Children carry bricks to finance education

DEUKHARI, Dec 3: Fourth grader Pratima Chaudhary awaits eagerly for her classes to be over. She is not eager, however, to participate in games with her classmates. Rather, the 12-year-old hurries to a brick kiln located near her house to carry bricks and make some money.

Eleven-year-old Shanti Chaudhary, too, rushes to the same brick kiln immediately after the final school bell rings. Many children in this small village in Dang finance their education carrying bricks at the kiln, though law prohibits using minors for physical labor.


“With the money we make we buy notebooks and pens,” said a shy Pratima, as she posed for a picture with bricks on her shoulder. “We don´t play during off time. We carry bricks,” she said. The kids use the money they earn to buy stationery and snacks. They spend their days at school and spend the mornings and evenings carrying bricks. Laborers working at the kiln say these kids of Chaulahi VDC are forced to work as their parents are very poor.

On Saturdays and other public holidays, these children spend the whole day carrying bricks. They earn between Rs 150 to Rs 300 depending on the number of dried brick cakes they take to the kiln. They are given Rs 300 for carrying 1,000 brick cakes.

“We don´t call them. They come of their own volition,” said a local laborer. “How can we turn away the children who come to us with a request to work?” According to the laborer, most of the children are girls. “Girls work diligently, and carry more bricks,” he said.

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