Individual Report

A Report submitted to Prof. Harsh Mander

In partial fulfillment of the requirements of the course
Good governance and people living in poverty

On
October 7th, 2013

By

Pakki Lakshman Vivek
PGP 12198

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT, AHMEDABAD

1. Introduction a. Profile of the family visited
Caste – Oad
Person met – Govind (12 years) and his family
Place – Chiada village near Ahmedabad
Work – Nikasi
School – Seasonal (Oct – March will not attend school)
I visited workers in brick kiln site at Chiada gram panchayat. There I met people from different communities and castes. Brick kiln industry mainly involves three jobs – 1. Paatla 2. Jalai 3. Nikasi. Each work is a Speciality of a particular community. I visited Oad community people who mainly do the third phase of brick making. Most of these labours are migrant labours who work here till season ends and go back to their respective states. Oad community mainly hails from Rajasthan and northern Gujarat. The family whom I interviewed was from Rajasthan. Pics from the site

2. Social status
Like other families in this industry Govind’s family is also a group of migrant workers. Although they are supposed to be a Rajput tribe but still they come under lower because of the job they traditionally did. They have no status in Gujarat, in fact only contractor and other families working in the same conditions knew them and others don’t even know they exist. In fact when we talked about government’s acceptance of their existence then I realised that government (Gujarat) do not accept that they are present and thus they are negated of any benefits that a state can give to its people. a. Health benefits
They are no health benefits especially for these people. Nearby municipality hospital is almost 4 km far and that too doctor are hardly available in odd hours. Moreover they are never treated well in this hospitals. Even for emergency purposes they are kept on waiting for long hours. There are no private hospitals in a radius of 7 km and that is something these guys can never afford. Further no NGOs or labour unions are present in this sector because of its very special nature of migration. When I asked to contractor and owner about health benefits they simply told me that it is there but these guys themselves are not interested to go there. Govind’s family told me that it is of use visiting to hospitals nearby as nobody cares for them and even doctors are quite negligent in their work. So they believe it is better to get well using their own techniques. They further told that Govind’s little sister took birth in a brick kiln under no supervision. Govind’s father told me that it is a common practice to give birth at brick kiln sites. It is quite unacceptable that such risky things still happen when India is known as the cheapest destination for the best medical services.

b. Education
Just like the work they do Govind and his siblings obtain seasonal education. Their village is in Rajasthan and they stay there in summer. Once they rainy season ends they come to brick kilns in Gujarat to work with their parents and thus their education is severely affected. In fact it also affects their will to study and deteriorates the importance of study in the mind of the family. When I asked Govind whether he wants to study he simply said no he don’t want to study. He said it is boring and anyway he will do “Nikasi” in his life so what is the use of studying. His younger brothers simply smiled and ran away from that place. I offered chips to other kids and asked them if they want to study and again they smiled. When I asked their parents about their education they said that they cannot afford to teach their kids because they need help in their job else they cannot reach the figure they promised owner and thus affects overall family earning. Further I asked about aanganbaadi’s presence in the nearby vicinity and I was told that some people started that but soon they left because students are not permanent in those kilns.

c. Social protection
As it is completely unorganized so there is no one who can raise voice against the exploitation being done by the owners and contractors. Govind family is paid on the basis of the number of bricks they take out of the brick kiln. It is calculated at the end of the season. No money is given in between the season and any fluctuation in market severely affects their earnings as only depreciation in rate is conveyed and any appreciation in rate is never conveyed to the labours. Further as it is temporary job so no pension or other social protections are present. In the absence of such protections these families are highly dependent on male head of the family as he is the one who will the most of the revenues generating work. Further as money is given at the end of the season so it is extremely important for the family to get some advance to survive for 6 months hard season and this is something which forces them to take advance loan and thus are forced to do bondage labour. Although according to labour laws bonded labour is banned in India but here in this industry it is violated blatantly. In fact no body is here to care for such laws. Even Govind’s family is not interested in fighting against bonded labour because they might lose their earnings while fighting against the powerful owners of brick kiln. d. Place of living
The place where Govind and his family lives is extremely pathetic. Every season they change their brick kiln. This season they are working in a brick kiln which is connected to a road otherwise if they are unlucky they might end in a brick kiln which is as far as 5 km from the nearest main road. On their arrival owners provide them with little oil, rice and firewood. As far as housing is concerned they are allowed to construct a small temporary hut with bricks and dry grass. Many times this temporary arrangement needs time to be built and that is the toughest period for the entire family when they have no place to live. Normally no washroom or some temporary washroom is provided. No sanitization facilities are provided and are asked to live in extremely inhumane condition.

