Iqbal Masih
Iqbal Masih was born in 1983 in Muridke, near Lahore, Pakistan. His family was poor and had borrowed 600 Rupees (less than US$5) from a local owner of a carpet weaving business. Iqbal, just four, became a bonded labour and was required to work for the weaver until the debt was paid off. At the factory, he and other children worked for 14 hours a day, six days a week, often chained to their looms. They made beautifully intricate carpets by tying thousands of knots with fingers gnarled and callused from years of work. A single carpet could have a million knots.
When Iqbal was ten, he tried to run away from the slavery, but was caught. The second time, he was rescued by the Bonded Labour Liberation Front (BLLF). Ehsan Ulla Khan, a dedicated social worker, had set up BLLF, which liberated thousands of adults and children from brick kilns, farms, tanneries, and carpet factories. In addition, BLLF established its own primary schools and placed more than several thousands of children in them.
Iqbal was a diligent student and completed a 4-year programme in just two years. Showing courage and initiative much beyond his age, Iqbal became an activist with BLLF and helped over 3000 children to escape to freedom. Under Ehsan Khan’s guidance, he also became a spokesman for the bonded children of Pakistan and travelled to the US and Europe to convince customers against buying Pakistani carpets. As a result, Pakistani carpet sales started falling.
Iqbal was one of the 500,000 or more children between the ages of four and fourteen, who work full-time as carpet weavers. UNICEF estimates that children make up 90% of Pakistan’s carpet industry. Boys aged seven to ten are preferred for their dexterity and endurance. They earn one-quarter to one-third the salary of adult weavers, and they are obedient. They are from Pakistan’s poorest families, sold by their parents. There exists a 1992 law in Pakistan that prohibits bonded labour, but it is not implemented properly. (Similar is the situation in India and other countries.)
Iqbal received the Reebok Human Rights Youth in Action Award in 1994 in the US city of Boston. In his acceptance speech he said: “For us slave children, Ehsan Ullah Khan and BLLF have done the same work that Abraham Lincoln did for the slaves of America. Today, you are free and I am free too… I appeal to you that you stop people from using children as bonded laborers because the children need to use a pen rather than the instruments of child labor.”
Iqbal dreamt of becoming a lawyer in order to fight for the cause of bonded children. But on April 16, 1995, he was fatally shot by Ashraf Hero, a heroin addict, while visiting relatives in Muridke. His mother did not believe that her son had been the victim of the “carpet mafia”. BLLF, however, disagreed because Iqbal had indeed received death threats from individuals connected to the Pakistani carpet industry. Iqbal’s funeral was attended by 800 mourners. Later BLLF was raided and Ehsan Khan was hounded, until he fled to Europe.
In 2000, Iqbal Masih was posthumously awarded the World’s Children’s Prize for the Rights of the Child. The same year, the Piazzale dei Traghetti Iqbal Masih was inaugurated in Genoa, Italy.
Afterword: Iqbal’s activism and passion inspired many positive actions, such as the following:
- “Free the Children,” a Canada-based charity and youth movement was founded.
- The Iqbal Masih Shaheed Children’s Foundation was set up in Pakistan, where it has started many schools.
- In 2009 the US Congress established the annual Iqbal Masih Award for the Elimination of Child Labor. The purpose of the award is to recognize exceptional efforts to reduce the worst forms of child labour—in view of inspiring and motivating others working toward this end.
Iqbal’s story has been depicted in several books. Some examples:
- Iqbal by Francesco D’Adamo, a fictional story based on the true events, from the point of view of a girl named Fatima.
- The Little Hero: One Boy’s Fight for Freedom by Andrew Crofts.
- The Carpet Boy’s Gift by Pegi Deitz Shea and Leane Morin
We have some such examples in India as well, where children are rescued and are made to pursue their education. But after completing their education or having reached pinnacle in their careers, they do not return back to the roots which helped them to grow. However, some do contribute financially for the cause and I do agree that it is some solace to see help coming in one form or the other. Probably we could have seen more of Iqbal in action but for his tragic death. The powerful and the mighty have their own ways and we are not used to sort out things through a dialogue anyway.