childhood forever. From that day forward, Iqbal became a "debt-bonded slave."
Inhumane conditions
Iqbal's job at the carpet factory was essentially no different from that of millions of other young people who work day and night to help their families. At four o'clock in the morning, he was picked up by the thekedar and driven to the factory where he was to work for the next six years of his life. He was put in an airless room, big enough for about twenty looms. A small, bare light bulb gave out little light. It was sticky and hot inside the room because all the windows were sealed tight to keep out any insects that might damage the wool.

Iqbal took his place in front of a large wooden carpet loom. He was to squat on a small rutted wood platform. In some factories children sit on cushions. Other factories have trenches dug into the floor to hold the looms in place. The weavers sit on a plank with their legs dangling into a trench. These trenches also provide sleeping places for the children who work far from their families. Large balls of coloured wool were hung because of the gorgeous flowers, majestic trees, exotic birds, and sophisticated geometric designs woven in the carpets. The ustaad, teacher, explained the process called "knotting".

When Iqbal completed his work as an apprentice, he was then ready to weave carpets. He worked beside twenty other boys. His earnings amounted to one rupee a day (two cents), even though he worked from four o'clock in the morning until seven in the evening. The children in the shop were not allowed to speak to one another. "If the children spoke, they were not giving the complete attention to the product and were liable to make errors," Iqbal later told journalists. Many other freed child slaves told similar stories.

Lint and fluff floated in the air. Iqbal would breathe it in and cough it out. Sweat poured down Iqbal's face as he leaned close to the loom. The thekedar screamed, "Don't soil the wool!" At night he was driven back to his family. He was too tired to play his favourite sport, cricket. "I didn't have time to play ball," he explained later. It didn't take long for the bounce to fade from Iqbal's walk.

Iqbal and his fellow weavers were warned never to leave the factory during work hours. "If we tried to escape, we were threatened with being thrown in boiling oil," he said. "If we were too slow, we often got lashed on our backs and heads." Concentration was crucial. Mistaking a single knot led to fines or beatings. Daydreaming could have serious consequences. The sharp, crescent-shaped weavers' tool would slip and nick his fingers. This happened many times.

Once, when Iqbal was so exhausted he began to doze off, the sharp knife slid, digging into the flesh of his forefinger. "Hold your hand up!" the thekedar shouted. "Don't let the blood drip!" The carpet master did not want Iqbal's blood to stain the precious wool thread. To stop the bleeding, the carpet master dripped hot oil onto the wound. The oil, used to seal the wound, stung horribly and Iqbal screamed. His screams were answered with a slap on the head and an order to get back to work.

Every afternoon the child slaves were given a half-hour lunch break. Iqbal said, "We were kept hungry." The thekedar provided the youngsters a small portion of rice and lentils. Sometimes there would be a few other vegetables added to the meal. The cost of this simple meal was immediately added to the children's paishgee, increasing their debt.

The cramped, overheated conditions inside such factories often lead to disease. Weavers inhaling thousands of tiny wool fibres can get emphysema or tuberculosis. Many suffer from scabies and skin ulcers because of the "constant exposure to wool". More often than not, their posture is bowed because they are forced to squat on the wooden platform for long hours. Their hands ache with carpal tunnel syndrome and arthritis.

Iqbal said, "We weren't allowed many days off. Even sick children were not allowed to rest." If a child weaver complained that he was too sick to work, the chowkidar locked him in a dark closet known as the punishment room. "they also hung children upside down until they became sicker. Children were beaten," said Iqbal.

Although most bonded children are docile and obedient, they are are not afraid to talk back. These children are often hit, chained to their looms, or locked in dark, musty closets. Iqbal would often talk back. He was beaten more often than the other children because, time and time again, he defied the master. He spoke up when he thought something was not right. "Sometimes I was fined." In a way, the fines were worse than the beatings. They raised Iqbal's debt higher and higher. Instead of paying off his bondage, he was increasing the time it would take to earn his freedom.

In factories similar to the one where Iqbal worked, children are battered for all kinds of reasons. One young boy was not a good weaver, and the chowkidar constantly hit him with a stick. A researcher reports, "Once, after he made a terrible mistake, the foreman took a shearing knife and made a deep cut between Salim's thumb and index finger. The boy was so terrified of the foreman that he did not dare raise complaint."

