In “Bonded Labour: Pakistan’s Christian Minority”, documentary maker Fergal McCarthy travels to Pakistan, to visit members of the Columban Fathers of Ireland - Irish missionaries living and working in Pakistan. The Columbans have been working in Pakistan since the late 1970s - serving the small Christian communities found in the Punjab and Sindh Provinces. The Columbans have set up a number of services for these communities - from schools, housing and healthcare clinics. But one of the main issues they assist with, is the issue of bonded labour – basically a form of modern day slavery.
As we travel throughout the Sindh and Punjab Province, our guide will be Fr. Tomas King. Originally a native of County Galway, Fr. Tomas has been working in the Sindh Province of Pakistan for over two decades. One of the communities that Tomas works closely with, is the Parki Kohli people – a poor, tribal people who find themselves on the fringes of Pakistan society. Because of the work they do - cleaning streets, sewers and elsewhere – the Parki Kohli people are one of the communitities that are often referred to as ‘the Untouchables’.
Although the Parki Kohli people are traditionally a Hindu community, today many have converted to Christianity. Some would have converted to Christianity centuries ago, but many would have converted during the British colonial period. Once the colonial period came to an end, this poor community not only found themselves, still, on the bottom rung of Pakistani society, but also of a religious faith that ran against the countries national identity.
So what is bonded labour? If you’re poor in Pakistan, your only access to credit or a loan, is through a cash advance from the farm owner or land owner that you work for. Poor communities such as the Parki Kohli people, are particularly vulnerable to this situation. Living on less than two dollars a day, these workers will never be able to repay these debts. Also many of these workers can’t read or write, so it’s easy for the landowner to fudge the numbers and keep the labourer forever in debt. So the debt keeps growing and growing, passed down from one generation to the next. It’s not uncommon to find three and four generations of the one extended family, working day and night, in order to repay a debt.
Starting out from the sprawling city of Karachi, Tomas brings us into the rural interior of the Sindh Province, to a town called Badin. Its from here that we will base ourselves as we travel around the Sindh Province,visiting farmlands and the bonded labours that work these fields. In Part II we catch an overnight train north, from the city of Hyderbad, into the Punjab Province and the city of Lahore. In the Sindh Province, bonded labour is usually found on farmlands, but in the Punjab Province bonded labour is usual found on the sites of brickfields or brick kilns – basically a place where bricks are made by hand.
“Bonded Labour: Pakistan’s Christian Minority” will be broadcast on Newstalk 106-108fm on Sunday 26thAugust at 7am, with a repeat broadcast on Saturday 1st September from 9pm.
LISTEN ONLINE: “Bonded Labour: Pakistan’s Christian Minority” can also be listened to online at: www.newstalk.com
PODCAST: Podcast available at: www.newstalk.com/documentaryonnewstalkafter the broadcast.
CREDITS: “Bonded Labour: Pakistan’s Christian Minority” was written, produced and narrated by Fergal McCarthy.
