While looking after Yasmin (1 year old), Amna Begum clean carbon rods that comes out...

Once cleaned, these carbon rods are then sold to be use in new batteries. Environment in and around the workshop is full of carbon dust and other waste. Amna Begum has 5 daughters and 2 sons. The oldest is 15 years old girl (already married since last two years) and youngest is only 2 years old, girl again. Non of her children go to school anymore. Her husband is a boatman and earns between Taka 50-150 (US$ 1=Taka 60) depending on the availability of work. She herself earns about Taka 30 per day. Her daughter Hajira (8 years old) also works with her in the workshop and help look after Mumtaz (3 years old, girl) and Yasmin (1 year old). They get Taka 6.00 for cleaning 1000 carbon rods. Hajira cleans between 1000-3000 carbon rods per day and gets paid accordingly between Taka 6-18 per day. Most children who either work or play near workshop area, have chest and eyes infection. Environment is so polluted, most children suffers from one or the other kind of infections all the time. Some even have streaks of blood coming out of their noses all the time. There are hundreds of other informal factories and workshops inside and on the outskirts of the city of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. The industry employs thousands of women and children. All day long women and children break used batteries to get reusable parts and tiny pieces of metal out of them. Once separated, these materials are sent to battery manufacturing factories and workshops that either reuse them or melt them to make other useful materials. Children in these workshops face some of the worst condition of life anywhere in the world. None of the children go to school. Although they work hard and need nutritious food, they hardly eat much. Its amazing that they still look happy and manage to crack a smile every now and then.