MILLIONS OF CHILD SLAVES

In Pakistan, children are forced to work in brick kilns, agriculture, carpet factories, restaurants, and factories manufacturing all kinds of goods from furniture, and sports goods, to surgical equipment. They also work as domestic labourers, where they are often exposed to mental and physical abuse and separated from their parents, being kept in a state of virtual imprisonment.

Brick Kiln workers in Pakistan are a clear example of slave child labour. Bricks are produced in Pakistan in manual and industrial processes. Brick factory owners get their supplies of labour force from Zamadars, labour supply agents who hold labourers as prisoners while the factory needs their services.

Slaves are bonded to the owners through a system of advanced payments (paishgee) whose interest rates are so high that workers can never repay them fully. Their children and wives are then forced to take responsibility for the debt. That creates a pool of bonded or slave child labourers who are tied to the owners of the brick making factories for life, being unable to escape their "obligation." Workers and their children are traded from one owner to another. Some workers are sold more than 10 times. Wives of the workers are also bonded labourers; they are mostly exploited, both physically and sexually.

No education or medical facilities are available for these children. Escape is not possible due to the close associations between the owners and the local police force. About 60 percent of the children start work below the age of 13. The mortality rates among children are high and they suffer from blindness due to the presence of high degrees of lead in the mud. Blindness among older workers is around 15 to 20 percent. Owners insist that the children work unless they have to look after younger siblings. Mental torture for these children is horrific. They live in fear, witness physical violence meted out against their parents. Their reactions are different from normal children, according to Mrs. Asma Jehangir, a human rights advocate in Pakistan, "They do not surround a car or a vehicle entering the kiln premises but run away in fear."

Although women are an integral part of the labour force they do not receive any separate wages. Marriages of young girls are not encouraged. The labour-suppliers run prostitution dens and supply women to the owners. Several incidents were reported where widows and abandoned women were sold to recover outstanding debts of the workers.

Illiterate workers are unable to verify their outstanding debts. As a result they, along with their children, will be slaves for the rest of their lives.

Feudalism is very strong in Pakistan because in history since the country independence most of Pakistan's parliamentarians and ministers have come from the feudal class lords of Pakistani society. They hold thousands of hectares of lands for which they have never paid for. The feudal lords and politicians are not required to pay tax and have borrowed billions of rupees from banks that they have not paid back. Some of the prominent members of this class save their black money in bank accounts in Switzerland and other countries. Due to these economic practices, Pakistan's foreign debts exceed 38.8 billion dollars.

In 1967 the Bonded Labour Liberation Front of Pakistan (BLLF) began its campaign to both free the brick kiln bonded labourers, and totally abolish the paishgee debts. The BLLF fights against slavery, private jails, forced labour and child slavery in all sectors, including brick making, carpet weaving, leather trades, medical instrument manufacturing, agriculture, stone quarrying, domestic servitude, etc. BLLF freedom movement faces challenges and opposition from strong employers in these and other sectors.

From January 1999 until May 2009 BLLF freed 30,000 bonded labourers, men, women and children from four provinces of Pakistan. They belong to different sectors like agriculture, brick kiln, stone quarrying and carpet industries. 45% of them were children, 25% of them were women and 30% were men. These bonded workers were freed through Habeas Corpus applications, which were filed in High Courts. Due to BLLF's lack of resources, they have been unable to build rehabilitation programs for the newly freed bonded labourers and many of the children are still waiting to go to school.

"Our victories amount to a hardship," says Ehsan Ulla Khan, the BLLF's founder and guiding force. "The state has done nothing to enforce the anti-slavery laws or even to inform the public that child and bonded slavery have been outlawed. It's evident that if the enslaved workers are to be delivered from bondage, private citizens will have to do the delivering. That is, we will have to proclaim the end of slavery, educate workers, monitor employer compliance, and take legal action when necessary, because the state lacks the will and resources to do so."

