A BRIEF REPORT ON SIVAKASI FIREWORKS INDUSTRIES

Transcription

1

2 1 A BRIEF REPORT ON SIVAKASI FIREWORKS INDUSTRIES LOCATION By CAUVERI-Development Office, Tiruchy, Tamil Nadu, India. Sivakasi, which is famous for fireworks and printing, is a Taluk 1 in Virudunagar District 2. This Virudunagar District has 4,243 sq. km area with a total population of 1,751,548. The nearest airport is Madurai, about 48 km. Sivakasi is 20 km from Virudunagar; 176 km from Tiruchirapalli; and 495 km from Chennai. Vital Statistics of Sivakasi Area sq.km Population 196,082 Population density Sex ratio 905 / sq. km females / 1000 males Urban population Rural population No. of families No. of families Below Poverty Line (BPL) Source: 2001 Census of India. 1 Taluk is an administrative division within a District. 2 District is an administrative division within the State (Tamil Nadu)

3 2 SIVAKASI The nearby town Sivakasi has three major industries with a high potentiality for child labour engagement in. (i) Printing (ii) Pyrotechnics (Fireworks) and (iii) Safety Matches industries. Sivakasi and neighbouring Sattur Districts produce about 75 per cent of India s matches. These two industries are the major sponsors of child labour. Being an arid region, Sivakasi is climatically suited for the fireworks and match industry. Additionally, in the absence of adequate alternative employment opportunities in agriculture, labour, including child-labour, is cheap. Fireworks and match industries are the only source of income for most of the homes in and around Sivakasi and Virudhunagar District at large. Mostly women are employed in these factories. Many male breadwinners had migrated to near by Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam, and Cuddalore Districts in search of jobs as load-men or construction workers. Many of the fireworks industry workers are former weavers and agriculturists and over 70 per cent of them are women. FIREWORKS INDUSTRIES About 90 per cent of India s production of fireworks is at Sivakasi. For the employers the business becomes a highly profitable one. The fireworks industry in Sivakasi is worth between Rs crore. The market for fireworks is likely to grow at the rate of 10 per cent per annum. There are nearly 460 fireworks factories giving employment to about 40,000 workers. These units manufacture about 300 varieties of fireworks. MATCH INDUSTRIES The Sivakasi area accounts for almost all the fireworks and 75 per cent of the matches produced in the country. According to an estimate there may be more than 500 match works factories in Sivakasi. Working Condition The firework unit has many cubicles scattered in a vast area. Each cubicle is a brick-walled room with RCC roof or Tin-roof, and has eight doors two on each side of the wall for easy exit. Usually four workers sit on the floor on a gunny sack, nearby the door. But during the peek months it is believed that more than four workers are accommodated in one cubicle. Lavatory and water facilities are available within the campus of the unit. Fireworks Unit- Cubicle Room

4 3 In match industries, instead of cubicles, the workers sit in rows in a big airy hall. In some units, each row is divided by a low partition (1.5 feet high). Here, stocking the matchsticks inside the matchbox and packing (small to big cartons) works are done. All the workers are women. In some units, crèche is available to take care of the workers children. The crowded factories did not bother about safety precautions and accidents in the fireworks and match works factories are common. Women Working inside the Cubicle Matches Unit Women at Work Home-Based Illegal manufacture of fireworks containing substances that fall under the Class 7 category specified under the Explosives Rules 1983 are being created in residences, open fields, and roof tops in over 40 villages in and around Sivakasi. These illegal home-based activities have the potential to cause devastating accidents due to the inappropriate use of explosive substances. In October 1999, the Tamil Nadu Fireworks and Amorces Manufacturers Association (TFAA) issued Cracker Paper Roll Making at Home

