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JALALABAD (SW): The Sur Rod district of Nangarhar province is home to hundreds of bounded laborers’ families working in brick kilns.
In conversation with Salam Watandar, 12-year-old Taj Meena said her family owe the brick kiln’s owner some 100, 000 rupees (around 1000 USD), but since they are unable to pay it back they have to work on daily basis without any pay. Wearing old and worn-out cloths, barefoot Taj Meena was visibly shivering while working in the kiln on a cold day. She was joined by her father, grand-father and two young brothers.
There are about one hundred such brick kilns in this district where hundreds of such bounded laborers work. This include hundreds of child workers as well.
Taj Meena and her younger brothers wished they could have the liberty to study like other children instead of working in the brick kilns everyday in their lives. The family is deprived of many other basic needs of life such as proper food, water and medicine.
Her father informed the owner of the kiln only deducts 30 rupees daily from the dedt the workers owe to them, and that is why it is quite difficult to pay back the loan and get liberty. Taj Meena’s 45-year-old father is disable man, and has been working in brick kilns for the past ten years now, but could not pay back the loan he first took all those years ago. He sighed that his children desperately want to join the village’s school, but he simply cannot afford it.
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The kiln owners also charge the workers for the mud houses provided to them.
Ghalib is another bounded laborer at a brick kiln in Sur Rod district. He has to take care of a 10-member family. His ailing mother told Salam Watandar cultural and religious festivals, and other holidays mean nothing to them as they have to work and work all the time.
Shakirullah is another young man who has spent 20 years of his life in the brick kilns. He noted when the weather is not good they have no jobs which force them to take more loans from the kiln owners.
The brick kilns’ owners reject the allegations about keeping workers as bounded laborers. They said they ‘meet the requirements’ of the workers, and in return they work in the kilns. Musafar Khan, an owner of the kiln, said he buys 1000 bricks for 530 rupees from the workers, and charge them for the home provided to them.
Abdul Hakeem, director for labor and social affairs in the province, has acknowledged the fact that families are kept as bounded laborers in Sur Rod’s brick kilns. He said the kiln owners have rejected to sign agreements in regard to the payment and living conditions of the workers.
Mohammad Asif, spokesman for the directorate of education, has said as many as 19 areas in the district have been marked where child labor exists. Sabrina Hamidi, director for the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) in Nangarhar, expressed profound grief over the issue of child labor in the province. She noted their survey indicates more than two thousand children are working as child laborers in the province.
ENDS
