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12 January, 2000An IMF mission to India observes the acute difficulties facing workers in the ship-scrapping sector and says it is imperative global action be taken to ensure removal of dangerous substances before ships are sold for scrapping.
INDIA: The IMF Shipbuilding Department Working Group visited India last December as part of a campaign to secure better working conditions and trade union rights in the shipbreaking sector. The fact-finding mission toured shipbreaking sites in Alang, Sosiya and Mumbai, as well as the nearby scrap-handling yards and re-rolling mills in Bhavnagar (south Gujarat, west India, on Gulf of Cambay).
The group reported on the extremely crude ship-scrapping process, with ships driven and dragged onto beaches or riverbanks. Following removal of any fuel and oil as well as all reusable items such as electrical equipment, white goods, engines and timber, the vessels are cut into manageable pieces by workers using oxygen/gas burners. More than 90 per cent of the steel content is re-rolled, mainly into reinforcing bar but also some bright bar for the engineering sector, with the remainder going to mini-mills for remelting.
In addition to some 25,000 workers directly employed in ship-scrapping at Alang and Sosiya, over 160,000 are employed in associated downstream activities which provide a much-needed source of jobs. The bulk of the workers at the shipbreaking sites come from villages great distances away, with few if any able to read or write. There are no trade unions operating in this sector. Wages range between Rs 70-120 per day (US$1.75-3.00), with most of it sent back to the family in the village. Living conditions are very primitive, with shacks built from materials salvaged from the scrapped ships and no running water or sanitary provisions of any kind. A small Red Cross first-aid post was on site, but the nearest hospital was over 45 minutes away, in Bhavnagar. There are provisions for hostel accommodations and a hospital, but no indication when construction will begin.
The ship-scrapping owners are seemingly unaware of health dangers posed to the workers or even to themselves by exposure to PCBs, heavy metals and asbestos during the ship-scrapping process and underlined the fact that the Indian government has not banned the use of asbestos. One individual even suggested that because of its insignificance in terms of its proportion of the total weight of a scrapped ship, asbestos was not an important issue!
The group reported on the extremely crude ship-scrapping process, with ships driven and dragged onto beaches or riverbanks. Following removal of any fuel and oil as well as all reusable items such as electrical equipment, white goods, engines and timber, the vessels are cut into manageable pieces by workers using oxygen/gas burners. More than 90 per cent of the steel content is re-rolled, mainly into reinforcing bar but also some bright bar for the engineering sector, with the remainder going to mini-mills for remelting.
In addition to some 25,000 workers directly employed in ship-scrapping at Alang and Sosiya, over 160,000 are employed in associated downstream activities which provide a much-needed source of jobs. The bulk of the workers at the shipbreaking sites come from villages great distances away, with few if any able to read or write. There are no trade unions operating in this sector. Wages range between Rs 70-120 per day (US$1.75-3.00), with most of it sent back to the family in the village. Living conditions are very primitive, with shacks built from materials salvaged from the scrapped ships and no running water or sanitary provisions of any kind. A small Red Cross first-aid post was on site, but the nearest hospital was over 45 minutes away, in Bhavnagar. There are provisions for hostel accommodations and a hospital, but no indication when construction will begin.
The ship-scrapping owners are seemingly unaware of health dangers posed to the workers or even to themselves by exposure to PCBs, heavy metals and asbestos during the ship-scrapping process and underlined the fact that the Indian government has not banned the use of asbestos. One individual even suggested that because of its insignificance in terms of its proportion of the total weight of a scrapped ship, asbestos was not an important issue!