Rights of Bonded Laborers at Brick Kilns:
A Social Protection Perspective from Pakistan
Ayesha Aftab

T

HE brickmaking industry in Pakistan hosts a major concentrationof grassroots and semi-urban population and provides a source of
livelihood to some of the most vulnerable and poorest sections ofsociety, many of them being migrant or seasonal workers. his industry
contributes 1.5 percent1 to the gross domestic product (gdp) and provides
livelihood to about two million people2 largely as informal sector.
his industry is a risk-prone, informal manufacturing sector in termsof accessibility, information and response relating to work situation,
demographics and conditions of workers deployed there at work. As per
information shared by the Department of Labour and Human Resourceof the Provincial Government of Punjab, it is estimated that an averageof thirty to thirty-ive families are deployed at each brick kiln and with anaverage family size of seven (with at least three of the family members being
children). Hence, two hundred ten people on the average are covered per
brick kiln, or two thousand one hundred people for every ten brick kilns.
An inter-generational poverty cycle is a major characteristic of thefamilies deployed at the brick kilns in Punjab and Sindh provinces. Children
working at the brick kilns alongside their parents and other family members
are exposed to safety and protection-related risks and have minimal accessto health, hygiene, safe drinking water, and education facilities. Working
conditions at the brick kilns are also hazardous to human health and thebrickmaking process has many steps that are not suitable for children.
A pattern of unethical practices prevails at most brick kilns wherechildren participate in brick making process, with minimal access to goodnutrition, and recreational facilities. Parallel to that scenario is an increasing
market for bricks with no procurement-related standards applied for
reducing children’s entry into work in the brick kilns.
In Pakistan, the lack of inancial credit in the brick kiln sector alongwith the system of employment contract in the informal sector provides
signiicant reason for bondage. Millions of workers are bonded to their45

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employers, forced to work for low or no wages because their earnings are
retained by the employer (or a middle person) to repay an outstanding
debt. Caused by multiple factors (economic, social, as well as cultural), debt
bondage thus remains a complex phenomenon based on relationships ofdomination and alienation.
Brick kiln workers are confronted with the challenge of meeting basic
sustenance needs. Due to this lack of investment in human capital, childworkers do not acquire the necessary skills to break the cycle of poverty,
and repeat the same cycle as they become adults. As a result, the cycle ofilliteracy and lack of skills ties into the cycle of poverty, debt, vulnerability
and dependence. In this way the cycle of poverty continues from one
generation to another and so does the bonded child worker.
Eleven million bricks are produced in a month on the average. he total
number of workers in one kiln averages around eighty male and female
adults. Children who come to the workplace with their parents are notconsidered employed by the brick kiln owners.
Majority of the children at the brick kilns are prevented from goingto school as they contribute a substantial amount to the family income byworking. Most families are of the view that schools alongside the brick kilns
are not sustainable and they do not add value to the children’s development.
Also, the income of these families would not be able to support the cost of
education.
he World Vision Pakistan piloted a research-based-basedbased advocacy initiative to determine the scope of ethical production and procurement ofbricks and to delineate ethical production and procurement strategies that
could contribute towards a decent work environment for the protection ofworker’s rights including children’s protection and well-being at the brickkilns. he project provided the layout towards a long-term process of policy
review and strategic interventions through stakeholders’ dialogue, andadvocacy towards decent working conditions and safeguarding of the rights
and well-being of children and youth engaged as a supplementary workforceof their families.
Profile of Bonded Laborers (Households) at Brick Kilns
Households in debt bondage at brick kilns are generally those of uneducated,
low skilled workers with an average of seven members. he entire household

Rights of Bonded Laborers at Brick Kilns: A Social Protection Perspective from Pakistan

47

is involved in brick making - with the head of household and the spousemaking their children, both boys and girls, work in the various stages of thebrick making process.3
Each household has an average of 2.2 children with age ranging fromseven to seventeen years working at the brick kilns. Female child workers
outnumber the male child workers (55 percent girls; 45 percent boys).
Poor families supply child labor to the brick making industry to enhancetheir weekly wages while they remain unaware and unable to invest in theirchildren’s education. hey compromise on enhancing their future income
by foregoing the education of their children and by choosing to maximize
their present rather than future income, which involves higher opportunity
cost of schooling and investment of time. As a result, the intergenerational
patterns of illiteracy and debt bondage are inherently present.4
he Provincial Government of Punjab has found in an assessment theexistence of a total of six thousand ive hundred brick kilns in the twelve
districts of the province, with six thousand to nine thousand children
serving as child workers and engaged in the worst forms of child labor.5
Situational Analysis at Brick Kilns
Under the Punjab Prohibition of the Employment of Children Act of 2014,
no child under fourteen years can be engaged to work.
he Provincial Government of Punjab has already declared in 2012 an
Education Emergency in the province that required the enrolment of out-ofschool children belonging to families engaged at brick kilns including childworkers. his initiative implemented the 2010 constitutional amendmentthat added a right to education provision (Article 25A) in the Constitutionof Pakistan.6
hough children are mostly involved in handling of mud and clay andmaking of raw bricks, their presence within the vicinity of the brick kiln andexposure to the baking process in several instances has high risks involved.
he ield research of World Vision in Tehsil Chunian, District Kasur,
Punjab province shows the following data:7

