Brick making by the numbers. 7 days a week…12 hours per day (with a 2 hour break on Saturdays)…
150 times a day… 24 bricks each load.
Susmita lugs almost 50,000 pounds of bricks per week out of the kiln to a waiting truck. At age 13, she earns less than $3 per day while working at one of Nepal’s estimated 750 brick factories. School for her is not an option.
Susmita, 13, carries a heavy load of bricks to a waiting truck.
Susmita is only one of the estimated 60,000 children who work in the brick kilns. They live in temporary shelters of stacked brick and tin roofs. Their floor is damp clay. Sanitation is poor. Their bathroom an open field. Healthcare is lacking. Schooling of any type is rare. Nepalese law forbids children to work in the dangerous environs of the brick industry, but the law is not enforced.
The object of employing children is not to train them,but to get high profits from their work. – Lewis Hine, 1908
Lalu, 16, another young worker, was sent to Nepal by his family in India so that he could earn money for his family. “We don’t have any work at home, so I am sent here to work for six months.” After the brick making season is over he will return to India for the harvest.
Susmita, 13, her skin and face covered with dust, stacks bricks before loading them onto her back.
Children in Nepal are expected to contribute to their families economic needs, but this often goes beyond simple household chores to the risks and dangers of heavy labor in industries such as brick making, carpet weaving, stone quarries, and mines.
Lalu, 16, closes his eyes as he stacks bricks on his head.
As the sun begins to set, Susmita hauls her last bricks for the day out of the kiln. Her dirt encrusted fingers clasp the small scrap of paper with tiny marks that represent her toil for the day…over 3,000 bricks…less than $3 earned.
Lalu, 16, and other workers load bricks onto a truck.
CICM Children’s Ministry is a vital part of CICM’s outreach. The Children’s Ministry is helping bring hope to the hopeless and free those children in bondage, such as Lalu and Susmita. Our CICM leaders work to rescue at-risk children and bring them into the CICM Children’s Homes. There we are able to provide a safe and loving environment for them to live and grow in the Lord.
Prayerfully consider a gift to CICM Children’s Ministry to help CICM continue to rescue at-risk children from such grievances as child labor. We thank you for your thoughts, prayers and encouragement of the ministry of CICM.
GOD Bless,
Drs. Ajai and Indu Lall
and the CICM team
9425 N Meridian St, suite 281
Indianapolis, IN 46260
Story and photos by: Gary Chapman
Our Thanks to Pastor Leonard Navarre for sending this story to us.