With little funding, the BLLF wages a two-front war against the enterprises that use child slaves. While its legal advisers engage the courts and the legislature, its field staff shuttles around the country, informing workers of their recently acquired rights and distributing a pamphlet known as "The Charter of Freedom," which enumerates those rights in simple language. If a bonded slave child or adult asks for its help, the BLLF takes whatever legal action necessary to secure his or her release.
Iqbal Masih was one of those freed from slavery in the carpet factories by the BLLF.
These days a surprising number of workers are refusing the pamphlet and turning their backs on BLLF staff members. This is an expression less of ingratitude than of fear. Employers throughout Pakistan are cautioning their workers against consorting with reformers who spread "false rumours" about the end of bonded labour. Many workers have been threatened with dismissal or violence if they speak with "the abolitionists" or are caught with "illegal communist propaganda."

So effective is the factory owners' disinformation campaign that workers literally flee when approached by BLLF staff members.

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At 4 years of age Iqbal was sold by his father into bonded labour in a Pakistani carpet Factory in Punjab, in order to get his family a loan to pay for the wedding of Iqbal's oldest brother. The debt incurred by the loan required that Iqbal weave carpets 12 hours a day, receiving one...

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Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act-1992

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Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act-1992

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When this act came into place, Iqbal realized that he did not have to work at the carpet factory anymore, because it was illegal. He refused to return to his owner, and that is when he decided to gain his freedom.

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Name:

Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1992 (Act No. III of 1992).

Country:
Pakistan

Subject(s):
Elimination of forced labour

Type of legislation:

Law, Act

Adopted on:

1992-03-11

Entry into force:

Published on:

Gazette, Extraordinary, 1992-03-17, pp. 1-29, ISSN: 0012-8953

ISN:

PAK-1992-L-30017

Bibliography:

Gazette, Extraordinary, 1992-03-17, pp. 1-29, ISSN: 0012-8953
Legislation on-line Refworld, United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) PDF (consulted on 2013-01-25)
Legislation on-line Pakistan Code, Ministry of Law, Justice and Human Rights, Pakistan PDF (consulted on 2015-06-23)

Abstract/Citation:

This Act abolishes the bonded labour system in Pakistan, and discharges all bonded labourers from any obligation to render such labour. All property forcibly taken by creditors for the recovery of bonded debt must be returned, and encumbrances relating to bonded debt are no longer valid. Vigilance Committees at the District level, composed of representatives of government, social services, lawyers and journalists are to supervise its implementation, assist the rehabilitation of freed bonded labourers, and provide them with assistance to achieve the objectives of the law. Those persons contravening the Act are subject to imprisonment of two to five years, or a fine of fifty thousand rupees, or both. The Act is also published in Eastern Worker, 1992-06, Vol. 32, Nos. 6 and 7, pp. 8-13. Consolidated text in: M.Shafi, Complete Set of Labour Laws (Karachi: Bureau of Labour Publications, various editions).

Implementing text(s):

Related text(s):

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Pakistan - Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1992 (Act No. III of 1992).

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Name: Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1992 (Act No. III of 1992). Country: Pakistan Subject(s): Elimination of forced labour Type of legislation: Law, Act Adopted on: 1992-03-11 Entry into force: Published on: Gazette, Extraordinary, 1992-03-17, pp. 1-29, ISSN: 0012-8953 ISN: PAK-1992-L-30017 Bibliography: Gazette, Extraordinary, 1992-03-17, pp.

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This is a fictional book that is inspired by the story of Iqbal.

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Iqbal by Francesco D'Adamo - When young Iqbal is sold into slavery at a carpet factory, his arrival changes everything for the other overworked and abused...

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This website describes how it felt to work as a child labourer, and the poor working conditions that the children endured.

