It was launched in 2014 by multiple, different organizations including Union Solidarity International (USi), Prayas, Action Aid Association, War on Want, and Thompsons Solicitors.
In India, the brick kiln industry plays an integral part within the country’s construction sector, and is estimated to contribute four billion US dollars to the Indian economy annually.
[4] As this industry works seasonally, employers prey on migrant and minority populations from low socio-economic statuses and recruit through the use of an advance payment system.
[3][5] Child labour is also occasionally used as a bargaining power by brick kiln workers, as it is often their only tool to incentivize employers to increase wages or provide additional benefits.
[5] Overall, this significantly decreases the attendance of children living on brick kilns to primary school or early childhood care, despite this being a legal obligation of the Indian government.
[12] The campaign's organizers hoped that this reference would help to capture a similar sense of geopolitical injustice in regards to the issue of modern slavery in the Indian brick kiln industry.
However, simply the act of creating a common language about this issue and many of their activities have, somewhat inadvertently, had positive effects on improving working conditions of brick kilns in other countries, particularly Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Cambodia.
[7] The Blood Bricks Campaign was launched by various organizations, including Union Solidarity International, Prayas, Action Aid Association, War on Want, and Thompsons Solicitors.
[2] This campaign operates as a trans-national network with the hopes to generate a unified message and a common language about the issue of modern slavery in the Indian brick kiln industry.
[10][1] This campaign identifies and exposes companies that breach domestic and international laws due to the direct or indirect use of bricks produced from debt-bondage, child labour, or by workers who do not receive minimum wages.
These legal cases have also helped to bring this issue to the attention to Indian Federal Government and demonstrate the need to amend laws regarding bonded-labour and minimum wage.
[15] This was done to help highlight the working conditions of the Indian brick kiln industry within the mass media, while also using these reports to pressure governments to amend and uphold labour and anti-slavery laws.
Currently, the Indian Ministry of Labour and Employment is drafting a proposal to meet these demands, and also include social security benefits, such as health insurance and maternity leave.
[18][19] Furthermore, these humanitarian organizations have helped to reinforce this bill and have highlighted how it directly relates to the Blood Bricks Campaign with the early day motion 362 in 2015.
[18] This motion, sponsored primarily by Jim Sheridan, detailed the human right violations occurring in the Indian brick kiln industry, while also calling for the UK Government to bring forth legislation to ameliorate the situation and to raise these issues during international negotiations.