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H U M A N R I G H T S E D U C AT I O N I N A S I A - PA C I F I CTable 1. Key Findings on Households
Workforce per household

5-6 persons

Bricks produced per day

Adults: 500 per day
Family total: 1,900 bricks per day

Hours

Children & Adults: 10-12 hours/day, 6 days/week

Wages

Household wages per day (with 3.8 members)
1,140 Pakistani Rupees (around 11 US dollars) perday

In-kind payments

Shelter, electricity, water

Current debt

For 29 families: 3,009,000 Pakistani Rupees (almost
30,000 US dollars)
Average per family: 103,759 Pakistani Rupees (alittle over 1,000 US dollars)

Reasons for
Debt

Most advances are taken to pay for basic necessities,
medical expense, off season necessities and, to alesser extent, weddings

School going children

Out of 109 children, 25 percent attend school, or
28 children

Micro finance credit

None of the thirty household respondents have been
approached by micro finance companies

Future plans

66 percent of the parents want their children to stop
working at the brick kilns in the next three years

Residence

83 percent live at brick factory site while 17 percent
live in the village

Wives working at brick kilns

93 percent of the wives work at same brick kiln

he research also shows the following indings:8
1. At least 47 percent of the workers claimed that safe drinking water
was available at the work place, while 53 percent thought otherwise;
2. 66 percent of the children saw themselves continuing the work inthe brick kilns;
3. Over 50 percent of the children work for more than ifty-ive hours
per week;
4. At least 86 percent of the children have cited family restriction as
major reason for not attending schools in the target area.

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Education Facilities
he Provincial
rovincial
ial Government of Punjab established a total of two hundred non-formal educational centersers
rs near the brick kiln units.. One
nee hundred eight of which are in Kasur and sixty two in Lahore Districts. hese
schools were established by the provincial government under its Annual
Development Scheme project: Elimination of Bonded Labour at Brick
Kilns (eblik). Also, thirty non-formal schools were established with theassistance of International Labour Organization (ilo) and handed over to
Pak Swedish Teachers Association, and another thirty schools were handed
over to Bunyad Literacy Community Centers in 2010. A phase two of theeblik project has started since 2014.
Promoting Ethical Production at Brick Kilns
Producing ethically means making sure that decent working conditions
and international labor standards are secured during the manufacturingof products including sourcing of materials. he decent work approachof the ilo is a tripartite and gender mainstreamed strategy integrating
the concept of productive and freely chosen work, rights at the work
place, social protection including access to health, education and otherforms of insurance systems as well a process of social dialogue among theprincipal stakeholders and partners to achieve the above goals. It highlights
implementation of the core labor standards including prevention of childlabor and forced labor, abolition of bonded labor and setting up of minimum
age for entry into work, equal opportunity and treatment at work, social
security and social dialogue, etc.
Almost none of the brick kilns qualify under the parameters of ethicalproduction: insuicient knowledge and awareness on decent working
condition afects rights-based or ethical production parameters. Recurring
gaps are evident in addressing the following issues: elimination of childlabor, excessive working hours, hazardous working conditions coupled withminimal or non-existing facilities for education, health, sanitation, safe
drinking water, provision of minimum wages, provision of occupationalsafety gear, and access to justice as their basic human rights.
Preventing children from working at the brick kilns is likely to easethe labor market as it will provide job opportunities for adult workers.