3. Work
Govind’s family is responsible for the Nikasi of bricks which means to remove hot bricks once they are heated to form bricks in the kiln. Govind’s family uses donkeys to take those bricks out. Mostly Govind’s father does this work but at some period Govind and his brothers also have to carry these bricks out. It seemed to be a fairly simple job where you are taking bricks out of the kiln with the help of donkeys but when we understand the details of the entire process I realised that it is extremely dangerous. These brick kiln owners don’t use a permanent kiln as it will cost them a good amount of money so they use smaller adhoc kiln. Here bricks take time to get to the final shape, so to make it fast a very hazardous chemical has been used which is extremely dangerous for human beings. Govind’s family constantly inhales that chemical every time they go and remove bricks. Govind’s father told me that his brother is now not able to move because of constant inhalation of that chemical. When I asked about the legal aspect of these chemicals then I came to know that nobody present on that kiln is aware of the usage of such an illegal drug. As this practice is so prevalent that everyone thinks that government approves this chemical.

Removing bricks from the kiln should be done very sensible because even if a brick breaks it is going to affect the earnings of other people who are working on that kiln. Govind’s father told me that once one accident took place and a full bunch of bricks got broken. Now they told that Govind’s father is responsible for that accident and he should pay for their losses in amount. All workers of Jalai and Paatla surrounded him and asked for the amount which was lost because of that accident. When he refused to give that money he was seriously beaten. When asked about police complaint they simply refused about that. Their point is that police will torture them and nothing will be gained. So they don’t lodge any complaints with Police.
I further asked why they come from Rajasthan and do work here when conditions are so horrible. Govind’s father replied that in Rajasthan no work will be given and they can only find work in other states, reason being owners of brick kiln like migrant labours to work on their kilns. I also asked them how many days of leave they get and reply was none. It was told that these guys have to work for a continuous 6 months to earn a very small earning even less than 50k. Even in case of emergencies these guys are not allowed to leave the kilns. Owner will violently beat them in case they want to leave and if somehow they leave without telling owners then owner can easily track them with the of help of the contractor who in most of the cases is their relative.
Further to ensure that these guys are under control sometimes even ladies were beaten for very small excuses.

4. Government Support & social activists
This family is from Rajasthan so they have voting rights in Rajasthan but they work here in Gujarat and hence government is not very keen to help them. In fact Gujarat government refuse to accept their presence in Gujarat. They simply say that these guys are normal labours and in case they are bonded labour then proper action will be taken against owners if any report is lodged. I also met one activist working in this sector. This guy is from a NGO called CLRA (Centre for labour research and action) which tries to unite these labours all over Gujarat and try to work for the proper and regular wages. They also try to work for the abolition of bonded labours. These guys also filed some cases in Gujarat high court.
When I asked Govind’s father that how useful is this NGO then I didn’t get very optimistic answer but he said NGO guys can be helpful sometimes. But overall nothing has been changed in their lives and he is clear that Govind will also become a brick kiln labour like him and their lives are never going to change.

5. What can be done
Just a single day observation and discussion about struggles of the exploited people has developed a deep anguish in me for the so called “time tested” thousands year old Indian social system. Over all these years I remained ignorant about these severe inhumane conditions.
Although modern day India is a lot unlike from old Indian society in terms of technical advancements, culture, statehood but it is same in terms of exploiting the poor. Be it Indian kings, foreigners like Afghans & Europeans or present Indian representatives of society no one was serious to solve this exploitation. Present democratic system seemed to bring some changes but that is extremely slow and not very efficient. These people are being used as mere vote banks. Fulfillment of the purposes of the politicians leads to the disownment of these people. In case of migrant workers like workers in brick kilns even this vote bank policy is not applicable because their own state government questions their identity and existence. Collusion of corrupt bureaucracy, greedy government and insensible private players makes these issues more severe and horrible. Moreover, human rights and equality have been blatantly challenged and was mocked at by this collusion. This collusion has to be broken down. I believe in such and unorganized sector we cannot have unions so we have to bring NGOs with the representation of educated & dedicated activists. If we leave everything on government we will not get anything so in order to bring change we have to take initiative else we cannot improve the lives of the downtrodden.