Poverty Alleviation Course_Reading 4_Debt Bondage: A Sociological Study of Brick kiln Workers in Badhaber, Peshawar, Pakistan

Abstract

The research paper investigates different facets around the problem of debt bondage at brick kilns in the vicinity of Peshawar. A sample size of 40 respondents was interviewed under simple random sampling in village Badhaber, a peripheral area of Peshawar. The study mainly focused on the nature of work, socio economic causes and effects of bonded labor. The major findings reveal that work at brick kilns was hard, detrimental to human health and duration was more than internationally defined limit. Major causes encompassed illiteracy, faction and feuds in the past and low economic position. The impacts of debt bondage were observed in the form of lack of social contacts with relatives/friends, no mobility in social status, no progressive form of marriage like exogamy, no improved economic status, no access to health and some had diseases, and bitter socialization and education of children. The study recommends that the Government of Pakistan needs to take concrete step towards implementing 1992 Act, which is about the abolition of bonded labor system, to ensure stopping this inhuman practice.