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his would also help to decrease the unemployment rate and consequently
reduce the poverty ratio.
he corporate governance parameter is a tool used for promoting ethicalstandards and practices at the work place and for promoting awarenessof basic rights at the work place and community level. Corporate Social
Responsibility (csr) incorporates all forms of rights at the work place andaims at improving business ethics that need to be integrated with special
emphasis on child protection through education and awareness raising, etc.
he most signiicant issues addressed by csr include the following:• Health & Hygiene;• Education;• Advocacy of Human Rights and Human Rights Education at Work;• Economic Protection and Infrastructure Development;• Environment Protection;• Community Development and Rehabilitation.
Promoting Child Rights through Sustainable Procurement Process
he research project reviewed over twenty models of procurement policies
including the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (ppra) rules for
procurement and the policies of corporate sector, donors and international
agencies operating in Pakistan. he indings of the research project werevalidated by the public and private stakeholders at various high proile
meetings.
One proposal was the strengthening of the ethical procurement
measures through communication programs, capacity-building initiatives,and advocacy and awareness-raising sessions. Another proposal was the
adoption of an advocacy plan for consensus-building on using the supply
chain process as a measure to eliminate child labor in the brick kiln industry
and promote sustainable procurement parameters.
Based on the proposed measures in the research report, advocacy sessions on the following topics were held to capacitate diverse stakeholders:
1. Advocacy on ethical procurement with international agencies anddonors;2. Development of minimum standards for procurement in the brickkiln industry; andRights of Bonded Laborers at Brick Kilns: A Social Protection Perspective from Pakistan

3.

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Advocacy on minimum standards for procurement withconstruction and insurance companies.
Since the business community and corporate sector largely follow
traditional procurement policies, the concept of sustainable procurement
started to be introduced to this sector. his new concept links social
protection and environmental factors with that of economicallydriven motives. Under this new concept, the benchmarks for minimum
procurement standards would cover child-friendly environment, minimum
wage, provision of occupational safety measures, access to health, education
facilities, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities and social protection
facilities for the workers.
Most of the procurement policies of multinational organizations andlarge public sector companies do not qualify under the benchmarks forsustainable procurement policies. hey are therefore being encouraged toenhance their advocacy and communications strategies toward adoptionof sustainable procurement policies as core disciplines that incorporatesocial protection measures besides economic beneits and environmental
protection. Social protection measures are missing from the procurement
policies of the corporate sector. he inclusion of these measures in theform of essential health care, insurance, educational beneits, workers’
beneits (such as leaves, working hours and monthly wage rates etc.) would
strengthen child protection and workers’ well-being at the place of work.
he private (including the bricks market vendors and middle persons)and public sectors need to be appropriately educated on the signiicanceof a coherent and consistent procurement policy and guidelines for theirbusiness and marketing communications during the implementation ofdevelopment projects including those requiring construction of social
infrastructures, schools, health care units, housing schemes, community
centers, roads, bridges and even business complexes. A sustainableprocurement policy can be used as a strategic tool for negotiations withother partners especially during the development of programs and facilitate
the social inclusion of community needs and those of the workers involved.
Human development and social protection needs of the community andworkers including their educational needs are thus taken cared of as a resultof efective and sustainable procurement measures undertaken.

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Campaign and Communication Strategy
A media-driven communication strategy was piloted to inluence diverse
stakeholders using a video documentary on rights at the workplace. he video documentary was used as a pilot approach to explore the links between
the work done by the public and private sectors.
he video documentary, entitled “Promise for a Better Future,” was developed in 2014 as a strategic tool for developing a process of leadershipdialogue on how to implement global labor standards at the brick kilns. hevideo documentary project was an evidence-based initiative to address basic
education needs of all child workers at the brick kilns and provide vocational
training to the youth. Moreover, it also promotes the critical importance ofaddressing social protection needs through social security cards for healthsafety beneits and other social beneits for workers and their families. he
Departments of Education and Labour represented by their senior management provided ample documented evidence to build a case for educating the
public on the fundamental human rights of workers and especially children
deployed at the risk-prone brick kiln industry in Pakistan. he documentary was screened over diferent time intervals during the March-May 2014
period, irst at a special advocacy session for senior representatives of government, donors, international agencies and the corporate sector including
workers and employers organizations, and at separate sessions organized fornational agencies engaged in child rights work, senior managers and regional
heads of the institution that implements the project - World Vision Pakistan
and its ield staf including trainers, psychologists and school teachers involved in its child protection and education programs.
Another initiative involved the brick kiln owners that formed theethical product market. hey were invited to help strengthen occupationalsafety and protection standards for children and workers at their brickmanufacturing units. his initiative was aimed at knowledge-building on
the multi-dimensional integration of csr (Corporate Social Responsibility)
aspects with socio-economic empowerment opportunities for the workers
in the production process.
A hall mark achievement of the initiative was the Child Well-being
Campaign (cwb Campaign) organized in collaboration with Brick Kilns
Owners Association, Pakistan to promote child-friendly brick kilns in
Lahore, Punjab province. his advocacy-based educational campaign was a

