“Moden Slavery in Pakistan: A Survey”, Bitter Winter, April 2, 2024:
The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting operates in Washington, D.C., as a news media organization focusing on issues of international interest that other media outlets are not that eager to publish. Established in 2006, it has nothing to do with the famous Pulitzer Prizes, which are administered by Columbia University, in New York City, for achievements in journalism. Nonetheless, both honor the memory and legacy of Hungarian citizen Pulitzer József (1847–1911), who made a career as a politician and newspaper publisher after becoming a US citizen as Joseph Pulitzer in 1867.
Recently, the Center featured a three-part documentary entitled “Bonded by Brick: The Story of Modern-Day Slavery in Pakistan,” circa 40 minutes long. It is produced by The Centrum Media (TCM), Pakistan’s first digital news platform, launched in January 2017 after having been founded in November 2016 by Talha Ahad, a multimedia journalist and documentary filmmaker. Active in Islamabad, Pakistan, and London, the UK, Ahad presently serves as TCM’s CEO. “Bonded by Brick” uncovers Pakistan’s pressing social ill of modern slavery that exists in almost every rural and urban areas across the country.
The title of the documentary owes to the fact that one of the foremost examples of slave labor in Pakistan today is connected to the work in kilns where bricks for constructions are made. It is estimated, the documentary reports, that in the country there are more than 3,5‒4 million bonded laborers, around 20,000 of whom work in brick kilns in harsh, severe, often inhuman conditions…..”
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