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The rise in demand for bricks has aided employment and a\nshift to less polluting technologies, but under-reporting\nof the sector’s energy consumption in official documents has made it difficult to\nbring about binding regulations to reduce its carbon footprint

Coimbatore,\nTamil Nadu: India is the world’s second-largest producer of bricks, which also form a small yet\nsignificant export for the country. Officially, the country uses 35 million\ntonnes of coal and 25 million tonnes of biomass to produce bricks. While there\nis no complete record of coal consumption in this highly unorganised industry, the use of biomass fuels is not officially recorded as they are sourced locally.

An IIT Bombay study published\nin Nature last year covering 150 districts found\nthat the sector’s energy use is 100 times higher than what India had reported\nin its official report to\nthe United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Dr\nSameer Maithel, one of the authors of the study, tells 101Reporters that the dissonance could be due to the\nspecificity of UNFCCC’s reporting requirements.

In its biennial report to the UNFCCC, the Government of India has been showing a declining\ntrend in the brick sector’s coal use by\nquoting data from its annual publication Energy\nStatistics. When coal consumption is presented graphically,\nbricks form only a negligible part of the whole. As a result, Energy\nStatistics showed 0% coal consumption in brick manufacturing in\na graph for 2022 and 2023.

“As early as the 1980s, brick fields were the second or third largest\nconsumers of coal in the country,” Maithel says. Forty years later, brick\nmanufacturing is the nation’s third-largest coal consumer.

Brick manufacturing uses 990 petajoules of energy, which is over 60% of\nthe energy needed for steel production (1,400 petajoules) and about 80% higher\nthan cement (550 petajoules). “We found a large under-reporting in current\nofficial estimates of energy consumption, with actual energy consumption\ncomparable to that in the steel and cement industries in the country,\" the\nstudy says. Reason: the brick sector is less regulated and\nfragmented.

Brick making is essential for the construction industry. “The maximum\ngrowth of construction is expected from rural India, where kuccha [mud]\nhouses are making way for pucca [brick] homes,” points\nout J John, former executive director, Centre for Education and\nCommunication.

Production of bricks touched 52,000 tonnes in\nJanuary 2012, and the demand was estimated to grow at least by 6% to touch 500\nbillion bricks annually by 2030. However, the 2016 demonetisation led to a drop\nin offtake of\nproduced bricks by up to 75%. Then came the rollout of Goods\nand Services Tax in 2017, which led to a brick\nmanufacturers’ strike. The next was the COVID-19\nlockdowns of 2020.

In August 2023, brick and non-ceramic tiles production was 41,000\ntonnes, still 25% below the peak of 52,000 tonnes. Notably, it was within this\nperiod of lower than normal production that the researchers found that energy\nconsumption was 100 times higher.

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After demonetisation, Goods and Services Tax, brick manufacturers’ strike and COVID-19 lockdown the sector is recovering

Between 225 and 250 billion bricks — about 125 bricks per Indian — are manufactured annually, with the majority produced in a manner\nthat is dangerous to both human and planet health. In the next decade, the demand is expected to quadruple.

The key factors that decide the rate of energy consumption are the kiln\ntechnology, production capacity and the fuel mix (coal, biomass, fly ash and\npiped natural gas) used. Following the enactment of the Environment\n(Protection) Act, 1986, energy\nconsumption regulation in brick kilns has been attempted with limited success. In\nthe last two decades, brick manufacturing has been strategic to the international\nefforts to arrest global warming, and India’s performance has come under scanner.

There have always been low barriers for brick entrepreneurs. Janta Bricks owner Anant Nath Singh launched his stack or haath\nbhata unit in south Bihar, the present-day Jharkhand, in 1975. He\ninvested Rs 30,000 and employed about 100 workers to produce about 20 lakh\nbricks in the first year, thus recovering his investment within a year. In the\nlast 50 years, change has been constant, but it accelerated since the 1990s.

“We need to accept scientific advances and move with the times,” Singh\ntells 101Reporters, while narrating how he transitioned to the Fixed Chimney\nBull’s Trench Kiln (FCBTK) in 2001 by investing Rs 25 lakh. He\nalso expanded the production capacity to around 30 lakh bricks per annum.

In 2018, when regulations tightened, he made an additional investment of\nRs 50 lakh to convert to zig zag, which\nreduced coal consumption from 20 tonnes to 12 tonnes for producing one lakh\nbricks. Notably, this investment paid back in under two years.

Bharat Bricks owner Jalal Khan (50) entered the sector as a worker in\nthe moving chimney and stack kilns at the age of 12, before transitioning into\na contractor. In 2012, he set up an FCBTK unit in Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura\ndistrict by investing Rs 50 lakh. He transitioned to zig zag in 2021, and\nexpects to recoup his investment by this year.

Manufacturers are willing to invest because it helps them reduce\nproduction costs. “In 2014, no kilns in Bihar used zig zag technology. Today,\nover 80% of the 8,000 kilns have transitioned to it. Conversion costs about Rs\n40 lakh. All of these resources are found and invested by the entrepreneurs\nthemselves,” says Maithel.

