Youth

In photos: Life of a family working in a Nangarhar brick factory

Many families go to work in the factories as a last resort, borrowing money that they cannot repay from factory owners. Local officials are trying to help.

By Khalid Zerai

2017-11-17

Zaikrullah and his siblings turn bricks to dry in the sun. Thousands of children are stuck working in brick factories, helping their families work off debt, say Nangarhar Province authorities. [Khalid Zerai]

Shagofa, 5, helps her father, brothers and sisters in the brick factory. [Khalid Zerai]

Zarghoona, 9, tosses sand on the ground to prepare it for making bricks with her father, brothers and sisters. The sand is used to prevent the mud bricks from sticking to the ground. [Khalid Zerai]

If the family makes 2,000 bricks per day, the factory owner provides them two rooms to sleep in. Still, they are unable to climb out of debt, says Abdur Raziq, 48, the patriarch of the family. [Khalid Zerai]

Abdur Raziq's family is indebted to a factory owner in exchange for a loan equivalent to about $475. To pay off the loan, he has withdrawn his children from school to work in the factory. [Khalid Zerai]

Zakirullah, with tears in his eyes, said he is tired of making bricks and wishes only that he could go back to school. [Khalid Zerai]

Abdur Raziq and his six children, drink tea following their work. Raziq says that, since he began working in the brick factory, he eats only dry bread with green tea for his three daily meals. [Khalid Zerai]

NANGARHAR -- Officials in Nangarhar Province are trying to improve the lives of those working in brick factories as indentured labourers.

Surkh Rod District has hosted about 100 brick factories, employing mostly poor families who take loans from factory owners and then struggle for years -- sometimes generations -- to pay off their debt.

Salaam Times spoke with one of the families suffering under these extreme labour conditions, and to local officials working to provide alternative opportunities for employment.

A hard life

Abdur Raziq, 48, started working in a brick factory about two years ago, borrowing the equivalent of about $475 from the factory's owner.

Ten-year-old Zakirullah (left) and one of his brothers, Ahmadullah, prepare mud for making bricks on November 6. [Khalid Zerai]

"We used to live in Pakistan," Raziq told Salaam Times. "When we came here, we started living in a rental residence in a small town. I could not find work, while my children were small. Hence, I had no other option but to come and work in a brick factory."

At the brick factory, Raziq and his family of six children have two rooms to live in.

"They give one room in exchange for 1,000 bricks -- meaning that if you make 1,000 bricks every day, they will give you one room," he said. "But if you have a large family and you can make 2,000 bricks per day, they will give you two rooms."

"I withdrew all of my sons and daughters from school because they have to work and earn with me to pay off the debt," he said. "However, we have not paid off our debt and it is still increasing."

One of his sons, Zakirullah, 10, had to quit school in fourth grade and started working with his father.

"I have two wishes," Zakirullah told Salaam Times with tears in his eyes. "First, I would do any other work [other than the] brick factory, and second, I would like to start my studies again."

Providing alternate sources of income

Local authorities say they are aware of the problems in the brick factories and are taking steps to help the families stuck in the cycle of debt.

About 1,000 children are working in the brick factories of Surkh Rod District and are therefore unable to go to school, according to a survey conducted by the Nangarhar Province Directorate of Labour and Social Affairs.

The directorate is working to improve these families' working conditions and provide education to the children, said Director of Labour and Social Affairs Abdul Hakim Sherzad.

"We have provided some vocational training to those who work in brick factories as well as literacy courses to their children," Ataullah Khogyani, spokesman for Nangarhar's governor, told Salaam Times.

"The government has provided job opportunities to thousands of families who have been previously working at brick factories, and now they have other jobs," he said, promising that the local administration will provide more assistance.

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1 Comment

| 2023-11-28

Life of the families who work in the brick factories in Nangarhar province is similar to the life of slaves. These families are leased. These families always need a loaf of bread to eat. Children of these families are deprived of education. They are always in debt to the factory where they work, and will never be able to free themselves from the debt of that same brick factory. This family, which moves from one factory to another, takes a loan from the new factory and pays the debt of the first factory whom they finish work with. It means they pay a loan by taking another loan. Those who work in the brick factory cannot live freely.