Iqbal Masih was born in 1983 in Muridke, a commercial city outside of Lahore in Pakistan. When he was just four year old, Iqbal’s family borrowed 600 rupees (less than $6.00) from a local employer who owned a carpet weaving business. In return, Iqbal was required to work as a carpet weaver until the debt was paid off.  Every day, he would rise before dawn and make his way along dark country roads to the factory, where he and most of the other children were tightly bound with chains to prevent their escape. He would work 12 hours a day, seven days a week, with only one 30-minute break. Even though paid 3 cents a day towards the loan, the amount due on the loan continued to increase.  This dire situation persisted for the next 6 years …

 

Then, at the age of 10, after learning that bonded labor had been declared illegal by the Supreme Court of Pakistan, Iqbal escaped.  And yet his freedom was short-lived.  He was caught by the police and returned to his “employer”, who told the police to tie him upside down if he tried to escape again. Undaunted, Iqbal escaped a second time – only this time he found his way to the Bonded Labour Liberation Front School for former child slaves, where he quickly completed a four-year education in only two years.  Thereafter, most remarkably, instead of using his hard-won education for purely personal gain, Iqbal dedicated his life to helping over 3,000 Pakistani child-slaves to escape to freedom, and began making speeches throughout the world about the vile child slave-labor trade.  Iqbal’s courage and selflessness inspired the creation of organizations such as Free The Children, a Canada-based charity, and the Iqbal Masih Shaheed Children Foundation, which has founded over 20 schools in Pakistan.

 

“Children should pens in their hands, not tools.” ~ Iqbal Masih

Filed under: In LOVE with Humanity by Scaughdt