SIVAKASI : A TINDERBOX

The recent episode in Sivakasi, the city which makes 90 percent of the country’s firecrackers, is nothing new. Many such incidents have taken place in this tinder box in the past. Only the number of those dying keeps increasing. But death, even in such large numbers is not news in this country, where people die every day from all kinds of manmade reasons. The common factor in all these is always callousness and negligence, underlined by poverty on one side and power on the other. Be it money power, muscle power or position power. Those who die are invariably the poorest of the poor; basically nameless and only a number.

After every such incident, whatever the cause, compensations will be announced, enquiries constituted and then forgotten. Why, because, another major disaster would have hogged the headlines. After 38 people were killed in the recent series of explosions, the almost hilarious statement by government agencies was that they were kept in the dark about the cancellation of the factory's license by the deputy controller of explosives, who happens to be a central government official. The license was cancelled a day before the accident after an inspection found the unit overstaffed and stocking excess explosives. Weird!

Sivakasi, which is the capital of India’s firecracker industry, with about 8,000 factories has a turnover of Rs. 15 billion growing at the rate of 10% per annum.

These fireworks factories give direct employment, as well as, indirect, such as paper tube making, wire cutting, box making in the country side. They also produce military weapons, which are used for training in armed forces. Some airports are using Sivakasi rockets to scare away birds. Beside fireworks, it is also a major hub of printing presses and in-house studios, producing a variety of posters and calendars.

Sivakasi today produces 80% of India's total safety matches, 90% of India's total fireworks, and 60% of India's total offset printing solutions. It is one of the highest sales/excise/customs duty paying towns.

One would imagine a city which has returned so much to the exchequer, would deserve at least a single decent sized hospital, with a dedicated burns unit. In a place which has seen so many such disasters, the state government would have given the poor labourers’ working in this hazardous industry at least this much.

When such accidents take place in Sivakasi the severely burnt are driven in make shift ambulances 75 kms to Madurai.  Sivakasi is sitting on a volcano which erupts every now and then. And yet the roads are so narrow and bad that fire tenders cannot reach them.

Child labour too has been a major problem, but sustained campaigns by human rights activists have seen that practice come down drastically. However, with rising costs, the employment of children is re-emerging in a different way, according to social workers in the area. As per a press report, the practice of home-based firework production has started. This is done through a network of contractors and sub-contractors, which is not just creating fire hazards at homes, but also pulling children back into the industry.

According to a 2005 survey by the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan—Virudhunagar district, where Sivakasi is situated, has the highest percentage (45%) of families with out-of-school children.

The violation of safety norms—which has caused around 1,000 deaths in the last 10 years according to some NGO estimates(the official figure is of course much, much lower)—continues unchecked due to insufficient government regulation of the industry.

Firms say rising costs and irregular labour availability has lead to home-based production, but only of non-hazardous kinds. NGOs dispute these claims. Production of fireworks in homes is not permitted, but those who do generally go unpunished because it helps the locals make a living.

According to a recent report, the tehsildar is the only officer in the entire state in charge of inspections for the matches and fireworks industry, and operates with just one assistant.

There have been an alarmingly high number of accidents in the fireworks industry despite tall claims made by the State government about the implementation of the Factories Act, 1948.

The labourers employed in the cracker units are forced to work under tremendous stress in order to meet production targets, especially during festival time like Diwali. Piece-rate work adds to their miseries.

According to another press report, scarcity of labour has led contractors bringing in untrained recruits despite the fact they have no the technical knowledge of the job, particularly chemical mixing, filling, fitting, drying, braiding, and packing. This has also resulted in fatal accidents. Unhealthy competition among manufacturers has led to the introduction of new varieties. This and the absence of proper training to workers and safety mechanisms make a deadly combination. In almost all the recent accidents, explosions occurred while handling chemicals.

Safety norms are blatantly violated. Instead of the permitted four people working in a room with four doors, 10 people are made to work. Some registered units do not have equipment such as copper plates to earth static electricity, lightning arrestors, or even protective masks. Fire control equipment is totally absent in most factories.

Also, buildings are not explosion resistant. Experts say the deaths are not just because of the blasts, but also because of the buildings disintegrating.

Recently, the mushrooming of illegal cracker units in the villages has made the workers even more vulnerable. According to reports nearly 100,000 people depend on the unlicensed sector whereas the licensed factories employ around 130,000 persons. Poor wages offered by the contractors of the licensed units was one of the reasons why labourers switched to the illegal sector.

These illegal units were actually started by the licensed companies, to outsource work. But the illegal sector got the support of dealers, raw material suppliers, and truck operators because they got better deals. The practice apparently still continues, in fact some licensees even lease out their manufacturing sheds.    Also, entire families including children work out of residences. Accidents occur every now and then, because cooking is done in the same room where combustibles are stored.

Finally, we heard the owner of the factory where the recent blast took place was arrested. As expected he turns out to be a member of the AIADMK. Such, blatant violations cannot take place without political patronage and an indifferent and corrupt administration. It does not matter which government is in power, they are all the same. Workers must realise individually they can be crushed but collectively they may have some voice. The NGOs working in the area can only show them the way towards collective bargaining or nothing will ever change. The media too takes notice only when there’s a disaster. Why don’t they run a relentless campaign against the pitiable condition of those workers? Or it is only a matter of time when another lot of people will be roasted alive.