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53

unique model being accompanied by close coordination with the brick kilnowners and the Pakistan Workers Federation. It was also organized for children residing in the remote communities of small villages bordering India
in the outskirts of Lahore. he cwb Campaign was undertaken during overa period of two and a half months (April - June 2014 period) including the
mapping exercise.
his cwb Campaign was organized to strengthen the human rights
education of workers and their children deployed at the brick kilns and toprovide them access to basic tools for safety and care at the work place. A
major dilemma prevailing in the implementation of core labor standards
in Pakistan is that most of the campaigns and awareness-raising initiatives
were organized as standalone initiatives and do not create a knowledgebuilding impact among the target group. hrough the cwb Campaign, childand adult workers including those engaged in hazardous steps of the brickmaking process were educated regarding their rights to human dignity,
work place safety measures and the beneits of adhering to a risk-free work
environment. he cwb Campaign was both an advocacy and educational
campaign, to bring increased coordination between the workers and employers’ representatives in order to preserve the rights of the workers andtheir children.
he feasibility of the cwb Campaign was determined through a mapping exercise using ield survey. he mapping exercise covered brick kilns
that were selected based on a number of criteria: secure access, coordination with and consent of the brick kiln owners; and existence of basic
administrative requirements including registration of the brick kilns withthe provincial government authorities and the social security institute.
he mapping exercise included the following information: dis-aggregatedhousehold data, and data on workers (working hours, task distribution, deployment of children of diferent age groups in brickmaking, hazardous features of brickmaking process, and wage distribution). In addition, the mapping exercise also took into account the extent of awareness of basic rights
to education, health and other facilities of the workers and their families andchildren. his provided a basis for determining the need for human rights
education for them.
he human rights education activities under the cwb Campaign took
the form of community-based networking, awareness-raising sessions, andpromotion of easy access of workers and their families to basic and essential

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social amenities such as social protection beneits and equal remuneration
for women workers, prevention of child and bonded labor, terms of contract, labor and wage diferentials, and loans.
Occupational Safety Kits comprising of gloves and face masks were
provided to one hundred representatives of the brick kiln workers. hese
kits were distributed among selected group of workers who were engaged in
the process of stacking and baking of bricks and unloading bricks from thekilns.. During the process, workers were informed of the risk of the hazardous steps in brickmaking and what measures and precautions were necessary in order to prevent themselves from work-related injuries and healthrisks such as skin and lung infections, breathing problems, burns, etc.
Special sessions were designed for knowledge-building and educationof selected workers regarding the use of occupational safety gears. hey
were demonstrated when, where and how to use the gloves and masks inorder to prevent any risks related to hazardous steps involved in baking andstacking of baked bricks. A large number of other workers at the brick kilns,
who were involved in other less hazardous steps of brick-making-makingmaking also attended the sessions along with the employers in order to have an enhanced
level of understanding of how workers’ rights and basic safety needs were to
be addressed.
hrough this campaign, ten locations in Lahore were promoted asChild-Friendly Brick Kilns with the vision of improving the working conditions of children and older workers and of strengthening a support mechanism towards their protection and well-being through a multi-input collaborative model. he campaign accomplished the following:
1. Ten brick kiln units were identiied and mapped for knowledgebuilding and awareness on child rights at brick kilns;
2. Ten awareness sessions for workers were organized on how to use
occupation safety gears;
3. One hundred workers included those involved in stacking of bricks
inside the kiln, baking of bricks and unloading of bricks from thekiln were provided with occupational safety gears consisting ofmasks and gloves;
4. Four hundred families at ten brick kilns (reaching two thousand
eight hundred persons) participated in the distribution of materials
and knowledge-building sessions;
5. Distribution of one irst aid kit for each brick kiln location aimed atbeneiting one thousand four hundred persons;55

Rights of Bonded Laborers at Brick Kilns: A Social Protection Perspective from Pakistan

6.
7.

Distribution of recreational kits – one cricket kit per brick kiln topromote children’s right to play;
Strengthening of early childhood education by providing free earlychildhood education books and stationary.

