THE aid agency Goal hopes its efforts will bring literacy levels up to 80 per cent by 2010. But Bhuwan Ribhu, a lawyer for the influential Global March Against Child Labour organisation, says they are deluding themselves.
"I think it is nonsense," he said. "They are promoting these crimes by not raising their voices against them.
"They should be going after the overseers. If a child is not getting the minimum wage, if the girls are being exploited, they are working
as slaves. The government should be forced to open schools and the kilns should be shut down."
Aware that it is operating on the very edge of legality in dealing with those under aged under 14, Goal is cautious about crossing the authorities. But it argues that working with the owners is the only way to make a difference.
"Brick kiln owners are, first and foremost, business people. Their motivation is profit. Appealing to (their] better nature will yield few results," the report says.
Better, the aid workers argue, to work with the owners and try to convince them that it makes good business sense to adopt modern technology, reducing the need for child labour.
In the meantime, they argue, if they can lean on the owners and persuade them to let the children have some form of education, then at least they have a chance of a future and the tools with which to fight for what is rightfully theirs.
Labourers should earn about 9,000 rupees for nine months' work, six days a week; men earn an average 70 rupees a day (86p), women 40 rupees (49p).
But for a worker such as Pelong, 32, it's hard. She has no idea how much she should be due; it depends on how many bricks she carried, and she cannot count.
The labour contractor who brought them there loaned her 520 rupees and now he says the interest on it means she is not owed any money at the end of her nine-month stint.
"But I do get free wood for the cooking," she adds.
The full article contains 356 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
