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THE SHIP-BREAKERS
- 1. THE SHIP-BREAKERS By KinereeShah M.A. Part II St. Xavier’s College
- 2. Contents • Introduction • Howare the ships sold to the breakers? • Ship Workers • The Problems • Where are the acche din?
- 3. Introduction • The LakdiBunder is the second largest ship- breaking site in India after Alang in Gujarat. • Most of the people have migrated mainly from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Orissa. • It provides employment to about 66000 workers in India alone. • Hazardous Industry.
- 4. Selling of theShip to the Breakers • Two methods:- • Cash Buying • Shipping Agents • The ship breakers are not connected to the ship owners directly. • Ships are brought in at high tide by the ship’s captain and beached by a port pilot. • The first cut is auspiciously made on the nose of the ship.
- 5. Ship Workers • TheShip Gas Cutters: Tukada Cutter and Kala Cutter • The Winch and Winch Helpers • Yard Gas Cutters • The Loaders The entire modern process of cutting a ship is done using an acetylene torches.
- 6. Tukada Cutter KalaCutter
- 7.
- 8. Yard Gas CutterLoaders
- 11. The Problems • Theworkers receive no training. • No identity proofs or ration card. • Workers have to battle lethal hazards. • No job security. • Basic hygiene is a luxury. • Lack of safety equipment. • Toxicities on skin • Child Labourers
- 12. A worker handlingharmful asbestos with his bare hands.
- 13. 1 2 3 1. UmeshSihori, 62, yard gas cutter at Yard no. 4, Reti Bunder 2. Umesh’s wife cooking on a Primus 3. Umesh’s house 4. Workers sharing a mere 10x12 sqft. among 10 people 5. Paulo, migrant from Orissa, 59, workers as a helper in Yard no. 8, Lakdi Bunder 4 5
- 14. Where are theAcche Din?
- 15. Acknowledgement • Mr. SiddhantJain, Arihant Ship Breakers • Mr. Alpesh Jaglani, Activist- Smile and Samruddhi Foundation • Mr. Umesh Sihori and his team • Mr. Harsh Desai for his research, support and photography.
- 16.
Editor's Notes
- #4 This project is based on Lakdi Bunder near Raey Road which is the second largest ship breaking yard after Alang in Gujarat. About sixty percent of the community live under such circumstances that they hardly have basic civic amenities. Most of the people have migrated from different states, mainly from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Orrisa. It provides employment to 66000 workers in India out of which 60000 work at Alang and about 6000 work here at Lakdi Bunder. China, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Turkey are such countries that break ships around the globe. Hazardous industry or not I’ll let you guys decide on that.
- #5 Once a ships life is over the ships owners sell them to the ship breakers. They then decide that in which country they want to break it. Their decision mainly comes from consideration of weak regular mechanisms, scant respect for the environment and cheap labour to gain more profit. Mr. Siddhant Jain, Joint owner of Arihant Ship breakers says that ships can be sold in two methods to the ship recyclers.The first method is that which consists of the cash buyers. The major chunk of the ship is sold to these cash buyers. The second method consists of the brokers or the shipping agents who organise the sale and purchase. Cash buyers are the people who sell it to the ship breakers. So for the ship breaker, the seller of the ship is the cash bank company. The ship breakers are not connected to the owners directly. Cash buyers are the agents between the ship breaker and the owner. A cash buyer buys the ship from the owners and sells it to the ship breakers. After the buying and selling process the ship reaches the yard during the high tide. The ship is then beached by a port pilot. After this, the process of cleaning the ship starts. The ship breaking workers then board the ship and start cutting the ship piece by piece. After the sale and purchase is done the ship is then brought in during the high tide by the ships captain and then is beached on the shore by a port pilot. If a ship is dead then tugs are used to drag the ship of the coast. After this the ship is drained of all the fuel and the first cut is made auspiciously on the nose of the ship. It is like slicing a loaf of bread. These sliced portions are further segregated into small pieces. The cables, motors, electrical switch boards, etc., are reused in the small factories
- #6 The workers are categorised in many groups with each being directed by a supervisor known as a ‘Mukadam’. The gas cutters are primarily divided into those who work on the ship and the rest who work on the yards. This division is based on the gas cutters experience and skill. They work directly aboard the ship. They have an understanding of risks and experience needed to cut big chunks of the ships directly or indirectly weakening them enough to the pulled down by a hinge. Ship gas cutters are divided into two groups:
- #7 The first consist of the workers cutting the body or the hull of the ships called as ‘Tukada Cuttters’. The other division consists of cutting the cabin and cranes of ships called as ‘Kala Cutters’.
- #8 The Winch: This is a complex pulley which requires helpers and an operator. Winch helpers are the ones who hook the winch wire where it is required and make sure the wires does not entangle when an operator is operating the winch. The winch and cranes are also used to pull big pieces of the ships onto the yard.