Table 2. Beneficiaries Details– CWB Campaign to Promote Child Friendly Brick Kilns
Item

Boys

Girls

Youth

AdultsFamilies

Total

Dental kits

400

200

400

400

200

1,400

Occupational Safety (OS)
Kits

-

-

20

80

100

100

First Aid Kits

400

200

400

400

200

1,400

Recreational Kits

400

200

400

-

10

1,000

Thematic Mugs

20

15

10

35

80

80

Awareness Raising session
on Use of OS Kits

200

100

200

200

500

Child Well-being Campaign
he cwb Campaign links social dialogue to the corporate social responsibility concept and governance ethics at brick kilns.
he development perspective regarding the elimination of child laborand bonded labor at brick kilns is based on the principles of advocacy andrights-based education on safeguarding the rights of workers and efective
liaison between the workers and employers. To support the same and accelerate the process, a human rights education and awareness-raising programis needed in addressing the continuing issues within the labor market especially in the brick kiln industry.
Strong sustainable institutional measures and action programs areneeded for the efective protection of workers’ rights and the educationon these rights of those working at the brick kilns. hese measures andprograms may also include the following:
1. Advocacy, through tripartite dialogue and consultations withgovernment is deemed instrumental in putting forth a sociallycohesive strategy for promoting ethical product market as well as

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H U M A N R I G H T S E D U C AT I O N I N A S I A - PA C I F I C(Photos by Ayesha Aftab)

2.

3.

4.

5.

ethical procurement standards and the minimum benchmarks inthe brickmaking supply chain;
Institutional priorities of stakeholders for promoting the wellbeing of children need to be advocated amicably through strategic
engagements with government agencies such as the Departmentsof Labour, Education and Social Welfare and of Health, etc.;
Removal of child labor from the brick kilns is likely to ease the labor
shortage as it will provide job opportunities for adult workers. hiswill help in decreasing the unemployment rate and also result in
reducing poverty;
Strengthening of public-private partnerships especially withtripartite partners for future interventions and under the humanrights/economic rights portfolio;
Advocacy must be supported with service provision to the targetedcommunities/stakeholders in order to fetch a stronger impact.

Rights of Bonded Laborers at Brick Kilns: A Social Protection Perspective from Pakistan

6.

7.
8.
9.

57

herefore, improving working conditions at brick kilns would add
value to the programs;
Children and youth at the brick kilns do not have access to education,
health or safe drinking water facilities that cause their vulnerability;
they are also vulnerable to risks related to child abuse, protection,and have no means to improve their living conditions. Hence achild wellbeing program at brick kilns needs to be strengthened in
the long term and also made sustainable;
Child/bonded labor issues at brick kiln should be addressed
through csr-based models approach
Short-, medium- and long-term goals should be deined to enhance
the impact of advocacy on eliminating child labor;
A collaborative model is recommended to inluence tripartite
stakeholders.

Concluding Notehe process of human rights institutional development is gaining
momentum in Pakistan with both private and corporate sectors playing
efective roles through their partnerships in implementing rights-based
education and development programs for vulnerable communities suchas brick kiln workers. It is now signiicant that the two governing features
shaping the implementation of labor standards, i.e., human rights education
and accessibility of development services, are well-aligned for greater andmultilateral impact in the sector.
he achievement of decent work conditions in the brick kiln industry
is dependent on how the stakeholders build bridges towards efective andconsistent implementation of labor standards and facilitate sustainable
marketing strategies for the same purpose. Parameters and modalities ofhuman rights education toward promoting labor rights must be structured
around the phenomenal concept of social protection and equitable
employment conditions. he role of human rights education and institutional
reforms would carry greater value with the integration of multi-input services
becoming increasingly accessible. Public-private partnerships for providing
access to such services like rehabilitation of non-functional school facilities
located nearby brick kilns, provision of transportation facility, availabilityof school packages, food for education schemes, teacher training facility,

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introducing human rights education curriculum, induction of a monitoringand quality assurance committee for education services would ofer more
impact leading to multi-input reforms. herefore, a swiftly moving patternof corporate governance would be signiicant for providing the essential
model for rights-based development. Harmonized coordination among
stakeholders implementing the community development model and engaged
in providing improved services based on ethical benchmarks would inspire awell aligned pattern of corporate governance. Such measures would provide
the basis for accelerated and qualitative corporate development program.
Endnotes
1. Bisharat Ali, “Brick Kilns & Bondage,” piler Report on Labour Rights inPakistan, July 2010, page 91.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Saifullah Khairi, Strengthening Child Protection through Ethical Production
and Procurement of Bricks (Islamabad: World Vision Report, 2014).
5. From the notes of the author on a meeting with Department of Labour,
Punjab Province on the state of bonded labor in the brick kilns of the province.
6. Article: 25A Right to Education
he State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the ageof ive to sixteen years in such manner as may be determined by law.
7. Khairi, op. cit.
8. Ibid.