Close up of a pile of used batteries ready to be

recycled. The pile shows all kinds and sizes of batteries which

are recycled here. This includes the most common battery

brands that are used in Western countries. Big D size batteries

are mostly locally made.

There are hundreds of informal factories and workshops

inside and on the outskirts of the city of Dhaka, the capital of

Bangladesh. The industry employs thousands of women and

children.

One person gets between US¢ 0.5 to US¢ 0.8 for

breaking and cleaning 1000 carbon rods.

One person can clean, separate and arrange between

3000 to 5000 rods per day earning around US¢ 25 to US¢ 45

per day.

Day in and day out,

women and children as young

as six or seven open

discarded batteries with

hammers in order to remove

the recyclable pieces of

reusable metal.

They extract carbon

rods from the center of the

batteries, zinc casing, and

coated brass contact caps.

Once separated, these materials are sent to battery

manufacturing factories and workshops that either reuse them or

melt them to make other useful materials.

Using water that is pumped from river Buriganga, a

young girl washes pencil-like carbon rod that comes out of the

used batteries, in a battery recycling workshop on the outskirts of

Dhaka.

A woman arranges reusable pencil-like carbon rods

that come off from the middle of used batteries.

Waste that cannot be recycled is burnt. Sitting on a hill

like pile of waste from recycled batteries, children extract

remaining zinc from ashes. This waste is eventually dumped into

the river and used as a way to claim land from river. This is a

very common practice in Bangladesh.

Noorun is only 15 years and she has been breaking

batteries for three year. She studied up to grade 3, but had to quit

going school, because her mother wanted her to help. She has

two brothers and two sisters. Her mother also works nearby in a

plastic/polythene recycling workshop and earns around US$ 23

per month.

Hajira -8 years old- sits in a workshop where she

recycles thousands of size-D dry cell batteries, by breaking them

-one at a time- using a simple hammer. She works with her

mother in the workshop and also helps look after 3 and 1 year

old siblings.

During a short break from her work, Hajira laughs

standing on the door of workshop. She is carrying her three years

old sister in her arms.

While it still rains, Hajira baths her younger sister in

coolish and polluted water of river Buriganga. Cold or not,

cleaning up after spending entire day at the dusty environment of

battery recycling workshop cannot be avoided.

Shehnaz -3 years old- sits on the window of battery

recycling workshop. She cleans carbon rods that come out of the

center of D-size dry cell batteries. Her mother Noor -19 years old-

also works in same workshop. Both mother and daughter have to

work to supplement family’s income to assure survival.

Making sure not to touch it to her lips, Minara -13

years old- drinks water from a steel mug that everyone who

works at the battery recycling workshop shares.

She studied up to grade 5. She has stopped going to

school since she started working in the workshop. She said. “My

education did not help me a bit. One does not need to

pass grade 5 to break batteries or clean carbon rods. I

wish I could be a doctor, but tell me what is the point of

wishing such non-sense. No benefit for such wishing. Is

there any?

Kulsum -14 years old- sweats due to heat and humidity

in battery recycling workshop in Dhaka where she works from

7am to 7pm.

When asked if she dreams, Kulsum said, "Dream

what? I don't dream. I get so exhausted by the end of the

day, I just sleep. I think I will break batteries as long as I

can, or maybe I will do something else."

While their mothers work in battery recycling

workshop, older children are usually responsible to look after

their younger siblings, and often means used to do so could

be very inadequate, cruel and dangerous. The environment in

and around the workshop is full of carbon dust and other

waste. Children play in the factory area until they are tired and

ready to sleep.

Most children who either work or play near workshop

area, have chest and eye infection. Environment is so polluted,

most children suffer from one or more kinds of infections all the

time.

Treating it as an ordinary balloon, a young boy blows a

used condom by blowing air into it, outside a battery recycling

workshop in Dhaka district.

Sathi’s -8 years old- face is blacked with carbon

dust from recycled batteries. She earns less than USD$ 3.5

per month. She lives with her mother and older sister in a little

rented bamboo structure constructed over the river

Buriganga. All 3 together make around USD$ 15 per month.

As she cleans the carbon rods from exhausted D-cell

batteries, Marjina holds her young child on her lap and gently lulls

her to sleep. She migrated from the countryside to Dhaka, the

capital of Bangladesh with her son and four daughters after her

husband died.

"Regardless of how hard my children and I work,

we accumulate more and more debt every month. I don’t

know what to do. I have nothing that I can sell to pay off

my debts.”

An infant sleeps on a piece of jute bag. As child is very

young, her mother that works in the factory, brings him along so

she can look after him while she works.

Many women bring their children along so they can

look after them while working. However, the quality of childcare

that is possible in and around the workshop area leaves much to

desire for.

Women and children in these workshops face some of

the worst condition of life anywhere in the world. None of

the children go to school. In the process of breaking the batteries

they inhale carbon dust from the batteries throughout the day.

Although they work hard and need nutritious food, they hardly eat

much. It’s amazing that they still look happy and manage to

crack a smile every now and then.