- #9 The Yard Gas Cutters: They handle slicing the ship chunks into smaller metal plates. The ‘Chhati Mukadam’ supervises and orders the crane operator to surrogate metal plates into various grades based on their size and thickness which later decides the price of the plates. The Loaders: The job of the loaders is loading and unloading goods from the truck which mostly includes metal plates and gas cylinders. To determine how much steel is being sent, the truck is weighed on the yard without the plates and then later with them. Subtraction between these two amounts gives us total weight of plates.
- #10 Metal plates from the ship breaking industry are taken into the re-rolling mills. The re-rolling mills are considered town’s stream industries where they melt steel and make rods out of it. These rods are then which primarily used in construction of buildings. Non-ferrous metals like copper, bronze and brass are collected by workers known as ‘Malpani’. Things like a ship’s bronze propeller and other metals are then sold at comparatively at higher prices in the market.
- #11 The entire modern process of cutting a ship is done using an acetylene torches which made the modern ship breaking industry profitable and possible.
- #12 Ship breakers are always in a lookout for countries where labours are ardently cheap and the regulations weak netting them more profit. To safe additional costs at times the ship breakers sometimes get ships to the yard without cleaning it for toxic materials. But in the case of ship breaking, the cost of being cheap results in vulgar disregard in safety and well-being of the workers. Oceangoing vessels are not meant to be taken apart. They’re designed to withstand extreme forces in some of the planet’s most difficult environments, and they’re often constructed with toxic materials, such as asbestos and lead. On a daily basis, the workers have to battle lethal hazards at these ship breaking yards which include fire, smokes and accidents caused by extremely heavy objects which fall and crush them under their weight. Half of these workers lack the safety equipment required. Gas cutting without masks, winch wire handling without the safety gloves and working without helmets are some of the many hazards the workers face. A lot of times they end up getting toxicities on their skin which handling asbestos with their bare hands. The yards in Mumbai do not give any training to the workers. Mr. Alpesh Jaglani, an activist with the NGO Shipbreaking platform says that ship-breaking seems like a profitable bussiness until you realise the poison soaking into our lands, until you’ve met the windows of young men who were crushed by falling pieces of steel or suffocated inside a ship. He says that ship-breaking should not stop completely but should be done in such a way that minimum damage is caused to lives and nature. According to the laws it is the responsibility of the employer to make sure every worker they hire is adequately paid, insured and provided with their provident fund, perpetuity and pension. The ship-breakers receive no proper work identity proofs as a result they do not get ration card or voters card and are hence ignored by the politicians. There is no job security, workers are hired and fired according to the need of ship breakers. The workers have very poor sanitation facility. No water, no electricity, they live in slums and no proper toilets. Hence something as simple as basic hygiene becomes a luxury for the workers. Many seminars by the state government have been conducted but the relief is temporary.
- #14 The lack of knowledge about their rights many these people including children end up working in these yards. One of these child labourers is Umesh Sihori. Now 62 years of age, he claims to be having been working in this industry for more than fifty years. Umesh is ill-literate and a slum dweller. He says that he came to Mumbai at the age of 15 and joined the ship-breaking yard the very same day. For about 4 years he worked as a helper and then as a gas cutter. But on witnessing the death of his close friend he started working down on the yards. He recalls the incident by saying that they were working on a ships part for any days but it wouldn’t come down. Once during lunch time while they were taking shelter under the ship the wind blew too strong and the part which was loose gave away crushing his friend to death. He too was critically injured. He fractured his chin, broke his left hand and suffered a ligament tear on his left leg. Umesh lives with his wife and two kids. Workers without families end up renting a small slum, sharing it with seven to ten workers who receive meagre wages. At Darukhana there are a few water pumps available. But even these water pumps do not fail to disappoint the ship breaking workers by providing them seas salty water. Food brought from a market at Lakdi Bunder only ends up eating a lion’s share of their income. Situation is worst for female workers.
- #15 All the above problems of the ship breaking workers are still not being addressed by the state. The government is doing little or nothing for them. They suffer day in and day out and their other personal problems only adds them to their already heavy burden. NGOs and Union have been helping many workers get justice in the recent years but no significant change can be seen in their lifestyle and occupation. At time the state government does organise workshops and seminars for these workers but their relief is temporary. Big promises said by the people with power then become lies. The misery some of these workers face is too difficult to write and talk. Countless deaths seen at work have made many workers scared and they are also aware of the risks involved, but they are helpless. The ship breaking industry is today a globally profitable sector, in which the main driving workforce is underpaid, ill-equipped, receiving little or no training and most of them are illiterate. Some of thw workers have so many scars on their body that they laugh it off and call them ‘tatoos’. This is a very sad mark on India’s thriving economy. The promised acche din do not seem to be nearby anytime soon for these labourers.