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Child labor is the use of children as workers in industry or business; the practice is inhumane and still continues today. Many enslaved children die in factories and never get the opportunity to enjoy their youth; however, this was not the case for young, Pakistani-born Iqbal Masih or for the children who were empowered by Iqbal's life-changing works.[1]He is proof that one person - one child - can make a difference. Iqbal Masih, a victim, and over comer of child labor remains the epitome of solid-minded, one-for-all devotion.
Born in 1982 in the village of Muridke, Pakistan, by the age of four, Iqbal was sold to a carpet mill owner to work off a debt imposed on his father to help pay for his brother's wedding; it was common to borrow money from an employer and pay the debt by selling a child into bonded labor. This debt amounted to less than $25 U.S. dollars; however, for Iqbal, it amounted to a debilitating six years of suppressive, perpetual, crippling, bonded child labor. Iqbal and all the other enslaved children in the factory were made to toil in horrendous, unbearable conditions. The quarantined children worked in stifling heat. The windows to the factory remained closed in order to maintain the quality of the wool. The children sat on wooden benches, their backs remained bridged and hunched over to meticulously tie intricate knots into the carpet.
Iqbal worked twelve hours a day, six days a week and was constantly mentally, verbally and physically abused. The grueling conditions in which he worked had maliciously attacked his health and defeated the structure of his body. He worked abnormally bent over, tending to the hand-assembled carpet in a dark, grim, simmering room where the only light provided were insufficient, dim light bulbs dangling from the ceiling. Due to the onerous, abominable aspects of this mill, Iqbal was diagnosed with tuberculosis and the structure of his spine was curved due to the abnormally bent posture he was forced to maintain for over 72 hours a week.[2] The children were not allowed to speak to one another or to communicate in any form or fashion. If the children disobeyed, they were beaten and punished. Daydreaming was prohibited; if the children became sick, they were less efficient workers and the children were punished.

At the age of ten, Iqbal and a few of his friends escaped the mill to report to a police officer the abusive conditions that the children were being forced to work in. The police officer quickly returned Iqbal and the other escaped child slaves to the mill. Iqbal was chained to a carpet machine and forced back to work by methods of physical abuse and starvation. Two years later, Iqbal attended a freedom day celebration held by the Brick Layer Unions. At this celebration, he learned about his rights to freedom and about the prohibition of children working off debts in sweat shops and mills; this practice had been outlawed a few years before in Pakistan. The government had also voided all debts so that businesses would have to release the child slaves and all others who were in debt to them. Although the government had outlawed the practice of child labor and enslavement and its tangent happenings, many businesses did not assent to these laws and continued with child slavery. Iqbal soon joined the newly-formed Bonded Labor Liberation Front (BLLF), which worked to free all of the bonded laborers and enslaved child laborers in Pakistan.[3] Though in Pakistan, children's rights to freedom and rights against child labor were loosely and feebly enforced, Iqbal acquired his certificate of freedom through the BLLF and freed himself from the bonds of child labor.

At the age of twelve, Iqbal became a paramount, influential, powerful speaker and activist against child labor. He travelled the world giving speeches and making other countries aware of this nefarious practice and educating enslaved children of their rights based on the new law all while helping to free some of the children. The factories began to prohibit the children from attending any events held by the BLLF. Iqbal was determined to free his country of child labor. He endeavored to take on risky undertakings like sneaking into factories to talk to the children in order to provide the needed information for an investigative report. Iqbal traveled to the village of Kasur with the BLLF where he pretended to be a factory worker. His malnourished frame and small size disguised him, as nothing more than a six year-old worker; this was the perfect disguise for the young activist. While in the factory, he asked the children about how often they were beaten, how were they treated and how often they worked over time. With the information gathered by Masih, police raided the factory and saved 300 tortured and abused children. [4]

Iqbal is admired and respected because of what he did with his freedom, his knowledge and his voice after liberation. He began to speak nationally and internationally on behalf of all of the tortured children enduring forced labor in sweat shops. He spoke in India and Pakistan and was invited by the United States and Europe to speak to enormous crowds of people about the atrocities children in Pakistan faced under the strong hand of forced labor. He informed people all over the world - in the U.S. and in his own country that the carpets decorating their homes were made by children forced into labor and having to endure bloodcurdling, detestable treatment for the sake of money. Many of the people who had purchased carpets from Pakistan began to avoid buying carpet from those factories. In 1992, Pakistan had sold fewer carpets to other countries. Initially, the sales were not affected much; however, within two years, carpet sales in Pakistan had declined sharply and made the factory owners indignant.

