Musahar children scavenge bricks to build their dream homes

By Sudha Dev, Rajbiraj (Saptari), Apr. 21: Children from the Musahar community in Ward No. 6 of Rajbiraj have been scavenging for bricks in mud, hoping to build proper homes for themselves.

They can be seen searching through debris and muddy soil along the roadside in Ward No. 7, where houses have been demolished and drains dug for road expansion. The children collect usable bricks from the rubble, dreaming of building walls for their fragile huts.

Every day, children aged between five and twelve spend hours from morning till evening gathering bricks. By the end of the day, they load the collected bricks onto city safaris and take them home.

According to local Ramita Sharma, this has been their daily routine for the past 15 days. “As soon as bricks emerge from the mud during demolition and excavation, dozens of children rush to grab them, often scrambling in the muddy road,” she said.

Deepak Sada, 10, said his father works as a daily wage labourer, but the income is not enough to feed the family amid rising prices. “We have nothing except a small hut for shelter. I come here every day to collect bricks, hoping to one day we would be able to build a brick house,” he said.

With schools currently closed, Deepak and his seven-year-old brother Om spend their days collecting bricks, hoping they will at least be enough to build walls for their home.

Similarly, Satyanarayan Sada, 11, spends his days collecting bricks from waste and mud. “We are always afraid that our weak thatched house could be blown away by strong winds. We are doing this work in the hope that we can at least build walls and put a tin roof over them,” he said.

Not only these children, but many others in the settlement are engaged in collecting bricks from the roadside. Their main aim is to replace their fragile huts with brick structures.

Local Om Prakash Sah said that despite living in a market area, the economic and educational conditions of the Musahar community remain extremely poor. “With little means to build homes, children themselves have started searching for bricks in the market area,” he added.