A BURNING PROBLEM: Two girls at work in a brick kiln at Mettupalayam in Tiruvallur district. — Photo: V. Ganesan

CHENNAI: One lakh children in the 6-18 age group are employed in brick kilns in Tamil Nadu, directly or indirectly involved in hazardous tasks.

Of these, about 60,000 children are in the 6-14 age group, working as bonded labourers, along with their families. A recent study conducted by the Pasumai Trust, Tiruvallur, and the People's Forum for Human Rights, Chennai, has established that prolonged exposure to sand, dust and heat of the kilns led to child labourers developing dermatalogical and gastroenterological problems, apart from wheezing, asthma, stunted development and among adoloscent girls, menstrual dysfunction.

This is in addition to the large number of accidents in the kilns in which the children sustain fractures and other major injuries, according to Then Pandian, one of the investigators.

It was conducted over a one-month period between March and April 2005 in Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram, Karur, Madurai, Sivaganga, Virudhunagar, Tirunelveli and Kanniyakumari districts in blocks where the brick-making industry flourishes. Four principal investigators were aided by six others in conducting the study.

"It is no surprise to us to find such a large number of children working in the brick kilns. In fact, if anything, it would be a conservative estimate. The study was conducted only to prove conclusively that child labour exists in a hazardous industry in a State that aims at eradicating child labour in another couple of years," Mr. Pandian said.

Among the tasks that the children are involved in include cutting out bricks, preparing the red sand for baking by walking over it, chipping bricks to shape them, stacking bricks in the "window format," carrying them to the kilns for baking and fetching them out after the process is complete. The investigators added that girls are used specifically for this last task which requires the children to walk into the hot kiln to gather bricks.

"The children are paid pathetic sums as wages. Most times their wages are subsumed in the wages that are paid to a family. For every 1,000 bricks the family `cuts' they get Rs. 130, while the minimum wages are fixed at Rs. 192 plus dearness allowance," says K. Moorthy of Pasumai Trust, who has been working in the area for about six years now.

Of this, an amount is held back towards settling the advance amount borrowed by the workers. Mr. Moorthy said children in the worst circumstances were those in the "chambers" in Tiruvallur and Chengalpattu (Kancheepuram district).

While smaller kilns are run as a cottage industry by families, it is in the larger chambers that the practice of employing children is rampant.

"The only way to put an end to the problem is to declare the brick kiln as an industry, considering the larger ones employ as many as 150 families. Then, regulating the industry — ensuring minimum wages and standards of work and elimination of child labour — will become easier. Minimum wages can also be strictly implemented," Mr. Moorthy said.

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