Veeru Kohli: The Light Bearer

Veeru Kohli was a campaigner against bonded labour in Pakistan. She remained a bonded labourer herself for 20 years. After winning her freedom through a difficult legal battle she became one of the best known champions of freedom for bonded labourers in the country's history.

Born to a scheduled caste Hindu agricultural labourer's family in Allahdino Shah village in Sindh, she was married at 16 into a family bonded to a landlord. In search of better conditions she moved with her family to Umerkot, Sindh and started working for another landlord. Here again, she was subjected violence and harassment.

In 1998, when her son and his bride were beaten up by the landlord's men on their wedding day, she fled. With the help of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) she filed a petition which led to a verdict in her favour after two months. She took the court order to the police and refused to leave the Superintendent's (SSP) office for three days until he had to take action. Her brave act led to the freedom of 45 of her family members and relatives.

Now free, she began working tirelessly to "free as many bonded laborers as she could." In her advocacy work she went up against influential landlords in the agricultural and brick kiln sectors and their lackeys in the corridors of political power. It also meant learning new languages, following court proceedings, political campaigning and representing the Kohli Hindu community and bonded laborers in the media. What set her work apart, was her case by case focus on making sure that court orders for freedom of bonded laborers see implementation.

Throughout the nearly 25 years after winning her freedom, Veeru Kohli freed 4,000 bonded labourers. For this momentous work of liberation she was given the Fredrick Douglas Freedom Award by Free The Slaves. The most well known example of a community that benefitted from her work is that of Azad Nagar, "land of the free," a settlement of freed bonded laborers near Hyderabad, Sindh. It is here that she breathed her last in 2023. She left a legacy as an icon of courage and struggle which continues to inspire campaigners against bondage, castism, religious persecution and labour exploitation.