Development Research Communication and Services Centre (DRCSC) a non-governmental development organisation working towards the elimination of child labour from brick kilns at Minakhan, in Basirhat subdivision of North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal.
Through their programme, the organisation is sending children to schools, ensuring quality education with counselling services and meals every day. They wish to send over 300 children trapped under exhaustive labour to school, a DRCSC spokesperson on Tuesday said.
Soma is just 13, but she has been working in the brick kilns for a long time. Every morning, she would head to the kiln without any breakfast, because there often wasn’t any. She would carry load of bricks on her head.
“Many times, I’d feel so exhausted at work that I would fall down!” she says.
In the darkness of the kiln, she couldn’t see her hands. But she could feel them all right, from the burns caused by carrying the hot and heavy bricks.
Soma wished she could go to school. But this was a pipedream, within the four walls of her hut, with only a thin sheet serving a roof. The hut has no electricity or running water. There is no toilet nearby.
In Soma’s neighbourhood, as soon as children reach a certain height and age, they are sent to work in the brick kilns with their parents.
When Soma heard about DRCSC’s Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour for the brick kilns in Minakhan, her long-cherished dream of going to school came alive. Soma began to attend the meetings conducted by us, along with her father and brothers. Her parents now understand the importance of sending children to school.
The DRCSC centres ensure quality education with counselling services and a square meal to the children.
Around 300 children like Soma are trapped in the brick kilns. But you can change that, the DRCSC spokesperson added. (UNI)
