Thursday, March 24, 2016

Toiling under the baking hot tropical sun, these workers are carrying out back-breaking and exhausting labour in the most perilous conditions.

    Ranging in age from pre-teens to grandparents, they work long hours to churn out millions of bricks to fuel a construction boom that shows no signs of abating.
The cities of Bangladesh - one of the world's most densely populated countries - are growing fast, and there's a never-ending need for cheap construction materials.
Toil: Workers balance bricks on top of their heads in the shadow of a kiln at one of the country's estimated 6,000 brickworks, which are booming along with the densely populated country's rapid growth
Toil: Workers balance bricks on top of their heads in the shadow of a kiln at one of the country's estimated 6,000 brickworks, which are booming along with the densely populated country's rapid growth
A young boy is covered in soot from working at a brick-making kiln: Working children are a common sight at brickworks as they regularly employ entire families - who often make their homes on site
A young boy is covered in soot from working at a brick-making kiln: Working children are a common sight at brickworks as they regularly employ entire families - who often make their homes on site
An old man sifts through broken fragments of brick: Brick-making provides a better income than agriculture or other jobs available in rural Bangladesh, but it is risky and often devastating to workers' health
An old man sifts through broken fragments of brick: Brick-making provides a better income than agriculture or other jobs available in rural Bangladesh, but it is risky and often devastating to workers' health
A worker's makeshift leather glove is complemented by a bandage around his finger: Accidents are common and workers have no protective gear, save for what they are able to cobble together themselves
A worker's makeshift leather glove is complemented by a bandage around his finger: Accidents are common and workers have no protective gear, save for what they are able to cobble together themselves
And in a country marred by underinvestment, bricks are the most efficient and widely used.
With GDP growth of 6.3 per cent last year, Bangladesh is growing fast; each day new brick buildings are erected across the country, which is already home to 153million people. 


Dotted across the country are thousands of slender chimneys piercing the horizon above brick kilns which, according to the UN, produce some 12million bricks a year.

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