They are called “Dalits” and amount to 160 million across India. They belong to the lowest caste of the Hindu social and religious system and this local tradition relegates Dalits to the most infamous places in the country to do the most degrading and odious jobs. Dalits’ caste is apparently considered a caste like any other one, but reality tells differently. Marginalization condemns these people to accept poverty and misery. In Varanasi, the Indian city lying on the banks of the Ganges river, operate furnaces where these new slaves, guilty of belonging to the “caste of the impure”, manufacture and carry bricks on their back or head for a salary pay barely allowing them to survive. Women, young adults and often children work ceaselessly for hours, surrounded by highly harmful dust, and under the sun that chokes throughout South Asia. There is no fresh air among the stones of Varanasi, and mostly there’s a complete lack of a health protection system or hygiene and safety conditions. Everyone is aware of it, but there are very few who fight against this injustice. “The dark side of India” is a photo-reportage by Luca Catalano Gonzaga, funded by theNando and Elsa Peretti Foundation in collaboration with the NGO PVCHR, aiming to tell about the slavery of the “Dalit” in what is thought to be the most populous democracy in the world: India. (text by Sebastiano Caputo).
Varanasi, India 2017. Young women covered with dust coming from the furnaces are carrying bricks on their heads. Bricks will be sold then on the domestic and international markets.
Varanasi, India 2017. Those bricks getting broken during the cooking process are put in a specific area around the furnaces. Often children are used for this work.
Varanasi, India 2017. Young women wear inappropriate clothing and no face mask to protect their respiratory system. No health safety measure, nor food and home are provided by the furnace managers.
Varanasi, India 2017. Three young women, as if imprisoned in a bricks-factory.
Varanasi, India 2017. View of the furnace: bricks already cooked are ready to be moved to the loading area, then to be sold.
Varanasi, India 2017. Lines of mud bricks laid out. Horses will transport the bricks to the furnace to be cooked.
Varanasi, India 2017. After drying in the sun, the bricks are transported by horses to the furnace to be cooked.
Varanasi, India 2017. Domestic life just a few steps away from the operating furnace. Entire families often live right beside the furnaces, to ensure all members can work and help making bricks.
Varanasi, India 2017. Breathing in harmful dust with debris falling over her face and body, this young girl carries the bricks to the area where they will be loaded onto the trucks.
Varanasi, India 2017. Furnace men check as young women work.
Varanasi, India 2017. Often entire families move to live inside the bricsk-factories. Young mothers and children help one another to bring home a useful, yet minimum, pay.
Varanasi, India 2017. The weight of ten bricks is visible on this girl’s face expression. The same effort is repeated at least 300 times a day.
Varanasi, India 2017. Each worker must carry ten bricks on his head. On average, bricks workers earn 300 rupees a day (a working month is made of 15 days, as the remaining 15 are needed to cook the brick, thus the bricks making stops). Total monthly earning is 4.500 rupees (62,00 Euros). Out of this salary they must bear the cost for food that is around 3.000 rupees (40,00 Euros). Therefore, workers are left with approximately 20,00 Euros net earnings.
Varanasi, India 2017. Young workers receive a plastic coin (that corresponds to 1 rupee), for every 10 bricks carried.
Varanasi, India 2017. A young girl balances as she is about to carry on her head the last two bricks. Ten bricks are carried at a time.
Varanasi, India 2017. Usha 18 years old as she places 10 bricks on her head. Carrying these bricks causes irreparable damage to the spine and to the respiratory system.
Varanasi, India 2017. Sarita, 13 years old, as she is carrying bricks. After being cooked, the bricks are taken onto to a truck that will take the final product to local markets.
Varanasi, India 2017. Children at unloading broken bricks.
Varanasi, India 2017. Kids at play. Sometimes right at the working place.
Varanasi, India 2017. A young woman works with a pick-axe on the coal that will be used to fuel the furnace.
Varanasi, India 2017. A bricks furnace under construction. Often young children are employed for this type of work.
Varanasi, India 2017. Thousands of bricks laid out to dry in the sun.
Varanasi, India 2017. Standing on top of the furnace, wearing wooden sandals to keep him insulated from the heat, a man pours coal inside the furnace to keep the fire going.
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