Modern Day Slavery: The Plight of Migrant Kiln Workers
As the long months of heavy rain come to an end and September concludes the monsoon season, anywhere from 10 to 23 million workers leave their hometowns in search of employment at the brick kilns of India (Raman, 2024). In Rajasthan, these brick kilns are located in the outskirts of major cities, far removed from access to healthcare and educational facilities, as India’s pollution policies dictate that these kilns be at least 800 meters from residential areas (Raman, 2024). Throughout the six to nine labor-intensive months that these migrant workers spend in the kilns, they are subjected to strikingly poor working conditions, extremely long hours, unfair compensation, unsanitary living environments, and little to no access to toilet or bathing facilities (Vaishnav et al., 2018).
It is an accepted fact that these brick kilns utilize exploitative debt-bondange employment techniques that bind workers to a yearly contract. A 2016 research study conducted by the Prayas Center for Labor Research and Action (PCLRA) that surveyed over 1,200 families across 200 kilns in the Rajasthani districts of Ajmer and Bhilwara found that an average advance of 30,000 rupees (approximately 360 US dollars) was given to these migrant workers (Vaishnav et al., 2018). The notion of an advance payment is an encouraged and widely-accepted aspect of the brick kiln industry. However, as workers are required to reimburse this advance entirely, and since most of them are remunerated per brick laid, it fosters a hazardous power dynamic and work culture. As a result, migrant workers are often forced into long hours of labor even when they are suffering from illness or, in the case of many women, during their pregnancy and postpartum period, as they attempt to pay off the debts incurred for housing or hospital stays. Despite working overtime, these workers continue to be underpaid; the PCLRA study reported a stark discrepancy of nearly 26% between what these migrant workers were owed and what they actually made, with 16% of families reporting what they call a “tut,” or negative balance at the end of the working season (Vaishnav et al., 2018). This negative balance simply fuels the vicious cycle of bondage, as workers continue to become indebted to their employers and thus cannot escape the kilns in favor of other work opportunities. The extreme exploitation of these migrant workers is why these kilns are designated as sites of modern-day slavery (Boyd et al., 2018).
In addition to their drastically poor economic prospects and unjust compensation, a majority of these migrant workers face significant health and social issues due to the absence of policies addressing their migrant status and the lack of adequate healthcare and educational facilities near their place of employment. What makes these migrant families especially vulnerable is the fact that they are largely overlooked and undocumented by any state agency. The PCLRA reported that these migrant worker’s access to government entitlements such as BPL cards (a type of ration card issued to families living below the poverty line enabling them to buy food grains at subsidized rates) and Aadhaar identification cards are extremely poor, resulting in these workers being largely unable to access government welfare programs and proper treatment in the state-run healthcare facilities (Sharma, 2017; Vaishnav et al., 2020). Part of what makes obtaining this documentation so difficult is the fact that migrant workers are constantly moving from their homes to their place of employment, and are therefore deprived of the ability and resources to claim residency in any given state.
Of the migrant workers, women and children are particularly vulnerable due to their increased risk of developing serious health issues and the utter lack of stability in their environment. Since migrant workers tend to move as familial units, young children and adolescents are forced to live in the same unsanitary and isolated environments alongside their parents. A 2020 study conducted by the PCLRA found that over 30% of the population in the kilns was composed of children under the age of 14, and women constituted over 40% of the workforce (Vaishnav et al., 2020). As previously mentioned, the migrant workers are paid per brick laid, so they tend to work as much as possible regardless of the hours and environmental conditions. As a result, it is very common to hear stories of women getting back to work within a mere two weeks of giving birth, with one mother stating, “If we just sit, eat, and feed the children, we will go into loss” (Raman, 2024). This fear of accruing more debt ultimately puts these women and young children at peril of developing serious health issues, since they are constantly exposing themselves to a highly unstable and polluted environment. In fact, an observational study conducted in the brick kilns of Bihar, India found that 51.6% of children who migrated often or were born during migration were stunted when compared to the general population of children in India (Roshania et al., 2022). This stunting was suspected to be correlated with malnutrition and the lack of access to healthcare, as the study found that “only 42% of circular migrant children 12 to 23 months of age received full immunization, an important indicator of regular access to the health system, compared to 62% of children nationally in the same age group who are fully immunized” (Roshania et al., 2022).
Additionally, the highly-polluted environment of the factories and lowly-ventilated living situations have been shown to significantly increase the rate of chest symptoms in migrant kiln workers, indicating increased risk for developing serious respiratory diseases such as tuberculosis and silicosis (Thomas et al., 2014). In fact, Georgetown Project Rishi’s NGO partner, Gramin Avam Samajik Vikas Sanstha (GSVS), reported that there is no silicosis prevention system in up to 80% of the factories in the Ajmer area. Silica is a substance that is naturally present in the types of stones and rocks manipulated in these kilns. When frequently inhaled, silica can lead to irreversible inflammation and scarring of the lung tissue over long periods of time (Baum & Arnold, 2023). To make matters worse, there currently exists no effective treatment for silicosis, and even after removal from the source, pulmonary damage will progress to the point of fatal respiratory failure (Baum & Arnold, 2023). A single-mother interviewed by GSVS, stated that her husband, who had been working in the factory for over 10 years, recently passed away from silicosis. With three young children, she now has no choice but to work at the same factory that contributed to her husband’s death, stating, “I know I will also be affected by silicosis later, but I must go to feed my children.”
