United We Bargain, Divided We Fall

Aghaz-e-Safar • Season 1 • Episode 2

About this episode

This year will mark the two-year anniversary of the deadly blaze in Baldia Town which killed over 200 factory workers. We meet an inspirational group of people who are confronting long-suppressed issues of bonded labor, minimum wage and labour rights. Zulfiqar Shah, joint director of PILER, fears that health and safety conditions across factories in Pakistan remain alarming poor. Obaid ur Rehman, the President of a union of a five star hotel in Karachi, is among 150 workers defending themselves from low wages. Veeru Kohli is a former bonded laborer who managed to escape from a life of slavery and run for office in the 2013 national elections.