Through Iqbal's speeches in Europe and in the United States, he touched and moved the hearts and minds of large crowds and beckoned education of and awareness of and action against child labor and child enslavement. He was also able to get his message out to enslaved children in Pakistan. In addition to the 300 children he helped to escape the factories, he motivated over 3,000 other children to escape from their masters and be free from bondage and captivity. He actuated and inspired parents and adults to demand fair and adequate working conditions. By way of his influential and moving speeches, he won the hearts of many of the U.S. citizens and the heart of people in other countries like Europe and Canada. He was featured on ABC News as "Person of the Week" and was awarded the 1995 Reebok Corporation Human Rights Youth in Action Award for his self-sacrificing, unremittingly arduous work.

This twelve-year-old activist, who put his heart and mind into a risky project, where death was awaiting his arrival at every corner - this young, intelligent, courageous child did not let anything deter him from his purpose. For his nobility and loyalty, for his heart and courage, for not forgetting about those who were still enslaved when he was set free and his voice was heard, for an act of the esteem mirroring that of Daniel in the Bible, he was awarded followers, dignity, support, the happiness and gratitude of others and freedom.

Iqbal's plans for the future were to become a lawyer and fight for the children and against bonded labor and child enslavement. But on Palm Sunday, April 16, 1995, he returned from the BLLF school to visit some relatives and spend time with his family. Iqbal and his cousin went off to visit their uncle who worked near his aunt's home. On the way there, a shot gun was fired at the two from a distance and Iqbal was instantly killed. There are many different stories as to who shot Iqbal and why. Some say the farmer was from the "carpet mafia" and others say because he informed the bonded laborers of their rights under the new legislation and encouraged them to leave the forbidden factories and carpet mills. Others say he was shot as a random, heinous crime. The truth still floats in the air, but one thing that is clear is that in spite of his young death, Iqbal Masih made a huge difference in legislation, in businesses, in morals and, most of all, in the continuation of people's lives. Eight hundred mourners attended his funeral. His body was wrapped in the BLLF flag. Though he is passed, many are still strengthened and motivated today to abolish child slavery and bonded labor.[5]

[1] Childhood Lost: Child labor During the Industrial Revolution.

[2] Masih, Iqbal. Library of International Biographies, Volume 1: ActivistsBiography Reference Bank,accessed June 24, 2012.

[3] Iqbal Masih: A Hero for Enslaved Children, accessed June 24, 2012

[4] The Story of Iqbal Masih, accessed June 22, 2012.

[5] Masih, Iqbal Library Of International Biographies, Volume 1, accessed June 24, 2012.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Name: Antoinette Rae Gillian
Age: 18 City: Dallas TexasSchool: Mountain View Community CollegeWhat inspired the essay: There are a lot of adults who make differences and are recognized for their great feats and then there are kids who's voices and stories are never heard. I wanted to prove that one hand - even a small one, can make a difference. A difference that is bigger than all of us.What surprised you: I was surprised by the courage that Masih showed and the danger he was willing to put himself in for the lives and happiness of others. I learned that there are people out there who will put themselves before others.
What you learned: It's totally possible to make a difference especially since a 12 yr old went against a govt's regime and was successful.

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Mayborn student essay winner: 'Iqbal Masih,' by Antoinette Gillian, 18, Dallas

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Child labor is the use of children as workers in industry or business; the practice is inhumane and still continues today. Many enslaved children die in factories and never get the opportunity to enjoy their youth; however, this was not the case for young, Pakistani-born Iqbal Masih or for the children who were empowered by Iqbal's life-changing works.[1]He is proof that one person - one child - can make a difference.

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Here are some well-known companies that still use child labour to make their products.

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Top 28 Companies That Use Child Labor Still ! - Wisestep

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Child labor is a crime and we should take steps to eradicate it by all means. You will be shocked to see the top companies that use child labor. Find here

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After escaping the carpet factory, Iqbal wanted to help the other children who were also stuck. He wanted to abolish child slavery for good. He is an abolitionist, just like the many historical figures.

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Just like Iqbal, Malala was and still is an activist. Both of them were shot when standing up for their right, yet they started a revolutionary movement.

