forced to work for low wages and incurred debts that they did not understand and could not repay. They were treated much like slaves: constrained, imprisoned, chained and even bought and sold (Arif, 2008:24-25). The Constitution of Pakistan prohibits slavery and contains various articles that impose on the State the responsibility to provide just working conditions (Arif, 2008:26-28). Along with the Bonded Labor Abolition Act of 1992, the State provides ample safeguards against slavery. However, bonded farm labor still exists as landowners claim the relationship is based on the Sindh Tenancy Act. In 2001, a National Policy and Plan of Action for the Abolition of Bonded Labor and Rehabilitation of Freed Bonded Laborers was adopted resulting in amendments to the tenancy law. These included expunging the “temporary tenants” category, accepting as loans between landowner and tenant only that which have been recorded and prohibiting a landowner from extracting labor from a tenant’s family or restricting the movement of the tenant and his family (Arif, 2008:29-31). The amendments to the tenancy law did not prevent violations. Tenancy agreements were not signed so that a landlord could deny that the hari was a tenant. Under the law, the landlord provides funds for certain inputs, however, landlords charged these on the tenant, and included personal expenses, which led to the tenant being eternally in debt. A tenant is supposed to receive one third to half of the produce but, in reality, only receives daily subsistence or less (Arif, 2008:32-33). The Tenancy Act was updated in 2013 but the situation remains the same. Land belonging to haris can be occupied by members of the upper caste, since haris have very little legal recourse. Bonded laborers who have been freed overwhelmingly belonged to scheduled castes. Although they may have been working on the same land for generations, they are not entitled to it in any way (Shah, 2007:7). Only 17% of scheduled caste members own land, of which 90% are between one and five acres and are located in non-irrigated, desert areas. Scheduled caste members receive unequal pay even if they do the same amount of work as members of other castes or Muslims (Shah, 2007:28-29,45). Pakistan has not been spared from the corporatization of the agricultural sector. In 2011, the United Arab Emirates bought about 324,000 hectares (ha) of land in Baluchistan, Punjab and Sindh (Pesticide Action Network Asia & the Pacific, 2012:3). Al-Dahra, a UAE company, has a land lease agreement for 10 years in Mirpurkhas, Sindh starting from 2007. Export goods included alfalfa and Rhodes grass. Surveyed residents were unwilling to express dissatisfaction with this land lease arrangement perhaps out of fear (Pesticide Action Network Asia & the Pacific, 2012:6-7,9). However, the consequences of such export-based agricultural production are not hard to predict. Water use is greater for these crops, thus water is diverted to corporate farms. With farmers working on products that are not intended for local food production, they have to purchase items such as flour and vegetables, leaving them at the mercy of price fluctuations. Furthermore, what was previously common grazing land for livestock is now private property, and several residents had to reduce their livestock for fear of imprisonment for making use of “private grass” (Pesticide Action Network Asia & the Pacific, 2012:13-15). Corporate agriculture comes with mechanized farming techniques requiring less labor. The Lok Niti 91

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