Child Labour grows at Afghan Kilns as girls replace women

Aljazeera report of Sept 2022 with many photos, describing sharply increasing child labour in Afghanistan’s brick kilns since the Taliban took over and most international aid stopped flowing. Children are working so that their families will not die of starvation.

As you know the Taliban regime has broken its word and banned women from most work outside the home. To compensate for this more children are working, and especially girls are doing the heavy work at the kilns that their mothers used to do.

In case anyone should think that Afghanistan is an especially backward and benighted place, take note that in the World’s largest parliamentary democracy India (which sends rockets to Mars and exports IT technicians to the West by the thousand) probably a million child labourers work at the brick kilns every year and do not attend any school. This child labour continues within 10 or 20 kilometres of the residences of chief ministers in the full light of day.

https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2022/9/26/photos-poverty-pushes-afghan-children-to-work-at-brick-kilns

First "Child Labour Free" brick kiln in India?

brickkilnnewssasia
Dec 9, 2017
1 min read

UNITED brickfield / brick kiln at Malancha, N 24 Pargs, has been declared 'Child Labour Free' by the owner - Abdul Hamid Mistry. In March 2019 Mr Mistry became our partner in the Campaign for Child Labour Free bricks by signing the PLEDGE that children will not be employed in UNITED Brick Kiln. We salute him for this courageous step, which is not easy to take in an industry where child labour is almost everywhere.

AH Mistry has taken this step alone among local brick kiln owners. Others are considering if they can follow his example. This owner has done this without any increase in the price he receives for his bricks - annual output approximately 30 lakhs.

He says that no child below 14 years of age may work in his brick kiln, and has the support of the guardians among his workforce.

The NGO DRCSC is running a Child Education Centre at UNITED and in 9 other kilns at Malancha. Most children at these brick kilns are Bengalis whose homes are not very far from the kilns. Many children have been mainstreamed into local primary and even high schools.

It is possible that AH Mistry and UNITED brick kiln are the first in West Bengal and first in India to achieve 'Child Labour Free Bricks'. We need to find a market for these CLF bricks in Kolkata.