Making sure not to touch it to her lips, Minara (13 years old) drinks water...

She cleans carbon rods that come out of D-size dry cell batteries. For cleaning 3000 carbon rods everyday, she gets Taka 18 (Taka 6.00 per 1000). She studied up to grade 5. She has stopped going to school since last three years 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. Kono laab nai. Asey na ki?. (no benefit for such wishing. Is there any?) Most children who either work or play near workshop area, have chest and eyes infection. Environment is so polluted, most children suffers from one or the other kind of infections all the time. Some even have streaks of blood coming out of their noses all the time. There are hundreds of other 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. All day long women and children break used batteries to get reusable parts and tiny pieces of metal out of them. Once separated, these materials are sent to battery manufacturing factories and workshops that either reuse them or melt them to make other useful materials. Children in these workshops face some of the worst condition of life anywhere in the world. None of the children go to school. Although they work hard and need nutritious food, they hardly eat much. Its amazing that they still look happy and manage to crack a smile every now and then.