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Pharady is an eleven year old girl who is also a child labourer. This video expresses the pain and emotions that went through the mind of the child and her family.

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The Bonded Labour Liberation Front (BLLF)

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The Bonded Labour Liberation Front (BLLF)

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The BLLF is an organization in Pakistan that when called for help, it works towards freeing bonded child labourers.

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By Timothy Ryan
[Tim Ryan of the Solidarity Center is a CLC member, who wrote this piece on May 3, 1995 for The Christian Science Monitor. Iqbal Masih was murdered on April 16, 1995]
Anyone who knew Iqbal Masih, the 12-year-old boy recently assassinated in Lahore, Pakistan, by someone believed to be a feudal landlord and carpet manufacturer, was struck by his brilliance.

I don't simply mean his intellectual abilities, though once rescued from slavery at a carpet loom this young activist demonstrated a tremendous aptitude for learning. He went through five years of school curriculum in three. Although malnutrition and abuse left him, at the age of 12, physically smaller and more frail than my nine-year-old daughter, it was clear that his mind, his ambition, and his spirit burned brightly.

When I saw him last December in Karachi on his return from the United States, where he received a Reebok Human Rights Award, he was filled with the excitement of his first airplane ride, a new Instamatic camera, his visit with other schoolchildren in Boston, and the unimaginable promise that one day he might attend a university. Brandeis University had pledged to give a four-year scholarship to Iqbal when he finished his studies in Pakistan.

Then someone motivated by greed, by fear, by hatred, pulled the trigger of a shotgun and obliterated this promise.

I first met Iqbal last year through my work with the Bonded Labor Liberation Front as a representative of the AFL-CIO in South Asia.

The BLLF has worked dauntlessly for years to free thousands of bonded and child laborers, Iqbal among them. After working six years at a carpet loom, starting at the age of four, Iqbal was rescued by the BLLF when he was 10.

Iqbal's rescue was due in no small part to his own guts. Last December he told me that one day two years ago in the village where he was enslaved as a carpet weaver, he saw BLLF posters declaring that bonded and child labor was illegal under Pakistan law and secretly contacted BLLF activists. At the risk of his own life, Iqbal led the BLLF to the carpet looms where they rescued hundreds of children, who might still be in slavery if not for his courage.

It seems medieval, and perhaps it is, but for years carpet manufacturers, brick kiln owners, landowners, and manufacturers of sporting goods and other products in Pakistan have maintained an unrelenting grip on bonded laborers and children. Some estimates run as high as 20 million bonded and child laborers. At least half a million children are employed in the carpet trade alone.

Because of the current tension between Islamic and Christian communities in Pakistan, some apologists want to paint the killing of Iqbal as a purely religious matter. On one level this is a mere smoke screen. But on a more complex and sinister level, there is some connection between the fact that Iqbal was Christian and the fact that he was pressed into slavery in the first place.

Iqbal's story has an economic and political subtext: Politicians and businessmen in Pakistan form a tight web of relationships based on kin, clan, and caste. They count on family members who occupy positions of authority in local, provincial, national, and police bodies to look the other way when laws are violated, or, in many cases, to actively participate in crimes against workers and minorities.

Poverty is often the surface excuse for a problem that has deeper roots. It's a fallacy to see Iqbal's death solely as the result of brutal economics, rather than the outcome of broader, more pervasive violations of fundamental human rights.

On one level Iqbal's story is surely economic - poor people have less education, less income, less power than the rich. Even though it was outlawed in 1992 under Pakistan's Bonded Labor Abolition Act, the "advance" system that bonds people to their employers continues unabated. This system ensnared Iqbal at the age of four. The BLLF has taken some cases to court, but police and employer intimidation, along with judges' unwillingness to enforce the law, has prevented any prosecutions under the 1992 law.

It's at a deeper, generally hidden level that Iqbal's tragedy intersects with millions of Pakistani citizens and helps to explain the oppressive social and cultural patterns that are partly responsible for his death.

The fact is, most people who are bonded and enslaved are converted Muslims, indigenous tribal people, Hindus, and Christians - in short, anyone outside the mainstream of Sunni Islamic society. This insight reveals the intrinsic link between "economic" or "labor" issues and pervasive problems of intolerance and discrimination based on race, language, and ethnicity.

