HYDERABAD: The twoday workshop on `Bonded labour laws and rights` organised by special task force of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP)inalocalhotelissued a set of recommendations on Saturday to ef fectively check the menace and establish the writ of law in the rural areas of the country.

One of the recommendations urges the government to ensure that the act of keeping haris in bondage was treated as a `serious offence` and such cases be tried by a sessions judge and not a first-class magistrate as is laid down in the Sindh Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 2015.

Other recommendations call for breaking the policelandowner nexuses as under present conditions no punishment is defined for those landlords who keep haris in bondage. The workshop notes that police are involved in corruption and they victimise a victim further.

Therefore, it suggests that sessions court judges should be empowered to deal with such cases. Deterrents should be clearly defined in law.

It has also recommended that liberated haris, both men and women, should be provided land by government to ensure their permanent rehabilitation.

It has further urged the government to address issues of computerised national identity cards (CNICs), birth certificates, permanent residence docu-ments and their enlistment as voters after they are liberated from bondage.

It demands that a mechanism should be put in place where problems of haris and disadvantaged groups are addressed. It calls for the formation of hari union in their own larger interest and activation of district vigilance committees to curb the practice of bondage.

The set of recommendations calls for making the anti-bondage law gender sensitive, because in its present shape, it focuses `peasants` alone while their women faceissues of peculiar nature.

Women should be properly covered under the law. This Act must have a provision for rehabilitation of liberated haris as is seen in Nepal, where they are given financial assistance once they are freed.

The HRCP workshop says that haris` wages should be enhanced the way the rate of cropisincreasedin the case of sugar cane and wheat.

Wages should be recovered fromlandlords[employersof haris], in case they remain outstanding, after bonded peasants are liberated fromtheir custody.

It adds that FIRs should not be registered against social activists and haris who move courts for the liberation of bonded people because it is noted that landlords often implicate them in false cases.

The haris must be given financial assistance so that they could resume a normal life after getting freed.

The workshop demands some mechanism to be put in place under which landlords and policemen are taken to task for their illegal acts causing haris to suffer. Itobserves that policemen usually pass information to errant landlords before a raid is conducted on their farmland. Police often demand a bribe from the haris who file cases for the recovery of their bonded relatives, it further observes, and demands a strict check on this practice.

One of the recommendations claims that police are not aware of bonded labour laws nor are they trained in dealing with such cases.

They of ten mix up such cases with the offences relating to the Sindh Tenancy Act.Therefore, police be given proper training to appropriately handle cases of bonded labour.

The HRCP workshop seeks establishment of small villages for liberated bonded haris because they face serious issues of medical, educational and vocational nature.

Such haris have to live the life of gypsy and nomad families as they don`t have some other option open to them. It also supports formation of network involving non-governmental organisations, according to the set of recommendations.