KATHMANDU: With the winter at its peak, denizens of the Valley lurk around in cloaks to avert a nip in the air. But life at brick kilns is a different tale.

Hundreds of low-wage-earners, both Nepali and migrant Indian labors, toil to bake mud into bricks at scores of kilns operating in east corners of the valley in the city of Bhaktapur during winter.

And despite repeated government restrictions on kilns to operate inside the Kathmandu Valley, the establishments are emitting hazardous levels of sulphur dioxide and black carbon without much thought. Above all, the kilns are major income source for scores of laborers who toil day and night at the settlement without paying heed to the biting cold.

Nonetheless, it is the workers who are bound to work under hazardous conditions without giving much care to the nip in the air or the emission they inhale.