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Research Paper | Geography | India | Volume 4 Issue 3, March 2015

?The Nastiest Form of Child Workers in the Brick Fields ? the Mistreatment to Society and Nation?: A Case Study on Khejuri CD Blocks of Purba Medinipur District in West Bengal

Rabin Das ^[15]

Abstract: Social norms and economic realities mean that child labor is widely accepted and very common in India. Many families rely on the income generated by their children for survival, so child labor is often highly valued. Additionally, employers often prefer to employ children because they are cheaper and considered to be more compliant and obedient than adults. When children are forced to work, they are often denied their rights to education, leisure and play. As per 2001s data, 1.26 crores child labour is existed over all India and 36.43 lakh children in the age group of 5-14 years are working in non-agricultural sector in the country, out of which 12.19 lakh children are working in hazardous occupations. In this sense, about 3 lakh is in construction sector with brick manufacturing and only in brick kilns, number is 84972 (2001). The gravity of this situation led my initiative to study on child labour in brick field in the work area in Khejuri CD Blocks under Purba Medinipur district in West Bengal. This study uses data to examine the different components of child labor in brick field. Study used quantitative method for data collection and particularly survey was used. A total of 301 respondents of five brick fields in Khejuri CD Blocks have been interviewed. SPSS windows program is used to process and organize the data for the study. The respondent are interviewed regarding various aspects related to the child labour in brick field includes causes and consequences of child labor to engage their risky job, working environment, their schooling profile, their future goal etc. The fieldwork observation shows that the working environment in brick field are hazardous to child health due to unsanitary environment, unsafe working environment (such as heat, burning ashes, flying ashes, and pieces of broken bricks everywhere), and the hazardous work (prolonged working hours, heavy work, and dangerous jobs). They also suffer from breathing problem, cold & fever, minor injuries and sometime more than that. Inspire of that majority of child workers have a very common expectation that is all of them want to lead a happy life with their work and their family.

Keywords: Social norms and economic realities, Child labor, hazardous occupations, brick manufacturing and unsafe working environment

Edition: Volume 4 Issue 3, March 2015,

Pages: 157 - 167

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