Abhinandan is a 13-year-old boy with twinkling eyes and a mischievous smile. He lives with his family in District Saharsa in Bihar. His father, Gannabhil is working in brick kilns in the nearby area and Abhinandan also goes to work along with him. His mother is an agricultural labourer and works to cut the seasonal crops, which may be paddy or wheat. Earlier Abhinandan was staying with his maternal uncles and was working to graze the cows. He worked there for 2 years and came to his father. He has one younger brother, three small sisters and old grandmother. At home he looked after his siblings. The village has all sorts of economic stratification and also caste differentiation right from Brahmins to Schedule castes. The family lived in the small house built under Indira Awas Yojna (a government scheme) where water seeps inside in the rainy season. The family does not own any land to cultivate or any other property.

"I went to school for two years but left there as my master used to beat me a lot., so I left school", he said pointing his head with twinkling eyes. He studied till 2nd class. "My father also studied till 5th class. He wanted me to go to school but my motherwanted me to work. She told me that if we won't earn what will we eat". Abhinandan worked at brick kilns for more than one year.

"I was not paid any amount for the work I did. My father's wages (Rs. 130/week) included my wages also but I worked extra for loading the ready-made bricks in the trucks for which we children were paid Rs. 10-15 / 1000 bricks and we used to work almost whole year for that" he disclosed. We were never paid full amount as the owner only gave half the money. He kept the other half saying that he would give it next week. The thing was repeated and we had to work at the same place or leave our money. My work was to mould the bricks with the wet soil and in summers we used to go there around midnight, as the soil would dry soon during daytime. There was no time limit for work. Anybody could work for any number of hours and we were paid according to the number of bricks we mould.

"I kept on working for whole day. When i was not moulding bricks, i was loading them in trucks for which i was paid. The atmosphere was full of dust. It was so dusty that we had to wear the cloth on our faces with two holes for eyes so that we could see. I did not like the work and wanted to escape, but where? During summer times the days were very hot and we children used to work in shifts for loading the trucks. Two children would load the truck for two hours and then they would sit under the shade and two other children would work. We used to wet our bodies and then work. It was horrible. I used to go home for lunch and there was no facility for medical aid" he said. Luckily the activist from mukti ashram visited their village and motivated his parents to send him there to learn some vocational work. Abhinandan came to ashram on ***(29-04-2001). He was very naughty, was not afraid and could speak of his mind freely. There was no injury mark on his body. In the ashram he took part in all the activities actively and is enjoying the surroundings very much. He has learnt the value of education and says that he would go to school even if the master beat him. He says, "i have learnt the importance of education and i will not go to school due to compulsion but for the need, my need". He has gained confidence and is relearning the basic education part. He takes interest in social education class and has shown good performance in sports. He wants to go back to his village and join the school. He wants to open up a shop in his village along with his father.