5 4 newspaper advertisements that fireworks manufacturing units no longer employed child labour and engaged anyone to locate child labourers in about 152 registered units. To get around the law, fireworks manufacturing units in Sivakasi introduced changes in the work pattern processes such as paper pipe-making were given out to contractors, who in turn hired children to work for them or subcontracted the work to households that employed children in large numbers. Increasingly, owing to the strict enforcement of the law, the children work from their homes. As a result, and because they are paid on a piece-rate basis, the children end up working long hours. Finished Paper Rolls Stacked at Home In some interior villages, crackers are made at home for the local market. According to Laser, J, Secretary of the Sivakasi Unit of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), in some villages, children are involved in loading flower pots, fixing the fuse, making paper pipes, filling rings and making boxes in short, in all the activities except that of mixing the hazardous and poisonous chemicals. 1 Illegal Fireworks The Tamil Nadu Fireworks and Amorces Manufacturers Association (TANFAMA) sources claimed that as many as 15 villages, including Vijayakarisalkulam, Thayilpatti, Meenakshipuram, Ramalingapuram, Salvarpatti, and Vembakottai, had unlicensed units. These units manufactured as much as half the quantum of fireworks produced by the over 630 licensed factories in Virudhunagar District, which had an annual turn over of Rs.350 crore. Nearly one lakh people depend on the unlicensed sector whereas the licensed factories employ around 1.3 lakh persons. 1 Many licensed units were unable to run to their full capacity because of the shortage of manpower. Several workers had quit their jobs after learning to make fireworks and turned to illegal manufacturing. Wages In all fireworks and match factories wages are fixed on piece-rate. The rate depends upon the nature of work the worker is involved in. In an average a worker earns Rs.90 to Rs.150 per day. For this they have to work from 8.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m. Sundays will be 3 Frontline, Vol.17-09, Apr.29-May 12, The Frontline, Danger Zone, Vol.26, Issue 18, Aug.29-Sep.11, 2009.

6 5 holidays. No wages are paid for holidays or leave. Regarding match industries, work availability is throughout the year. Whereas, with regard to fireworks industry, it is more seasonal and affected by the climate variation. During rainy seasons and 3 to 4 months after Deepavali festival, the fireworks units remain closed. During which time, the workers did not get any wages. They go for some other work. There is no job security in these industries. Temporary workers could be laid off at will. One of the reasons why labourers switched to the illegal sector was the inadequate wages offered by the contractors attached to the licensed units. THE PROBLEMS Child labour in Fire Works According to J. Lazer, Secretary of the Sivakasi Unit of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), in some interior villages, crackers, flower pots and Zameen chakkars are made at home for the local market. According to him, children are involved in loading flower pots, fixing the fuse, making paper pipes, filling rings etc. A CHILD WHO SPENDS EVEN PART OF THE DAY WORKING, INSTEAD OF GOING TO SCHOOL, REMAINS UN(DER) EDU- CATED AND IS CONDEMNED TO BADLY PAID JOBS In villages across the district Thiruthangal, Ammapettai, Alamarathupatti, Thayalpatti, S.Anaikuttam, T.Ramalingapuram, Kottaiyur, D.Duraisamypuram, Viswanatham, Meenakshipuram, Sankaralingapuram, and Meenampettai children continue to work in or for fireworks-making units. 1 The 1991 Census of India put the number of child workers in Sivakasi in the 6-14 age-group at 30,000. In , a State Government study sponsored by the United Nations Children s Fund put the figure at around 33,000 (of whom 30,000 were employed in the match industry and 3,000 in the fireworks industry) mostly in illegal fire/match works facilities. Boy Working in a Fireworks Unit 5 Frontline, Vol.17-09, Apr.29-May 12, 2000.

7 6 villages, children are making even cracker fuses, a process which involves handling hazardous and poisonous chemicals, including sulphur. Around 40 per cent of all matches are made in 6,000 cottage units, which often mean families working in homes. No laws can effectively prevent parents from making little boys and girls work at home. Children are in an all-work-no-play situation. Truncated Education Children at the Fireworks The children, even if they attend school, take up the work whenever they are at home. This deters their education and performance at school and examination which becomes a pretext for withdrawal from school. Since children are at work rather than in school, they grew up with greater constraints and fewer prospects for decent work. Child labour tends to exacerbate the problem of youth employment in this District in so far as it prevents children from acquiring the needed education and skills to compete on the labour market as young adults. Recently, surveys show, parents force their little children into hazardous jobs for reasons for accumulation of added luxury than poverty as earlier. On the other side Illiterate and ignorant parents do not understand the need for wholesome proper physical, cognitive, and emotional development of their child. They are themselves uneducated and unexposed, so they don t realize the importance of education for their children. And when a family has to make a choice between sending either a boy or girl to school, it is often the girl who loses out. Health Related Problems Asthma, and TB are prevalent among 90 per cent of the workers who are involved in gunpowder filling and are directly in contact with the chemical ingredients of crackers and matches. These workers usually do not wear any protective clothes and their whole skin can be seen covered with the chemicals such as sulphur, aluminium powder and gunpowder. Snake Tablet one type of firework, which uses nitric acid, causes skin diseases. Working on this type of firework is considered to be highly dangerous for the workers.

