India/Nepal Exposure Visit Report:

All India Brick and Tile Manufacturing Federation 28th – 31st May 2019

1. Introduction In November 2018, The Donkey Sanctuary (TDS) and Brooke, supported by SAIEVAC, organised a workshop in Nepal, with a focus on developing a One Health-One Welfare approach to the Brick Kilns in South Asia. For the first time, the Brick Kiln Federations from across the region were invited to participate with representatives from India, Nepal and Pakistan. During the workshop, a number of context specific issues were discussed with the All India Brick and Tile Manufacturers Federation (AIBTMF), specifically the challenge that some of the changes discussed around human labour and equine welfare were not possible within the Indian context. As huge strides have been made in Nepal by Animal Nepal (a funded partner of TDS) on equine welfare, and Global Fairness Initiative (GFI) through the Better Brick Nepal project on human labour, an exposure visit for members of the AIBTMF was proposed within the workshop. TDS took on the role of coordinating and funding this visit, with logistical arrangements made by Animal Nepal and GFI. Six members of the AIBTMF travelled to Nepal, accompanied by Donkey Sanctuary India, and a three-day programme was developed to expose them to the human labour, animal welfare and environment issues and progresses in Nepali kilns. This brief report is a visit summary and is intended to capture the key activities, discussions and next steps.

2. Visit Summary A series of high level meetings were held with key Government Ministries, Departments and relevant consultants in order to set the scene of country context, challenges, successes and progress plans. The content of the meetings covered the three sectors related to brick kilns. The evening provided the opportunity to network through an informal dinner with the Federations of Nepal Brick Industries and Global Fairness Initiative staff.

Meeting with Ministry of Labour

The first kiln visit was to Siddhartha Brick Industry, a GFI Certified kiln in Bhairawa. Within this visit the team were exposed to the enhancements that have been possible over the last 6 years of support, including the establishment of Early Childcare and Education Centre (ECEC), semi-permanent toilets and shower facilities, instillation of water points, and Siddhartha Brick Industry. During a presentation from the GFI local partner ESDO, and heard about the proactive commitment of the kiln owner has led to great progress and in return, GFI have support the kiln owner with a range of investments, from contributing to the teacher fees, cost of school meals and infrastructural investment to increase the productively of the kiln output. The team were introduced to the GFI approach of ‘a worker friendly kiln environment, with kiln friendly policies’. One of the main takeaways was the issue of working relating to ‘bonded’ labour for the Federation representatives. In India, they feel they it is the kiln owners who are bonded to labourers as they are the only industry to provide loans without a guarantor, and face the frequent vulnerability of a labourer leaving within the season without repaying the debt. The learning for the consortium is to be mindful of wording, while also keeping true to the issues.

Worker housing in Siddhartha brick kiln

Semi-permanent toilet in Siddhartha brick kiln

The second kiln visit was to Kantipur Brick Kiln, an Animal Nepal equine kiln in Lalitpur. The team first had a meeting with the kiln owner, who is also the Vice President of the Federations of Nepal Brick Industries. The team learnt about the Animal Nepal micro-credit scheme designed to break to dependency on advances from kiln owners and discussed issues relating to equine and labourer insurance schemes. They visited the infrastructural developments put in place jointly with the kiln owner, such as the permanent equine shelter, water point and discussed the minimum standards that had been introduced, such as the equine rest days, extra animals to allow for rotation and the owner-equine training programme. They also interacted with the equine owners to understand their work during the brick kiln season and off-season, insurance and health delivery system available for their equines.

Kantipur Kiln Model Equine Shelter

3. AIBTMF Feedback During the final session there was a roundtable discussion with all the AIBTMF members initiated by the questions:

Is there anything you would like to do differently in YOUR kiln? What will you share with your members in your General Assembly? Is there anything you would like us to do together through the South Asia consortium?

This lead to a broad range of reflection and feedback which is captured in key themes here. Labour:

Many businessmen in India, including kiln owners, donate at temples to ‘wash away’ wrong doings. One member said the kiln owners should increase the amount that they pay labourers rather than donate so much to the temples, and that he will do this from now on.

Labourers are becoming dependant on NGOs to support them, partly due to the lack of continuity with kiln owners as they change kiln each season.

Kiln owners should do more for their labourers as owners are dependent on them for their business, not the other way around.

“It was a very knowledgeable and fruitful visit for us, great to see the work being done in Nepal”

Working Animals:

Several members did not use equines in their kilns, so it was a unique opportunity to see a different experience, equipping them to be able to speak knowledgably within the membership.

Visit highlighted the lack of vet services in and around kiln and the need to increase the number and quality of service providers.

Some members very keen to introduce equine insurance in their kilns. One Health Model

A number of the members were very positive about taking forward a One Health pilot, either within their own kilns, or within their Districts. This will be discussed in July’s General Assembly.

4. Next Steps Nepal:

Animal Nepal plan to engage with Federations of Nepal Brick Industries to build animal welfare minimum standards into the standards currently being drafted in coordination with ICIMOD to create ‘One Health Standards for Brick Kilns’ which could be replicated within South Asia

Through the consortia – lobby the Government of Nepal to introduce an equine census and tagging system

Through the consortia – learn from the Government of India approach and lobby for a worker insurance scheme which includes working equine insurance

India:

Through the consortia - develop communication materials (e.g. a short animation) of best practices in kilns, covering all elements of the One Health approach. Share with AIBTMF members kiln owners for them to promote in their States as well as through the national forum

AIBTMF to discuss the pilot concept in the General Assembly in July, and propose a number of locations

Consortia Regional Coordinator to follow up with the AIBTMFs President, and reach out to interested stakeholders from the three sectors to establish a number of pilots for 19/20 season

AIBTMF are keen to host a return visit from the Federations of Nepal Brick Industries

Consortia to lobby the Government of India to follow the Government of Nepal example and announce commitment to make kilns child labour free by 2025

Consortia member to share information regarding existing minimum wage for labours in India. If it exists, ensure it extends to brick kiln labourers.

“I will take up the discussion with other members to support a pilot project on One Health approach in India”

Annex One - Team

Name AIBTMF Level State Level

Devendra Prajapati President President Ahmedabad, Gujarat Vijay Goel General Secretary President, Uttar Pradesh Manish Gupta Treasurer President Faridabad, Haryana Ratnashekhar Karunanidhi Member President, Tamil Nadu

Atul Kumar Singh Member General Secretary Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh

Surender Singh Ex-General Secretary President, Haryana

Name Organisation Role

Dr Zaman Brooke India Head of Region

Dr Ramesh DSI Vet Coordinator

Dr Atish Animal Nepal Vet Coordinator

Hari Joshi Animal Nepal Executive Director

Kate Ferguson TDS Programme Manager

Bhasker Kr. Adhikari GFI Partnership Management Officer

Annex Two - Agenda

Day Activity

Tuesday 28th Arrival of team in Kathmandu Welcome and intros session Number of Meetings with Ministries, Departments and Consultants Dinner with Nepal Federation members and GFI

Wednesday 29th Flight to Bhairawa Visit GFI kiln GFI presentation and discussions

Thursday 30th Flight to Kathmandu ICIMOD meeting* Visit Animal Nepal Kiln Reflections and commitments wrap up

Friday 31st Departure to India

* Sadly due to domestic flight delays the meeting was not possible. The original plan included a visit to an ICIMOD environment kiln, however due to the early rains, the kiln had closed. As such, the environment element was largely missing from this mission.