Unsafe brick factories (Commentary)

Pritam Bhattarai / Kathmandu: Around three weeks ago, 18-months old girl named Urmila Tamang drowned in a pit dug while making bricks for a brick factory at Sunapa in Bhaktapur. The incident took place in the area leased by the owner of the brick factory for which Tamang’s parents are working as brick-maker.

This is not a single incident occurred due to the negligence of both the parents and the brick factory owner. According to police data, the total 17 children drowned in such ditches dug for making bricks on the premises of brick industries in Bhaktapur in the past three years alone (six in 2070 BS, five in 2071 BS and six in 2072 BS).

Repeated incident of this nature exposes utter negligence on the part of law enforcers and concerned authorities. Each brick industry digs at least 20 pits up to 20 meters deep to store water for making bricks. However, many such dug ditches are unsafe and remain open without fencing, risking incidents of drowning. There are around 800 registered brick factories across the country, many of them are located in Bhaktapur, according to the Federation of Nepal Brick Industries.

The worst side of such incident is neither police case has been filed in above incidents of death nor kin of the victims have got a decent compensation. Many kin of the victims are uneducated and not even aware of filing a police case. It means that such cases are settled between family of victim and brick owner responsible for such case. In most such cases, the kin of victim do not get a decent compensation.

In case of Urmila, her family members are not even aware of filing a police case. Mandip Tamang, father of Urmila, said he does not know when he would get compensation. “My brick factory owner has promised to provide compensation. But I do not know when.” However, Deputy Superintendent of Police Mitra Bandhu Sharma, who looked into the case of Urmila, said there is no any legal provision to register a police case in the case of Urmila as this is not a murder case.

He said cases of this nature are settled mutually between the family of victim and the other party. But Mona Ansari, spokesperson for the National Human Rights Commission, said one can file a police case in cases of such nature as the law has clearly restricted the practice of child labour. She said brick factory owners who have dug pits in the premises of brick factories should make such ditches safe with fencing or any other means. In an incident of such nature four years ago, a seven year-old boy drowned in a pit dug in the premises of a brick factory at Tathari in Nagarkot. Family of the deceased did not take the body initially, demanding legal action against the guilty. But later police intervened and the case was settled without filing a police case. Steps such as a regular monitoring to ensure safety of such ditches in the premises of brick factories, asking brick factory owner to guard such pits with fencing, making aware parents and not allowing children on the premises of brick factories must be taken to avert such incidents. Besides, as Sharma suggests, insuring labourers working at brick factories could be another option.

But to make the matter worse, almost all labourers working at brick industries not only in Bhaktapur, but across the country are yet to be insured. Suresh Prajapati, programme director of Mingergy, a NGO working for the welfare of labourers at brick factories, said except for one case or two, all labourers working at brick industries, to my knowledge, are not insured. He said insurance policy will help brick-makers get compensated in case of death or other accident once they are insured at least under accidental insurance. However, the Ministry of Labour and Employment pays ignorance about the idea. Gobinda Bhurtel, spokesperson for the ministry, said he does not know about the matter. RSS