‘Bury your infant here’: A UP family’s nightmare at a Rajasthan brick kiln

For the past five days, Raj Jatav has done little but cry following the death of his two-month-old daughter, Ananya, who was suffering from pneumonia. “They did not let us do the last rites of our baby... We were forced to bury her outside the brick kiln,” said 27-year-old Raj at his relative’s home in Kasganj district, Uttar Pradesh.

He and his wife, Seema (25), alleged that they worked as bonded labourers at the Dohri Magri brick kiln on the outskirts of Udaipur, Rajasthan, from October 2025 until earlier this month. Raj, who prefers to use only his first name, alleged that his infant daughter died because the contractor refused to pay their wages, confined them to the kiln premises, and denied them the right to travel for healthcare.

“We were forcefully confined at Dohri Magri brick kiln near the Ghasa police station on the outskirts of Udaipur, which Mukesh Prajapati owned,” alleged Seema, speaking to Newslaundry. “We were not given our wages for about a month for any of our work.”

Denied wages, care

Raj was allegedly trafficked to Udaipur alongside Seema, his father Ved Prakash (65), his mother (55), and their two children, Gaurav (8) and Annu (3). The Scheduled Caste family had been brought from their village, Johari, in the Sahawar tehsil of Kasganj district, Uttar Pradesh.

“I was pregnant when we came to Udaipur and gave birth to my baby on January 6. We were lured by Mor Mukut – a contractor in our village – with the promise of a ‘very good employment opportunity’ paying Rs 1,000 per day, per person,” said Seema.

"For our family of four, that should have been Rs 4,000 a day. Instead, after weeks of begging, we would receive only Rs 1,500 or Rs 2,000. They promised weekly payments, but weeks or even a month would pass while we begged for enough money to buy basic rations to eat,” she added.

“Within a month, we realised we were trapped. One of Mukesh’s men would follow me even when I went to the toilet or to buy rations,” said Raj. He explained that the family had been given an advance of Rs 10,000 in three installments before arriving, with a promise that the balance would be paid by Holi, on March 4. But tragedy struck well before the holiday arrived.

“Our baby fell sick. We tried to get her treated, but we weren’t even allowed to go to the hospital together because the contractor said we would flee,” said Raj, his voice faltering. “So, Seema took the baby alone. She was admitted to the NICU with pneumonia. When we begged for our baby’s life, the contractor finally gave us Rs 10,000. But after nine days, the doctor said he could only proceed with treatment if I paid the remaining hospital dues – otherwise, I had to take her home. I did the latter. She was back with us at the brick kiln, refusing to breastfeed. Two days later, we lost her.” The family claims that it received no paperwork upon discharge.

A forced burial

Breaking down, Seema recalled the indignity of their grief: “From the time my daughter was born, we were begging for everything – for money for my medical expenses, then for her treatment, and now even for her cremation. We had bought ice packs and a container so we could take our baby’s body back to our village.

“But when we asked to leave, the contractor, brick kiln owner and his men yelled at us and abused us,” she continued. “They said, ‘Bury her here somewhere. We will not let you step out with the dead body. You might complain against us, and we don’t want that risk. This kiln is more important than your dead child.’”

The family continued to protest and plead, but a full day passed with no concession from the kiln owners. By the second day, when a foul smell began to spread, they started pressuring the family to bury her immediately.

“The owner (Mukesh) threatened to withhold our wages if we didn’t listen,” alleged Seema. “With a compelled and broken heart, we buried our daughter right outside the kiln, near a pond – letting her go in a land that was not ours.”

“We wanted to bring her to our village and do the last rites, but we were forced to bury her as if she were some stray animal,” said Ved Prakash, Raj's father.

More instances of abuse 

The timeline of the tragedy is stark. The infant died on February 28 and was buried on March 2. The very next day, an employee of a Rajasthan-based non-profit working against bonded labour – who wishes to stay anonymous – attempted to help the family sneak out of the brick kiln.

“The family were beaten after they shared the incident with me over the phone, and someone overheard it. Mukesh, the owner, presumed that they had filed a complaint with the police. Before I could reach them, they were forced to sign a blank paper, their belongings were stuffed in a tractor, and they were kicked out of that kiln within 30 minutes – forced to leave the rest of their property behind – and threatened not to ask for their dues,” the NGO worker confirmed.

Responding to the allegations made by the family, contractor Mor Mukut told Newslaundry, “I never forced them to come with me. They came willingly, knowing the job demanded long hours, and even accepted an advance payment. I do not wish to comment further.”

After several attempts, the brick kiln owner, Mukesh Prajapati, spoke to Newslaundry. He claimed, “Not even a single allegation made against me is true. I let them go when they wanted to go back after their baby’s demise. And they were never prevented from visiting the hospital, either. I have around 30 more labourers working at the kiln; feel free to talk to them and verify.”

