Bondage in Pakistan

Bondage ( _ur. بیگار) is widespread in rural areas of Pakistan.Fact|date=May 2008 The feudal landlords and tribal leaders keep peasants ( _ur. ہاری) in bondage and have also created "private prisons". In many cases the bonded people are in debt bondage for many generations due to high interest charges.

In its most basic sense, the word bondage refers to the state or condition of being bound to an unfree labor system, as in slavery, indentured servitude, or serfdom. More generally, "bondage" may refer to any state of subjection to a force, influence, or power.

Debt bondage or "bonded labor" is a means of paying off loans with direct labor instead of currency or goods. It is either a kind of indenture or truck system, and is technically a form of unfree labor. Children of debtors have to work due to debt bondage, this is considered a worst form of child labor.

See also

* Feudalism in Pakistan
* Bondage
* Debt bondage
* Debtor's prison
* Indentured servant
* Slavery
* Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention
* Human Rights Commission of Pakistan

External links

* [http://www.hrcp-web.org/index.cfm Human Rights Commission of Pakistan]
* [http://www.dawn.com/2002/07/20/top16.htm Bonded Haris in Sindh]
* [http://www.antislavery.org/archive/submission/submission2002-pakistan.htm Bonded labor in Pakistan]
* [http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1215/p08s01-wosc.html Slavery persists in Pakistan]
* [http://www.dawn.com/2006/02/01/local25.htm Two million bonded labour in Sindh]
* [http://www.commonlanguageproject.net/articles/BL_Stuteville.htm 21st Century Slavery: Pakistan's Brutal Bonded Labor System Lingers On]
* [http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/episodes/2006/10/12#segment67170 Leonard Lopate Show Underreported: Bonded Labor in Pakistan]