he desolate settlements of Azad Nagar and Himmatabad in Sindh’s Tando Haider area, with their humble mud houses missing basic amenities, silently bear witness to modern-day slavery and the deep-rooted exploitation of bonded labourers. These villages, located approximately 200 kilometres from Karachi, are home to some very brave individuals who have endured oppression, forced labour and captivity under brutal landlords. Once shackled by the chains of bondage, some of these freed farmers have risen as beacons of hope, dedicated to liberating others from the fate they once faced.

These villagers were helped in their fight against exploitation by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, the Sindh Green Development Organisation and Bhundar Hari Sangat. Now free from the scourge of bonded labour and the private jails of their employers, the former captives have taken on the mantle of resistance. They are the new vanguard of this movement.

For 25 years, Lali Kolhi has endured violence and imprisonment in her fight for the release of peasants held in bondage. She says her younger sister was handed over by a landlord to his son. Their pleas for her return fell on deaf ears. The landlord only grew angry and subjected them to violence.

Lali was barely 13 years old, when she was married off. Her husband was a farmer working for the same landlord. They were forced to work day and night and not allowed to return home, attend weddings or funerals. The family received a maund of flour and sixteen rupees in wages. If somebody resisted or argued for better working conditions, they were shackled with chains.

When a contractor in Umerkot offered them work at his brick kiln, they explained their situation and requested his help to free them first.

In Sindh, the organised struggle against forced labour began in 1992, when the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan formed the Bonded Labour Task Force, headquartered in Hyderabad. Amnesty International also lent its support.

Lali Kolhi recounts that they filed a court case in 1996 but lost. They appealed before the Supreme Court and the case was referred to the Sindh High Court. Two years later, they finally gained their freedom. By the time she was freed, Lali was in her early thirties.

Raju Kolhi had a passion for education but the landlord in Khipro, for whom her parents worked, did not approve of it. Raju was married at around 10. Her rebellion against the system began when her daughter was born sick, and the landlord refused them a loan for her treatment. The child died.

Raju then encouraged her husband to meet the HRCP Task Force in Hyderabad, which was helping peasants gain their freedom. After contacting them and pursuing the case in the courts, they were freed. Her husband’s five brothers and four sisters were also freed.

When farmers began gaining freedom from forced labour in Sindh, camps were set up at various places. According to writer Aslam Khwaja, there were two types of camps: transit camps, such as those in Matli and Oderolal; and permanent camps, such as the ones established in Hosri, Hyderabad, and the Baba Salahuddin and Maryam camps in Kotri. The freed peasants began settling in these camps.

Apart from the HRCP, organisations like Bhundar Hari Sangat and the Green Development Organisation also joined in the rehabilitation and training of farmers. The GDO worked to resettle 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 organisation, says that the aim was to maintain a connection between the peasants and agriculture while providing employment opportunities nearby.

Thus, the villages of Azad Nagar and, later, Himmatabad were established. According to Khwaja, he proposed the name Azad Nagar to honour the farmers who had gained freedom through valiant efforts. The name Himmatabad was inspired by an Indian NGO that worked after the Gujarat riots.

Lali Kolhi lives in Azad Nagar. She asked the NGOs to train her in freeing other farmers. Though uneducated, she learnt how to file habeas corpus petitions in court and to work with the police to conduct raids at private jails.

Lali later expanded her work into the Punjab. She recalls an incident in Rahim Yar Khan, where landlords kidnapped her and severely beat her despite a court order in her favour. She and the seven families she was with were detained for five days. Thanks to the Sindh Green Rural Organisation, they were eventually released.

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

Following Lali’s lead, Raju Kolhi has taken to helping free bonded farm workers. But why are women more prominent in this mission than men? Raju says the exploitative landlords often target men by filing false charges and kidnapping them. She says women engage in activism, face less of such resistance.

Currently, the camps for freed farm workers are operating in Azad Nagar and Himmatabad in Hyderabad, and Maryam Camp in Kotri. While Maryam Camp has brick houses, most homes in Azad Nagar and Himmatabad are still made of mud. The around 400 households living here lack access to basic health facilities, public schools, safe drinking water and paved roads.

After some of the farmers from the Kolhi community converted to Christianity, a school was established by a philanthropic organisation. Asha Ramchand, whose parents converted to Christianity has completed her high school. She now teaches at two schools besides tutoring girls and women who never went to a school.

Radha Bheel, who advocates for Dalit communities, says that those living in these camps are still living in misery. She says the government and the NGOs should have established better facilities for them. She says many of these farmers arrived with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

Asad Iqbal Butt, the HRCP chairman, says that the land was purchased in Hosri to provide temporary shelter to the freed people until they could find jobs and move on. He says the rising land prices have added to their difficulties.

Do forced labour and private jails still exist in Sindh? Just two weeks ago, on the orders of an additional sessions judge in Sanghar district, 36 people were freed by the police from what they described as forced confinement by a landlord.

Akram Ali Khaskheli, the Hari Welfare Association president, says that while the situation isn’t as bad as it was in the 1990s, when people were kept in chains, modern slavery persists in the form of debt bondage. He says farm and brick kiln workers, once indebted, cannot leave without the landlord’s permission or without repaying the debt and interest.

According to an Amnesty International report, a majority of agricultural and brick kiln workers trapped in debt bondage in Sindh are Hindus from the so-called “lower” castes. Christians and Afghan migrants make up sizeable portions of such workers in the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Bonded labour was formally banned in Pakistan in 1992.

The Bonded Labour Abolition Act of 1992 made it a crime, punishable by up to five years imprisonment, to force anyone into bondage. The HRCP and other NGOs have since used the law to secure freedom for many bonded labourers. However, employers are rarely punished under the law.

Asad Butt says a new trend in Sindh is to lure the poor to Balochistan and hand them over to tribal chiefs for work in their fields under dire conditions. The commission has managed to free some people from this situation.

Akram Ali Khaskheli says that the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act in Sindh hasn’t made a significant difference. Although district vigilance committees were formed by 2023, they have not been effective, he adds. Freedom is still gained mostly by filing petitions in a court.

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