Laborers at Shree Champimai Brick Factory in Lalitpur have a reason to smile. Their children will benefit from the recently established child development and learning center that is the joint effort of the factory and Global Fairness Initiative (GFI), an NGO.

Earlier, they had no option but to carry their children around while working. But after the establishment of the center, their children can be seen playing or resting in the three-roomed center in the factory premises. 

Kalpana Pariyar, 20, feels a huge sense of relief. Until a couple of months ago, she was worried that carrying her child with her while carrying bricks would hurt him. “But now, with this new child center, I can work without worries,” says Pariyar who has been working at the factory for two years along with her husband.

Another mother, Pooja Ghimire, is equally happy about the new center. Bringing her child to work meant exposing him to the excess smoke and dust which caused cough and cold, eye burning, etc. Now her 18-month-old child receives proper care and nutritious food.

“We’re extremely happy at this new arrangement that allows our children to be properly looked after and cared for, and for free. My son’s health has greatly improved since I stopped taking him with me to work,” Ghimire says while nursing her baby.
It is the factory that has organized this free care for the children of its employees. They are also fed three times a day at its initiative. The required academic and technical assistance has been provided by GFI.

Employees of the factory willingly attended a recent awareness program on the importance of sending children to school.
“I’ve come here to get information on how to get my child admitted here. My daughter used to study in class one in Rolpa. But after we came here to work, her studies have suffered in these last six months,” says 34-year-old Dil Kumari Pariyar.
The factory has a total of 500 workers. The laborers have 40 children under five years and 53 children between six to 14 years of age. There are two children of 15 and 16 years.

The factory and GFI have set up the child center to secure the education rights of the laborers’ children, most coming from outside the Valley.

“When the laborers come to work in the brick factory for six months, they bring their children along. So they are forced to miss school for a long time. In order to save the precious six months of their education, we’ve been planning with Champimai Higher Secondary School to function as a bridge school,” informed Homraj Acharya, Country Director of GFI.

As per the plan, the School will admit children of the seasonal immigrant laborers in the same class they studied the previous six months in their local schools.

“Then, when these children go back, they can sit for exams and get promoted to the next class without any hassle. We’ll even write formal letters to their previous schools about the children’s schooling here during their absence from their villages,” informed Suraj Gautam, head teacher at Champimai HSS.

Under the concept of bridge school, the initiative has established Child Development Center for children under five years, and training centers for 6-14 year olds in five brick factories in Bhaktapur, Lalitpur, Rupandehi and Sarlahi.

Likewise, talks are on with the Ministry of Education to establish mobile schools and facilitate mobile teachers in order to ensure education rights for the children of brick factory workers.

Mangal Krishna Maharjan, Chairperson of Champimai Brick Factory, explained that he decided to establish the Child Development and Training Center after learning about the health and education status of his employees’ children. “Our factory is a child-labor-free zone, too,” he added.

Central Child Welfare Committee’s Chairman Dilli Ram Giri applauded the factory’s work and remarked that other factories should follow suit, too. “Only then, the ‘Education for All’ campaign will be successful,” he concluded.

Published on: 11 February 2015 | Republica