8 7 Transportation Many villages in and around Sivakasi are not connected by any mode of transport services. Students bi-cycle the entire distance of up to 12 kms to their schools. Poor roads and the absence of any transportation services poses another problem in transporting the injured to hospitals. People with burn injuries had to be sent to Madurai (75 km), because the facilities available at the government hospitals in the District were inadequate to treat a large number of such patients. Accidents In a desperate attempt to improvise and meet the demand for light over sound, the Sivakasi fireworks industry has been experimenting dangerously, trying new processes and chemical combinations, which the workers are not used to. The industry is experimenting with high-risk chemicals such as potassium chlorate and potassium per-chlorate, which are vital ingredients of Chinese crackers, whose emphasis is on aerial display. Unregulated experiments are leading to accidents, many of which go unreported. 1 A wrong combination of Potassium nitrate can result in a catastrophe affecting the whole neighbourhoods. Some of the unregistered units operate in the night hours in violation of rules as electric sparks could trigger accidents. In 1981, a major accident at Aruna Fireworks at Mettupatti killed 32 workers, including women and children. Over the years, there were a series of other fatal accidents, which exposed the hazardous nature of fireworks manufacture and the risk that the workers, particularly the children, were subject to. 2 Tragic details Year Accidents Killed Injured Source: Chief Controller of Explosives, Nagpur 6 Arun Ram, Daily News and Analysis, October 29, The Frontline, Issue 09, April, 29 May 12, 2000.

9 8 Manager of a registered factory said every year new combinations and varieties were introduced by big units to meet competitions, but the workers were not properly trained to handle them. 1 Between July 20 and August 03, 2009, five fire accidents, including three in registered fireworks units, have taken place in the region, also known for its off-set printing and match industries, killing over 43 people and injuring many others four of the six units where the blasts took place were in the licensed sector. 1 The introduction of Chinese pyrotechnics without the required specialised training was also cited as one of the reasons. On the medical management of the injured, industry sources said there was no special burns ward at both Virudhunagar and Madurai Government hospitals. Accident Site at Anuppankulam in Sivakasi Six persons including five women were killed and 22 persons (19 women + 3 men) injured in a blaze at a fireworks factory in Anupankulam village near Sivakasi on July 02, Out of the 48 working sheds in the premises, 10 collapsed and 32 were partly damaged The Vadakkampatti accident at V.B.M. Fireworks exposed employment of children in factories and that too during nights. Nineteen people including three students died in the accident. Local people agreed that many children used to work in the factory after school hours or on holidays. The accident took place around 7 p.m.. The blast at Sri Krishna Fireworks in Namaskarithanpatti on July 20 claimed 18 lives. Three workers were killed in the mishap at Anil Fireworks in Keezha Tiruthangal village on july 28 and one died in an accident at Classic Fireworks in Meenampatti on August 3. All three were licensed units Accidents at two units in the unlicensed sector, at Vetrilaiyooranai and Viswanatham, in July snuffed out two more lives. The blast at Viswanatham brought down the tiled roof and sidewalls of a temporary shed, which was involved in the illegal manufacture of fireworks. July 20, 2009 Accident Site in Sivakasi 8 Zeenews.com, Erring Fireworks Units in Sivakasi to Come under Police Scanner, July 31, Frontline Danger Zone, Vol.26, Issue, 18: Aug 29 Sept 11, 2009.

10 9 Many reasons, according to Frontline report, has been attributed for these mishaps: negligence on the part of workers; incomplete skill up-gradation for colour pellet manufacture; lack of effective supervision; minor violations owing to bunching of demand/supply orders before Deepavali (A Hindu festival); and the weather conditions such as heat, the velocity and direction of wind, and the humidity during the months of July to August contributed to the blasts. According to a report in the Frontline dated April, 29 May 12, 2000, by M. Mahalakshmi, General Secretary of the Match and Fireworks Union, some units operated out of residences, with the entire family, including children, contributing labour. There were agents to supply raw materials to these units and procure the finished goods. Accidents occurred every now and then as these units threw caution to the wind. In some houses, cooking was done in one corner of the same room where finished goods or raw materials were stored. There have been instances when a spark from the stove proved fatal. INTERVENTIONS BY DON BOSCO AT SIVAKASI Don Bosco House ( Anbu Illam) is at Alangulam, a Panchayat town in Sivakasi Taluk. Vidivelli (The Morning Star) is a Don Bosco Institution, functioning since 1993 at Alangulam (about 10 km from Sivakasi) of Virudunagar District in South Tamil Nadu State in India. The Salesians of Don Bosco creatively and daringly respond to the signs of times by opting to work for the cause of the child labourers, dropouts, and the marginalized poor people. ACTIVITIES Parish Boarding Home for boys High School and Primary School Self-Help Groups for women Dropout Prevention Centre Evening Study Centres July 07, 2009 Accident: Grieving Parents and Sister

