DR.

RAM MANOHAR LOHIYA NATIONAL LAW

UNIVERSITY

FINAL DRAFT ON
MODERN DAY SLAVERY IN BRICK KILN IN
INDIA

SUBMITTED TO

SUBMITTED

BY
DR. SANJAY SINGH

HIMANSHU

VERMA
ASST. PROFESSOR

B.A.LL.B (H)

Ist Sem
1

Section- A
Roll No- 57

INTRODUCTION
Slavery in which individuals are owned by others, who control where they
live and at what they work. The practice still continues today in one form
or another in every country in the world. From women forced into
prostitution, children and adults forced to work in agriculture, domestic
work, or factories and sweatshops producing goods for global supply
chains, entire families forced to work for nothing to pay off generational
debts; or girls forced to marry older men, the illegal practice still blights
contemporary world.
According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) around 21 million
men, women and children around the world are in a form of slavery.
There are many different characteristics that distinguish slavery from
other human rights violations, however only one needs to be present for
slavery to exist. Someone is in slavery if they are:

forced to work - through mental or physical threat;

owned or controlled by an 'employer', usually through mental or

physical abuse or the threat of abuse;

dehumanised, treated as a commodity or bought and sold as

'property';

physically constrained or has restrictions placed on his/her freedom

of movement.

Contemporary slavery takes various forms and affects people of all ages,
gender and races.
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BONDED LABOUR IN INDIAS BRICK KILNS

Each year after the rice harvest fails, 200,000 Dalits migrate from western
Odisha to the brick kilns around Hyderabad. They migrate in order to pay
off the 12,000 rupees (120) advance given to them by a 'sardar' (labour
contractor). As bonded labourers, the workers are, in effect, kept captive.
They work 18 hours a day in hazardous conditions, living on-site in shanty
huts with no toilets or drinking water. Women often suffer sexual
harassment from 'sardars' and owners.
Children are also exploited in brick kilns because their size means they do
not need to bend down and they can walk on top of freshly made bricks
without damaging them. They work as part of a 'pathariya' comprising one
man, one woman and one or two children.
Brick kiln labourers form a large portion of workers in the informal sector
in India. Workers, who are usually from the poorest sections of Indian
society, are recruited against a loan by labour contractor or employer,
which they have to repay by working for them. However, as they lose
control over the debt and cannot leave until the employer decides when
its paid off, they cannot realistically leave the employment.
Despite being illegal, bonded labour is endemic within the brick industry in
India. Because the kilns are considered part of the informal sector and
operate without governments oversight, kiln workers do not enjoy the
rights and entitlements that workers in formal sectors benefit from.
Brick manufacturing is an important industry in Punjab, Haryana and
Chandigarh. Although these states are not among the poorest in India, kiln
workers remain one of the most vulnerable and overlooked. Most kiln
workers in these states are internal migrants, recruited from poorer states
such as Chattisgarh, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, and are
predominantly members of castes such as Dalits and indigenous groups
that are commonly discriminated against.
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The debts can be passed on from generation to generation. Workers are

recruited and offered an advance, against which their earnings are
deducted. However, they are not paid a salary or wage, as the money
services the debt, and they have no idea until the end of the season how
much they are entitled to receive or if they still owe the kiln owners.
Even though a verbal agreement is usually made with the male head of
household (there is no formal contract), the whole family, including young
children, has to work long hours in the kilns to meet the targets. As they
often take new loans to clear past debts, most workers are in perpetual
bondage.
The working and living conditions are sometimes extremely harsh. As
workers usually live within the kiln, there are high levels of hazardous
substances such as arsenic, burnt plastic and dust. Workers, including
children, are frequently injured at work. The average working day consists
of 15-16 hours and the great majority of children do not attend school or
have any play time. The accommodation is usually overcrowded,
commonly with several families living together in one single room, with
outdoor toilets.

The root cause of the brick kiln bondage lies in low wage rates. While
wages are low across the unorganised sector in India these are abysmally
low in the brick kiln sector. Analysis of records across three states shows
that average wages over the working period of six months range between
two to three thousand . These rates are significantly lower than
statutory minimum wages.
Simply to earn this level of wages, workers have to put in twelve or more
hours of work every day. Children are forced to work as the food expenses
given to workers are correlated to production levels. Lower production can
simply mean that a family does not have enough to eat.

Due to the nature of bonded labour, workers and their families are
frightened for their physical safety and sadly remain in the brick kilns
rather than approaching the authorities to intervene - which of course
would result in the full scale of the problem being officially acknowledged.
Violence against the workers, including beatings and abductions of family
members, is common, especially when labourers seek help. Women are
also particularly vulnerable to abuse and sexual violence.
Kiln workers have little or no knowledge of their basic rights, entitlements
and bonded labour prohibitions. Being from the most vulnerable segments
of society and lacking organisation, bonded labourers remain invisible to
the authorities.