But our investigation uncovered further alleged instances of abuse, mistreatment, wage withholding, and systemic exploitation at the kiln.

Four days after Raj and his family were forced out, 25-year-old Sandeep Jatav also returned to Johari village with his family. Within 24 hours of reaching home, his 45-day-old infant son succumbed to an undiagnosed illness that had gone untreated.

“Our baby had a high fever. We kept asking them to let us go. We wanted to return to our family and get our baby treated, but they neither let us leave nor paid us the wages we were owed. We only received the bare minimum to somehow feed ourselves,” alleged Sandeep, who is still mourning the death of his first child. 

He blamed the contractor, Mor Mukut, for restricting their movement and withholding the wages that could have helped them seek timely medical care. When asked about these allegations, Mukut denied them. 

Newslaundry also spoke to Rakesh (31), a resident of Mathura, who worked at the same kiln. Currently on a train with his family of five, Rakesh alleged that the kiln owner repeatedly abused and beat workers when they asked for their wages, often telling them to contact the contractor instead.

Rakesh claimed he was denied leave even when his brother died in Uttar Pradesh, while the wages owed to his family were withheld for months. 

“He would abuse the senior workers and hit us whenever we asked for our wages,” he recalled. “Even when my own brother died, and I was bleeding after being beaten, I was not allowed to go home to attend his last rites.”

For the past week, Rakesh had been requesting leave again because his mother had fallen ill. “Yesterday morning, suddenly, he told me to leave and arranged a vehicle to drop me at the railway station with just Rs 2,500,” he claimed. “But when I asked for the remaining Rs 15,000 he owes us, he started abusing me again and said, ‘Go ask your contractor for it’ and told us to leave immediately.”

When we asked Mukesh about these allegations, he denied them entirely, saying he kept Rakesh “well paid” and “took care” of his workers. 

Justice denied

Upon arriving at the home of Raj Jatav’s relatives in Kasganj district, Newslaundry made several attempts to reach the superintendent of police (SP), Ankita Sharma. 

His family reported receiving continuous threats from contractor Mor Mukut, who allegedly even came to their house and threatened to kidnap them – a threat so severe that they are currently hiding at relatives’ homes.

It was only after Newslaundry had returned from meeting the family that SP Ankita Sharma of Kasganj responded. “I am not aware of any such case. Please share the details, and I will forward them to the concerned police station,” she said.

Two hours later, the family claimed that the station house officer (SHO) had arrived at their home and reprimanded them for returning without the baby’s body and for not filing a complaint in Udaipur. 

However, Vijendra Singh, SHO of Sahawar police station in Kasganj district, said: “They told me they had approached the police in Udaipur before returning, but no FIR was registered there as the contractor is influential. We are looking into the matter.”

In Rajasthan, the bureaucracy remained similarly uninformed. Sanket Modi, the Joint Labour Commissioner in Udaipur, said he had not received any information from the local police station. “If you could share the details with me, we can initiate an investigation immediately,” he said.

Following this, Newslaundry reached out to Pooja Kumari, the Labour Commissioner of Rajasthan. She then directed Modi to take action. Modi informed the local SDM, Ramesh Bali, who subsequently instructed Surendra Singh, the SHO of Ghasa police station, to conduct a thorough investigation into the matter.

On the latest developments in the investigation, Singh confirmed to Newslaundry, “After our first round of interrogation, we found that the body is actually buried outside of the brick kiln, in a cremation ground. That is something we have verified with some of the labourers who were present with the family.”

However, no FIR has been filed so far.

Speaking to Newslaundry, Happy Pradhan, an advocate at the Delhi High Court, observed that the circumstances surrounding the death of Raj’s daughter point to several severe legal violations and strongly suggest a case of bonded labour.

“The situation appears to fall under the Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979, particularly Section 14, which governs the protection of migrant workers,” Pradhan said. “It may also invoke provisions of the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020, specifically Sections 42 and 43. Under these, pregnant workers are entitled to safeguards including maternity protections and up to 26 weeks of paid maternity leave.”

He also highlighted procedural lapses under the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969 (amended in 2023). “If an infant dies under suspicious or unnatural circumstances, the matter must be reported to the police for investigation. In this case, the police were reportedly not informed, no post-mortem was conducted, and the death was never formally recorded,” he noted.

Pradhan added that compelling a woman to work until the day of her delivery could also constitute a violation of the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976.

Raj, meanwhile, is still coming to terms with his family’s loss and the bleak future that lies ahead. “We sold our essentials just to afford the travel to come back home. Forget about earning – we are now in debt to our relatives who helped us with medical expenses and travel," he said.

“My baby died only because I had no money.”

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