11 10 INTERVENTION Child Labour elimination through dropout prevention and evening study centres Cultural groups to create awareness on the prevention of child labour Job placement cell Social awareness creation CONTACT ADDRESS Don Bosco Vidivelli P.O. Box No.1 Kalavasal Keela Raja Kularaman Post Virudunagar District Tamil Nadu, India. Don Bosco Dropout Prevention Centre Don Bosco Dropout Prevention Centre was inaugurated in 2005 by the selfless imitative of Rev.Fr.Amaladoss. Again in January 2008 a new building was constructed with all necessary infrastructures with a capacity to accommodate, care, and educate more than 50 students. This dropout centre serves as a transition centre for the poor dropout students, who discontinued due to various reasons. This Dropout Prevention Centre educates the poor dropout students of the surrounding villages and reenrols them into the regular academic stream. Two batches are organized during the year. About 50 to 75 dropouts are being educated. The 1 st batch from the beginning of June to October The 2 nd batch from the beginning of November to April. Holistic formation is provided through the Salesian way of education

12 11 Motivation programmes are organized to motivate them to study/media awareness is created through the animation programmes by watching and holding discussions on films and short films Frequent seminars are organized to help them choose a better carrier in the future. Regular competitions and cultural programs are organized to improve their talents and skills. After the final exams, short-term courses are conducted for both the batches in which boys and girls are taught basic skills in computer, typing, music, and spoken English. 4 or 5 days of intensive cultural training is provided. At the end of the training program boys are taken to different villages to organize the awareness promotion programs on current social issues. Evening Study Centres Evening Study Centres (supplementary education) are being run in the following 8 locations with 340 beneficiary children and 8 teachers. These centres function only in the evening and after school hours and provides special coaching in their respective subjects. These centres prevent children being employed after the school hours. Since lack of learning skill is also one of the factors of dropout from schools, these children are taught to improve their learning skills and helped in scoring good marks in the examinations. S.No Name of the Village No. of Beneficiary Children No. of Teachers 1 Appayanayakanpatty T-Mettur Duraisamypuram Kalavasal Kottamadakipatty Melanmarainadu Pazhayapuram Vedha Muthu Nagar 38 1 Total No. of Children 339 8

13 12 Academic Education Don Bosco runs two regular academic educational institutions at Melanmarainadu, about 2 km from Sivakasi and a boarding for the boys studying in these two institutions. R.C. Primary School at Melanmarainadu: This primary school has classes 1 to 5, mostly serving the marginalized community of this Sivakasi Taluk. About 108 students (both boys and girls) are enrolled this academic year ( ). St. Antony s High School at Melanmarainadu: This is a high-school with classes 6 to 10. About 800 students (both boys and girls) are studying here Boarding for Boys Boarding facility is provided only for boys. About 80 students are being accommodated per academic year. Distance between the school and their residence is one of the factors of school drop-out. The absence of transportation increases the chances of drop-out. Indirectly, the boarding facility serves in reducing drop-out rates. They are given special coaching to improve their learning skill. Women Self-Help Groups St. Antony s High School Women self-help groups are formed with 10 to 15 members in a group. Till date Don Bosco has formed about 25 such women self-help groups. Regular income-generation trainings and contact programmes are organized for the members. These members also take part in awareness creation programmes. Animation Programme for Self-help Group Members

14 13 Regular Awareness Programmes Regular awareness promotion programmes are being organized in different locations on various current social issues. Awareness themes such as, Child labour eradication, HIV/ AIDS prevention, Health & Hygiene, Environment and pollution, Child Rights, Human Rights, Importance of girl child education, Tree plantation drives, and observations of International Days are regularly organized. Future Plans 1. Don Bosco Dropout Centre has plans to accommodate and educate the 11 th and 12 th Std. students, studying in the nearby schools and provide them with educational facilities. 2. To form more women self-help groups towards women empowerment 3. To start programmes to enhance the employability of the dropout children through additional vocational skill training (like, Tailoring, Computer Education, et.) Map Showing Virudunagar District in Tamil Nadu State

15 14 Map showing the location of Sivakasi and the Don Bosco House at Alangulam CONCLUSION Don Bosco House According to the Chairperson, Global March against Child Labour, India has already missed the targets of gender parity and covering all children aged 6-14 in schools by year Studies reveal that child labour is primarily an outcome of poverty and uneven development. In Sivakasi and the surrounding locations the children, women, and men are working with hazardous materials endangering their lives and their future of their family. Illegal fire and match works are more prone to accidents and the irony is that the victims are deprived any compensation since the units are illegal. Only the government efforts could not solve their problem. A holistic development plan should be evolved targeting the children in these families with a long-term objective of improving their standard of living through academic/skill education, awareness promotion activities, and women empowerment.

16

17