A Life among the rocks
Working in stone quarries and sand mines is the worst form of labour. Despite this, people are working in this sector in different parts of Nepal. Dhading, about 60 km from the capital Kathmandu, is a district having many workers in stone quarries and sand mines. The only source of income of these people (on average 0.90 dollars a day) is to sell the stones to the construction industry. Some NGO surveys have shown some important data about the difficulty of living and working in the community of stonebreakers in Mahadevbesis. There are about 5000 people living in the shacks for 8-10 km along the banks of the river Agarakhola breaking and collecting stones. Workers live under plastic tents on the river bank. They have no other alternative for income, no access to health care and there is no drinking water facility. Many workers don't have citizenship card. They are exploited by brokers, so-called land owners and from local people as well. Because of the hard work, imbalanced diets and ignorance, workers have been suffering with diseases such as tuberculosis and pneumonia and many of them have suffered irreversible damage to the eyes. This unwanted situation could be overcome only by a joint effort of government, local community & civil society, non-governmental organizations and the workers themselves. But there is no real coordination between them. The central government is uninformed about stone quarry life and the local government is not giving priority to their needs. Until some coordination comes into play, the future of the stonebreakers remains unknown.
