Ganga Hati, a resident of Jugimunda village of Patnagarh block in Balangir district, Orissa, migrated with his wife Sabati, 22-year-old daughter Mukta and 16-year-old son Chaturbujato to a brick kiln in Bibi Nagar in Nalgonda district of Andhra Pradesh. The family had taken an advance of Rs 60,000 from a middleman named Halu Bhai, who was from Bhelpara, Orissa. “We had never seen such huge money before. So when the offer came, we really fell for it and grabbed it,” confesses Ganga Hati.

Ganga Hati`s family has around half-an-acre of land in which they do paddy cultivation, and in the off-season, cultivate pulses and vegetables. When summer comes, life becomes miserable for them. There is no water and no work. Even if they register themselves with Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), digging mud during peak summer is a tedious task.

It was during such a time, when the family was pondering on the bare summer prospects, that Halu the middleman approached them with the offer of money in advance and job for six months for the entire family. “Halu Bhai gave us money but never told us where we would be taken for work. Frankly, we were not bothered about that since we were happy about the bulk money coming in,” Ganga Hati recounts.

The work at the brick kiln was not easy for the family. They had to get up early in the morning and begin their work, which continued until very late evening. “Sometimes we stayed back the whole night so that the number of bricks made was more. It would fetch us more money,” says Ganga.

The brick kiln had no facilities. They had to survive on Rs 1,000 the employer gave weekly towards food expenses. “The children are young and they should be given sufficient food. There was no option but to toil hard. Toiling hard meant more bricks; more bricks meant more money,” was Ganga`s rationale.

The family’s day started with taking the mud in a thela (handcart) and then moulding it into bricks. Sabati excused herself in-between for making food. Whenever the employer noticed her brief absences, he would turn abusive. “My daughter was once sick and could not work properly, but was not spared by the owner. He used to often swear in abusive language,” says Ganga. They did not know Telugu or much of Hindi, but understood that it was abuse from his facial expression as well as frequent usage of the words ma and behan in his shouting.

“Even if we got up for passing urine, we were shouted at by the malik. Worse was the situation of those who had come with their elderly parents to work. They could not sit continuously and always were the victims of verbal abuse. Similar was the condition of women who were lactating mothers. If they went to feed their children in intervals, the malik and his men shouted at them,” relates Ganga.

The entire family sat continuously throughout the day and worked. Sabati often complained about backache and pain in the lower abdomen. If they fell sick, they had to go to the local quack. If they complained to the malik, he said it was their ‘nautanki’ for not working.

“Work hard. You have taken an advance and so will have to repay the loan before you leave. Else, leave your son here when you go back after the season so that you can come back and work for the next season.” This was the employer’s oft-repeated statement. “I have only two children. We are working and living for them. There was no way I would leave my son or daughter with them. So there was no option but to work like a machine,” Ganga Hati says.

The only solace was that all families in the brick kiln were an Oriya-speaking lot. Yet, to see small children loitering in the kiln was not a pleasant sight. Many a times, children were left alone to play with mud in the hot sun. They even helped their parents to turn the bricks kept in the sun for drying. There was no provision for children to go to school. “How nice it would have been if there was a place for us to leave the children at or a school for them!” exclaims Ganga.

The family purchased food grains and essentials from the weekly village haat. In Orissa, they had availed of the public distribution system (PDS) and purchased rice at the rate of one rupee per kilo. In Andhra, though, they spent Rs 18 to Rs 22 for rice. If they decide to come next year, they say that they will get as much rice as possible from Orissa. They are BPL cardholders and in Orissa they get the applicable government benefits. But in Andhra Pradesh, they struggled to buy food grains. Since food and vegetable costs were so high, they could not save anything from the one thousand rupees the malik gave them weekly for food.

“As was the practice in village, we used the open space near the brick kiln as toilets. There was enough open space in the brick kiln. For water, there was a small rivulet at a distance and a well near the kiln. We fetched water from there,” informs Ganga.

On an average, Ganga’s family made 16,000 to 17,000 bricks in a week, and at the end of the season, according to the malik, the number of bricks they made was 350,000. When the rainy season came, the kiln was closed and the employer settled their dues. “The calculation of wages, I was told, was based on 1,000 bricks. But we were not aware how much was the payment for 1,000 bricks. Malik gave us Rs 22,000. That was after settling the advance amount and weekly expenses given for food. We were just thankful that we could settle the advance amount; otherwise one among us would have had to stay back till we came back in the next season. We were also paid Rs 3,000 towards our travel back home,” says Ganga.

Ganga Hati is back in his village. They had to do some renovations to the house, which had been locked for nearly six months. Their land had to be dug properly. They are trying to take up MGNREGS work. That said, they are already preparing for the next season, to get an advance and go back to Andhra Pradesh. “My son will have to study and the daughter will have to be married off. We will again go to Andhra. Hope this time we get a better place, a better employer, and a better advance,” he says.