Migrant\nlives

Around two crore people work in nearly 1.50 lakh brickfields across the\ncountry. Nearly 60% of these brickfields are in the Indo-Gangetic belt. At the kilns, entire families work briskly to mould clay, mix soil,\nframe, fill, stack, carry, fire and stack bricks again.

“There has been a de-emphasis on labour globally while environmental\nconsciousness has grown,” explains John, a long-time advocate of the rights of kiln\nworkers. He says 50,000 to one lakh kilns were employing about 5% of India’s\nworkforce a decade ago (NSSO, 2011-12). Both figures could have grown\nsubstantially by now.

As per the government data from February last year, the country has\nabout 1.40 lakh\nregistered and unregistered brick kilns. Workers are the poorest and\nthe most indebted. Being seasonal migrants, they most likely do not have access\nto social security schemes. In the past decade, efforts have been made\nfor their inclusion under the public distribution system and other government\nschemes by registering them on the e-Shram portal.

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Around two crore people work in nearly 1.50 lakh brickfields across the country. They are often seasonal migrants, poor and indebted (Photo - Flickr/WBK Photography)

Anant Nath Singh, also the president of Jharkhand Brick\nAssociation, says there was no shortage of skilled workers earlier. “In Bihar, paatla [moulder] was a traditional\noccupation. Over the decades, families have preferred education for their children as it will lead them to other professions.”

When Sandhya* (23) from Bihar works at a brick\nkiln in Uttar Pradesh, her daughter aged three is looked after at the day care\ncentre run by a non-profit at the site. On\nthe phone, Sandhya says once in eight days she and her husband together receive Rs 100 per day for\nexpenses. They also got a cash advance of Rs 15,000. They expect\nto return home in May with only double that amount despite the hard\nwork.

“Majboori hai,” she says, because there are few work\nopportunities back home. The couple used to work in farms to receive only rice\nas compensation. Sandhya is clear that once her child reaches the school-going\nage, she would not be travelling for work. “Uska bhavishya dekhna hai [we\nhave to prioritise her future],” she adds.

The future she has planned is in stark contrast to the lived experience\nof Purshottam* (27) from a village in Gaya. He began travelling with\nhis parents to work at brick kilns as a child. While his memory is hazy,\nPurshottam estimates that he was 12 when he began making bricks.

As calculations are done at the season’s end, he usually has little idea\nhow much he will return home with. In good times, after deductions for\nthe facilities provided (blanket, for example), it will be twice or thrice the\nadvance he received.

However, Jalal claims a couple can make between Rs 2 to 3 lakh after\ndeducting all expenses, provided they work continuously.

Manoj* from Nawada has been a kiln worker for four to five years. When\nasked about alternative employment, he draws a blank. Clearly, he has not given\nit a thought.

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India is the world’s second-largest producer of bricks and brick manufacturing is the nation’s third-largest coal consumer (Photo - Flickr/Gary Todd)

Negative perception

AK Tewari, president of the All India Brick and Tile Manufacturing Federation,\ntells 101Reporters that there is a negative perception\nregarding the brick sector. He attributes it to “air pollution, irresponsible\nearth mining and undocumented employment”. At the national level, air pollution\nhas taken up the maximum mind space, and at the global level undocumented\nemployment, labelled as slavery.

This perception does not acknowledge the changes made at the unit\nlevel. India has had a law since 1981 to prevent and\ncontrol air pollution. Kiln emissions are higher during the three\npeak winter months when wind speeds are slower and particulate matter tends to\nhover in the air.

Administrative and policy attention towards air pollution gathered pace\nin 1996, when the Supreme Court mandated shutting of kilns with moving chimney\ntechnology. At that time, suspended particulate matter (SPM) was above 2000\nmg/Nm3. Sustained efforts brought it down to three figures, with the mandate to\nbe below 250mg/Nm3 at the stack. Even in the peak winter months, SPM remains\nbetween 750-500 mg/Nm3 now. However, this progress has never been acknowledged,\nnotes Tewari.

Solutions exist and are not difficult to implement. Maithel suggests\nthat focus needs to move away from national or state level policy to engaging\nwith the Indo-Gangetic belt as a region.

Tewari suggests focusing on standardisation of brick size. In the UK,\nfrom where the ubiquitous kiln design was adapted, the brick size is fixed and\nmandated. In India, three sizes have been scientifically developed and fixed,\nbut they have not been mandated. A shift away from solid bricks to hollow\nbricks would be more environmentally supportive. It would require\nmechanisation, bringing down job prospects by 90%.

To deal with the demographic implications, Tewari suggests an\nincremental approach of phase down and then phase out. The lack of a single\npoint of contact or a nodal ministry to engage with the sector is a\ndrawback here.

On December 15 last year, a gazette\nnotification brought decades of\nconfrontation between the brick manufacturers and the Ministry of Environment\nto a settlement. All units have to move to zig zag technology by 2025. It marks\na transition from colonial-era technology to an industry contributing not just\nto a healthier national balance sheet, but hopefully also to the spirit of the\nConstitution, particularly Article 23.

*Names changed to protect\nprivacy

Edited by Rekha Pulinnoli

Cover photo - Women working in a brick kiln in India (Photo - Flickr/ILO, Joydeep Mukherjee)

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