The photo series Children of the Black Dust: Child Labor in Bangladesh was created by the Bangladeshi photographer Shehzad Noorani. He mostly focuses on social problems in developing countries in his works. In the suburbs of Dhaka, there used to be hundreds of factories and workshops that recycled dry-cell batteries. The main working force there consisted of women and children who had to spend the whole day extracting reusable and metal parts from used batteries. Such an environment was extremely harmful to children as they inhaled millions of carbon dust particles that inevitably led to chest and eye infections.
“Like Marjina, many women bring their children to work because there is simply no other place for them to stay. The environment in and around the workshops is loaded with carbon dust and other toxic material. Young children play in this polluted area until they are tired and fall asleep, and most suffer from chest and eye infections. The sad fact is that these children have to work to stay alive; if they don’t work, they don’t eat. But that does not mean they have to be exploited.”
