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Carrying nine bricks, two-and-half kg each, on both sides of a sling, a 25-year-old Thirlachand Yadav makes a half-kilometre trip between the brick kiln and the spot where bricks are dried. He makes not less than 2,000 such trips from daybreak to dawn, seven days a week. His wife Dallin’s day starts at 3 am with household chores, continues at the kiln and ends at around 9 pm, when everyone is ready to retire after a long day at work. However, unlike Yadav, she carries only 12 bricks in as many trips a day. Records show as many as 4,030 such workers eke out a living from the around 110 such kilns in Rangareddy district. At one of the many kilns in Kongarakalan village, the supervisor, not willing to be named, said: “They come for six months of work. Each person is given Rs 15,000 before arriving here and then a wage of Rs 300 per week. Every Wednesday, we take them to the market where they buy grocery which is enough for a week.” The catch, however, is that there is no working hours as such. Life at brick kilns visibly different from official versions There’s a visible difference in the official version and the life a brick kiln worker leads on the work site. P Srinivas, deputy commissioner (Labour), in-charge of RR district, claims the government has fully secured each of the migrant labourers’ lives. “Once the workers are registered with us, they are covered under insurance with a cover up to Rs 6 lakh in case of accidental death. Rajiv Vidya Mission’s volunteers go to the work site and teach kids of workers. Under public distribution, rice and grocery is provided to them through ration shops. Medical camps are also and mothers, children and pregnant women are taken care under Integrated Child Development Services,” he says, adding there are 32 such schools run by RVM volunteers at work sites. However, the work site schools for workers’ kids is more on papers than the sites. A 12-year-old Goutham Manjhi, a worker’s son, says he last went to a school back in his village Budipadhar in Odisha. “One master did come for a day or two. He took pictures and left,” he quips. Goutham, who has come to Telangana for the first time, says he would never return. His parents, however, revealing the callus spots on their shoulders, said “We get work for two or three days a week if we stay back. Here we have work all throughout the week and get good money. Anyway, we have no other option.” Hardships 4,030 number of workers working at the brick kilns in Ranga Reddy district 110 brick kilns spread across the district Rs 300 paid for a week’s work
Keywords
brick kilns, workers, forced labour, bonded labour, migrant workers, Rangareddy district, Kongarakalan village, public distribution, rice, grocery, work site
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