The plight of the migrant workers, who serve as the backbone of several sectors of the Indian economy and have been reported to contribute up to 10% of India’s GDP, receives an unacceptably low amount of attention (Kaushik & Campbell, 2023). It is clear that migrant workers need better legal protection, access to healthcare, and educational infrastructure to help promote growth and development in their careers and livelihoods. Currently, nonprofit organizations such as GSVS, work to create on-the-ground networks of advocacy for workers to unionize and inform migrant workers of their rights under labor laws in addition to providing legal aid to help resolve wage-related disputes on behalf of the migrant workers. To address the occupational and health hazards that these migrant workers face, GSVS introduced and completed 93 demonstrations of a new technology in the mineral drilling process in order to reduce the migrant workers’ risk of developing silicosis. Additionally, GSVS also helps to run crèches for children of migrant workers, in an attempt to separate them from the harsh outdoor environment of the brick kilns.
During our trip to the city of Beawar in Rajasthan, Georgetown Project RISHI had the opportunity to visit three of GSVS’s crèche centers, where children of migrant workers are provided nutritious meals, offered vocational education, vaccinations, and general health checkups–all free of charge. These centers provide migrant worker’s children with a safe and clean environment in which to continue their education and socialize with one another. These children-focused centers also help lift some of the burden off of working mothers, as these working mothers no longer have to choose between sacrificing their own wellbeing in order to help provide for their children. During the same trip, Georgetown Project RISHI also had the opportunity to visit the women who participated in our Lucky Shakti and Eco Femme projects. Through our Lucky Shakti Leaf initiative, we developed a training program highlighting the prevalence of anemia amongst the migrant populations and provided these women with the Lucky Shakti Leaf, a reusable cooking tool that can release anywhere from 6-8 mg of highly absorbable iron into food. As previously mentioned, malnutrition is a key concern for both women and children and we hope to help reduce the levels of iron-deficiency anemia in migrant populations through this initiative. The lack of proper bathroom and hygiene facilities is also of particular concern, especially for women. Our Eco Femme initiative provided women in rural Ajmer with a three-hour long workshop on menstrual health and reusable cloth sanitary pads. Through increased awareness and education, we have contributed to a more hygienic environment aided in reducing the stigma associated with menstrual cycles and for the women kiln workers.
All in all, the migrant brick kiln workers in Rajasthan and all across India face serious threats to their wellbeing due to the absence of labor laws surrounding their employment and the lack of adequate resources provided to them. Through our initiatives and continuing to raise awareness of the poor working conditions in Rajasthan’s brick kilns, Georgetown Project RISHI aims to continue to effectively work with GSVS in improving the wellbeing of the migrant workers and their families. We encourage you to join us in the fight for equality for the millions of migrant workers by continuing to educate yourself and spreading awareness about the vast injustices they face.
For more updates before our next blog post, check out our website https://georgetownrishi.org/, follow us on instagram @georgetown.projectrishi, or email us at dcprojectrishi@gmail.com!
References
Baum, L., & Arnold, T. C. (2023). Silicosis. In StatPearls. StatPearls Publishing.
Boyd, D. S., Jackson, B., Wardlaw, J., Foody, G. M., Marsh, S., & Bales, K. (2018). Slavery from space: Demonstrating the role for satellite remote sensing to inform evidence-based action related to UN SDG number 8. ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 142, 380–388. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isprsjprs.2018.02.012
Kaushik, K., & Campbell, J. (2023, April 18). India’s migrant millions: Caught between jobless villages and city hazards. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/world/india/indias-migrant-m illions-caught-between-jobless-villages-city-hazards-2023-04-18/
Raman, S. (2024, January 10). Millions of India’s Women Brick Kiln Workers Find Health Care Elusive. Global Health NOW. https://globalhealthnow.org/2024-01/millions-indias-wome n-brick-kiln-workers-find-health-care-elusive
Roshania, R. P., Giri, R., Cunningham, S. A., Young, M. F., Webb-Girard, A., Das, A., Mala, G. S., Srikantiah, S., Mahapatra, T., & Ramakrishnan, U. (2022). Early life migration and undernutrition among circular migrant children: An observational study in the brick kilns of Bihar, India. Journal of Global Health, 12. https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.12.04008
Sharma, K. (2017, October 1). India has 139 million internal migrants. They must not be forgotten. World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/10/india-has- 139-million-internal-migrants-we-must-not-forget-them/
Thomas, B. E., Charles, N., Watson, B., Chandrasekaran, V., Senthil Kumar, R., Dhanalakshmi, A., Wares, F., & Swaminathan, S. (2014). Prevalence of chest symptoms amongst brick kiln migrant workers and care seeking behaviour: a study from South India. Journal of Public Health, 590–596. https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdu104
Vaishnav, M., Bhil, R. L., Regar, S., Mathur, G., Rawat, P., Kedia, S., Katiyar, S., & Vaishnav, M. (2020, June). Understanding Migration Patterns and Socio-Economic Profile of Workers in Brick Kilns of Rajasthan – Part IV. New Delhi; Centre for Education and Communication (CEC).
Vaishnav, M., Keida, S., Katiyar, S., Regar, S., & Bhil, R. L. (2018, March). Understanding Migration Patterns and the Socio-economic Profile of Workers in the Brick Kilns of Rajasthan – Part I. New Delhi; Centre for Education and Communication (CEC).
