Nur started working as a carpet weaver a few days after her eighth birthday. She was told that her family desperately needed the money. She had to help pay off the loan that her parents had taken up.
There were many bonded labourers like her in the carpet factory. Five children worked at each loom, tying knots in carpets manually. Weaving was painful work and their fingers became numb easily as the threads were stiff. Nobody dared to protest after a few more vocal ones complained and received savage beatings. A few of them were chained to the loom as they worked. When they hurt their fingers, the factory owner would dip them in hot oil.
Nur woke up at dawn each day and worked until late at night, up to fifteen hours a day. They had two meals a day but the portion was so meager that Nur felt she was in perpetual hunger. They slept in cramped quarters at night. The conditions in the factory were deplorable. There were no windows in the factory and the lighting was grossly inadequate. Nur soon discovered that her eyesight was failing. She also developed breathing difficulties and started coughing violently. The poor nutrition, bad ventilation and long hours also resulted in many children falling sick and developing respiratory illnesses such as cough and tuberculosis.
There were many children like Nur in Nepal. They worked in brick and textile factories, small shops and leather tanneries. They were often brutally treated and none of them knew what childhood was. They never had the opportunity to attend school. Tragically, they would grow up to be illiterate adults and continue to live in poverty.