Brick kiln migrants' kids struggle for basic rights

TOO YOUNG TO WORK, TOO POOR TO STOP

- PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

In the scorching May heat, 12-year-old Rajni cradles her infant sister while stirring watery dal simmering in a soot-blackened aluminium pot outside her hut in Uttar Pradesh’s Aligarh district.

Just as the thin lentils begin to look ready, she pours more water into the pot in a bid to stretch the modest meal, which otherwise wouldn’t be enough to feed her family of eight.

When asked how it tastes, Rajni responds in a defensive tone: “This is not bad... It’s better than no food.”

Fruits, she adds, are a rare treat ~ usually available only when a local farmer tosses away overripe leftovers.

“This year, I ate a lot of mangoes,” she said with a grin, referring to tapkas, the ripe mangoes that fall from trees that she and her friends were allowed to collect.

Rajni’s family is one among thousands of seasonal migrants who travel each year to work in the sprawling brick kilns of western Uttar Pradesh.

But while the kilns promise income, the real cost is borne by children like Rajni, who grow up without education, adequate food, or healthcare and are caught in a cycle of generational poverty and invisible labour.

In 2021, data submitted by the government to Parliament suggested that there are 1.74 crore workers in registered brick kilns, while independent research has shown that 20 per cent of this workforce consists of child labourers.

“Therefore, it can be reasonably presumed that approximately 35 lakh children are working in brick kilns, with the number likely higher in illegal kilns,” said Bhuwan Ribhu, a child rights activist who founded Just Rights for Children.