The road to freedom | Special report

The abandoned settlements of Azad Nagar and Himmatabad in the Tando Haider region of Sindh, with their humble mud houses devoid of any basic amenities, are silent witnesses to modern-day slavery and the deep-rooted exploitation of bonded labourers. These villages, about 200 kilometres from Karachi, are home to some very brave people who have endured oppression, forced labour and imprisonment under brutal landlords. Once shackled in the chains of bondage, some of these freed farmers have become beacons of hope and are dedicated to freeing others from the fate they once endured.

These villagers received help in their struggle against exploitation from the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, the Sindh Green Development Organisation and Bhundar Hari Sangat. Now that they have escaped the scourge of forced labour and the private prisons of their employers, the former prisoners have taken up the resistance. They are the new vanguard of this movement.

For 25 years, Lali Kolhi has endured violence and imprisonment in her struggle to free peasants held in slavery. She says her younger sister was handed over by a landowner to his son. Her pleas for her return fell on deaf ears. The landowner only became angry and used violence against her.

Lali was barely 13 years old when she was married. Her husband was a farmer and worked for the same landowner. They had to work day and night and were not allowed to go home, attend weddings or funerals. The family received a maund Flour and sixteen rupees in wages. Anyone who resisted or demanded better working conditions was put in chains.

When a contractor in Umerkot offered them work in his brick factory, they explained their situation to him and asked for his help to secure their release.

In Sindh, the organized struggle against forced labor began in 1992, when the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan established the Bonded Labor Task Force based in Hyderabad. Amnesty International also provided support.

Lali Kolhi says they filed a lawsuit in 1996 but lost. They appealed to the Supreme Court and the case was referred to the Sindh High Court. Two years later, they finally got their freedom. When she was released, Lali was in her early thirties.

Raju Kolhi was passionate about education, but the landowner in Khipro, for whom her parents worked, did not approve. Raju married when she was about ten years old. Her rebellion against the system began when her daughter was born sick and the landowner refused to give them a loan for her treatment. The child died.

Raju then encouraged her husband to meet with the HRCP Task Force in Hyderabad, which was helping farmers get their freedom. After she contacted them and took the case to court, they were released. Her husband's five brothers and four sisters were also released.

When the peasants in Sindh were freed from bonded labour, camps were set up in various places. According to writer Aslam Khwaja, there were two types of camps: transit camps like those in Matli and Oderolal and permanent camps like those in Hosri, Hyderabad and the Baba Salahuddin and Maryam camps in Kotri. The freed peasants started settling in these camps.

Besides the HRCP, organizations like Bhundar Hari Sangat and the Green Development Organization also participated in the rehabilitation and training of the farmers. The GDO worked on the resettlement of these landless and homeless farmers. About 20 acres of land near Hyderabad was selected for this purpose. Adam Malik, who was associated with a donor organization, says the aim was to maintain a link between the farmers and agriculture while creating jobs nearby.

Thus, the villages of Azad Nagar and later Himmatabad came into being. According to Khwaja, he suggested the name Azad Nagar to honour the farmers who had won their freedom through valiant efforts. The name Himmatabad was inspired by an Indian NGO that was active after the Gujarat riots.

Lali Kolhi lives in Azad Nagar. She asked the NGOs to train her to free other farmers. Although she had no formal education, she learned how to Habeas Corpus Law Filing petitions in court and cooperating with the police to raid private prisons.

Later, Lali expanded her work to Punjab. She recalls an incident in Rahim Yar Khan where she was abducted by landlords and severely beaten despite a court order in her favour. She and the seven families she was with were held for five days. They were eventually released thanks to the Sindh Green Rural Organisation.

Although her husband fears for her life, Lali vows to continue her work. “One day everyone has to die,” she says.

Raju Kolhi followed Lali's example and now helps free farm workers who are working in bonded labour. But why are women more represented than men in this mission? Raju says the exploitative landowners often target men by making false accusations and kidnapping them. She says women who are actively involved face less such resistance.

Currently, there are camps for released agricultural workers in Azad Nagar and Himmatabad in Hyderabad and Maryam Camp in Kotri. While there are brick houses in Maryam Camp, most of the houses in Azad Nagar and Himmatabad are still made of mud. The 400 or so households living here do not have access to basic health facilities, public schools, clean drinking water and paved roads.

After some farmers from Kolhi community converted to Christianity, a philanthropic organization started a school. Asha Ramchand, whose parents converted to Christianity, has completed high school. She now teaches in two schools and also tutors girls and women who have never attended school.

Radha Bheel, an activist for Dalit communities, says the residents of these camps still live in squalor. She says the government and NGOs should have created better facilities for them. She says many of these farmers arrived with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

Asad Iqbal Butt, chairman of the HRCP, says the land in Hosri was bought to provide temporary shelter to the freed people until they found work and moved on. He says rising land prices have added to their difficulties.

Are there still forced labor and private prisons in Sindh? Just two weeks ago, 36 people were released from a landlord's forced detention by police on the orders of a judge in Sanghar district.

Akram Ali Khaskheli, president of the Hari Welfare Association, says that while the situation is not as bad as it was in the 1990s when people were kept in chains, modern-day slavery exists in the form of debt bondage. He says that once farmers and brick-kiln workers are in debt, they cannot leave their homes without the landlord's permission or without repaying the debt and interest.

According to an Amnesty International report, most of the bonded agricultural workers and brick kilns in Sindh are Hindus from the so-called “lower” castes. Christians and Afghan migrants make up a significant proportion of these workers in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

In Pakistan, forced labor was officially banned in 1992.

The 1992 Forced Labor Abolition Act made it a crime to force someone into servitude, punishable by up to five years in prison. The HRCP and other NGOs have since used the law to free many forced laborers. However, employers are rarely punished under the law.

According to Asad Butt, a new trend in Sindh is to lure the poor to Balochistan and hand them over to tribal chiefs to work in their fields under terrible conditions. The commission has succeeded in rescuing some people from this situation.

Akram Ali Khaskheli says the law abolishing forced labour in Sindh has not made much difference. Although district monitoring committees have been formed till 2023, they have not been effective, he adds. Freedom is still obtained mainly by filing petitions in court.

The author is a freelance journalist and researcher. Her X-handle: @FehmidaRiaz