So we're not just talking here about poverty and economic hardship, or one brave little boy's death. We're talking about enslavement based on race and language and religion, about the treatment of human beings as commodities, as slave labor, and the slow grinding to death of people who not only are denied economic advancement, but also a chance at education, decent housing, clean water - the things that make life livable.

Iqbal's death must have a greater meaning beyond the tragedy of a bright meteor snuffed out by greed and corruption. His experience implores us to look beyond "poverty" or "economic hardship" as an explanation of why so many men, women, and children in traditional societies are exploited - to see the rights of child workers and bonded workers as part of a continuum of overall human rights that must be defended at all costs.
Published here with permission of the author who is member of the Child Labor Coalition. Please note that statistics in this article are from 1995, the year it was written. For more information about Iqbal's life, click here.
Please follow the CLC on Twitter by clicking here.
Please follow the CLC on Facebook by clicking here.

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By Timothy Ryan [Tim Ryan of the Solidarity Center is a CLC member, who wrote this piece on May 3, 1995 for The Christian Science Monitor. Iqbal Masih was murdered on April 16, 1995] Anyone who knew Iqbal Masih, the 12-year-old boy recently assassinated in Lahore, Pakistan, by someone believed to be a feudal landlord and carpet manufacturer, was struck by his brilliance.

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In Pakistan, the majority of those who are sold into labour are anyone outside of the Sunni Islamic community. Those who are enslaved, are often converted Muslims, Christians, and Hindus.

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This link provides detail to how Iqbal's story started a huge Canadian organization.

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About WE Charity - WE Charity Foundation (WCF)

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For 25 years, WE Charity empowered change and worked in five key areas - education, water, health, food and opportunity - to create transformative and lasting impact.

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This link explains the oppression that the poor in Pakistan faced, because of their debts. The link also talks about the inequality of the carpet factory owners as they hold the most power.

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The historical figure of importance, Iqbal Masih was a young Pakistani boy who was forced into bonded labor at age four. After being freed at age ten, Iqbal became an activist against bonded child labor. He became a martyr for his cause when he was murdered at age 12.

Overview of Iqbal Masih

Iqbal Masih was born in Muridke, a small, rural village outside of Lahore in Pakistan. Shortly after Iqbal's birth, his father, Saif Masih, abandoned the family. Iqbal's mother, Inayat, worked as a housecleaner but found it difficult to make enough money to feed all her children from her small income.

Iqbal, too young to understand his family's problems, spent his time playing in the fields near his two-room house. While his mom was away at work, his older sisters took care of him. His life changed drastically when he was just four years old.

In 1986, Iqbal's older brother was to be married and the family needed money to pay for a celebration. For a very poor family in Pakistan, the only way to borrow money is to ask a local employer. These employers specialize in this kind of barter, where the employer loans family money in exchange for the bonded labor of a small child.

To pay for the wedding, Iqbal's family borrowed 600 rupees (about $12) from a man who owned a carpet-weaving business. In return, Iqbal was required to work as a carpet weaver until the debt was paid off. Without being asked or consulted, Iqbal was sold into bondage by his family.

Workers Fighting for Survival

This system of peshgi (loans) is inherently inequitable; the employer has all the power. Iqbal was required to work an entire year without wages in order to learn the skills of a carpet weaver. During and after his apprenticeship, the cost of the food he ate and the tools he used were all added to the original loan. When and if he made mistakes, he was often fined, which also added to the loan.

In addition to these costs, the loan grew ever larger because the employer added interest. Over the years, Iqbal's family borrowed even more money from the employer, which was added to the amount of money Iqbal had to work off. The employer kept track of the loan total. It was not unusual for employers to pad the total, keeping the children in bondage for life. By the time Iqbal was ten years old, the loan had grown to 13,000 rupees (about $260).

The conditions in which Iqbal worked were horrendous. Iqbal and the other bonded children were required to squat on a wooden bench and bend forward to tie millions of knots into carpets. The children were required to follow a specific pattern, choosing each thread and tying each knot carefully. The children were not allowed to speak to each other. If the children started to daydream, a guard might hit them or they might cut their own hands with the sharp tools they used to cut the thread.

