The involvement of entire families, including young children, in brick making is common throughout Latin America. And is generally concentrated on the outskirts of the larger cities. Living conditions in these areas are precarious, with basic commodities and utilities such as drinking water and electricity missing. There is more or less no educational infrastructure. The bulk of the population is made up of unskilled immigrants from rural areas.
Families are large and poor and are absorbed as a unit into the industry on subsistence wages.
The combination of low income and high production quotas forces families into using their own children, some as young a s five or six years old. Working hours are long and alternatives are few. Methods in the industry are extremely antiquated, meaning that most of the work is manual and hard. The structure of the industry itself is fragmented, with multiple intermediaries involved in the production cycle. Back to Top Initiatives IPEC has taken several initiatives in the sector in three countries, with the general aim of modernizing the production system, eliminating the middle-men and creating basic social services within a strong community organizational framework, and the specific aim of withdrawing children from work.