Iqbal worked six days a week, at least 14 hours a day. The room in which he worked was stifling hot because the windows could not be opened in order to protect the quality of the wool. Only two light bulbs dangled above the young children.

If the children talked back, ran away, were homesick, or were physically sick, they were punished. Punishment included severe beatings, being chained to their loom, extended periods of isolation in a dark closet, and being hung upside down. Iqbal often did these things and received numerous punishments. For all this, Iqbal was paid 60 rupees (about 20 cents) a day after his apprenticeship had ended.

The Bonded Labor Liberation Front

After working six years as a carpet weaver, Iqbal one day heard about a meeting of the Bonded Labor Liberation Front (BLLF) which was working to help children like Iqbal. After work, Iqbal snuck away to attend the meeting. At the meeting, Iqbal learned that the Pakistani government had outlawed peshgi in 1992. In addition, the government canceled all outstanding loans to these employers.

Shocked, Iqbal knew he wanted to be free. He talked to Eshan Ullah Khan, president of the BLLF, who helped him get the paperwork he needed to show his employer that he should be free. Not content to just be free himself, Iqbal worked to also get his fellow workers free.

Once free, Iqbal was sent to a BLLF school in Lahore. Iqbal studied very hard, finishing four years of work in just two. At the school, Iqbal's natural leadership skills became increasingly apparent and he became involved in demonstrations and meetings that fought against bonded child labor. He once pretended to be one of a factory's workers so that he could question the children about their work conditions. This was a very dangerous expedition, but the information he gathered helped close down the factory and free hundreds of children.

Iqbal began speaking at BLLF meetings and then to international activists and journalists. He spoke about his own experiences as a bonded child laborer. He was not intimidated by crowds and spoke with such conviction that many took notice of him.

Iqbal's six years as a bonded child had affected him physically as well as mentally. The most noticeable thing about Iqbal was that he was an extremely small child, about half the size he should have been at his age. At age ten, he was less than four feet tall and weighed a mere 60 pounds. His body had stopped growing, which one doctor described as "psychological dwarfism." Iqbal also suffered from kidney problems, a curved spine, bronchial infections, and arthritis. Many say that he shuffled his feet when he walked because of pain.

In many ways, Iqbal was made into an adult when he was sent to work as a carpet weaver. But he was not really an adult. He lost his childhood, but not his youth. When he went to the U.S. to receive the Reebok Human Rights Award, Iqbal loved watching cartoons, especially Bugs Bunny. Once in a while, he also had a chance to play some computer games while in the U.S.

A Life Cut Short

Iqbal's growing popularity and influence caused him to receive numerous death threats. Focused on helping other children become free, Iqbal ignored the letters.

On Sunday, April 16, 1995, Iqbal spent the day visiting his family for Easter. After spending some time with his mother and siblings, he headed over to visit his uncle. Meeting up with two of his cousins, the three boys rode a bike to his uncle's field to bring his uncle some dinner. On the way, the boys stumbled upon someone who shot at them with a shotgun. Iqbal died immediately. One of his cousins was shot in the arm; the other wasn't hit.

How and why Iqbal was killed remains a mystery. The original story was that the boys stumbled upon a local farmer who was in a compromising position with a neighbor's donkey. Frightened and perhaps high on drugs, the man shot at the boys, not intending to specifically kill Iqbal. Most people do not believe this story. Rather, they believe that leaders of the carpet industry disliked the influence Iqbal was having and ordered him murdered. As of yet, there is no proof that this was the case.

On April 17, 1995, Iqbal was buried. There were approximately 800 mourners in attendance.

*The problem of bonded child labor continues today. Millions of children, especially in Pakistan and India, work in factories to make carpets, mud bricks, beedis (cigarettes), jewelry, and clothing, all with similar horrific conditions as Iqbal experienced.

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Iqbal Masih was a young Pakistani boy who became an activist against bonded child labor. He became a martyr for his cause when he was murdered at age 12.

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This is a short documentary that talks about the issue of child labour and slavery.