Laws help children Rains wash away wages of brick kiln workers of beedi workers get a better future

In November 2013, three men were buried alive in a brick kiln unit near Pernampet in Vellore district as the earth caved in when they were resting after work. An accident of this kind is a fairly common situational hazard in the lives of brick kiln workers. In one of the Perumanguppam brick kiln units of KV Kuppam block, work is underway at breakneck speed--sinewy men are excavating mud with their grubby hoes, carrying load after load, piling it up for the women to fill into brick moulds and carve out raw bricks. The mud needs to be constantly fed with water due to the scorching SURAKSHA P heat. The raw bricks are left to dry for at least two days. Unexpected rains mean a waste of back-breaking labour as the workers would have to go wage-less for the day. There are small tents adorning the work site. A slender chimney dots the skyline a few yards away, spewing black soot. Some of the labourers balance stacks of bricks on their heads, carrying it to the fire chamber for heating. It isnt uncommon for brick kiln units to employ entire families in brick-making. They live, work and sleep at the dusty worksites for months on end. Murugan and Hamsa, both in their seventies, hunch over wet, red mud as the dust creases their faces. As Hamsa presses wet mud into the mould and empties it out to dry in the sun, Murugan shovels mud from the pit. When asked, Doesnt the heat sear your skin? he shrugs as fatigue overcomes him.For carving out 1,000 raw bricks, they earn Rs 150 a day. Each brick, however, is sold for Rs 4 by their owner, according to Hamsa. The couple begin work at the crack of dawn and continue till 1 pm or 2 pm. They resume work at 3 pm and toil until dusk. Meanwhile, according to statistics, agricultural activities do not fetch as much as brick-making. As per the revised minimum wages in the state of Tamil Nadu, for agriculture and works ancillary to agriculture, men are entitled to Rs 100 for six hours of work and women, Rs 85 for five hours. I have two sons, but they live separately. Hence, my wife and I are left to fend for ourselves, says Murugan, his exhaustion creasing his faint smile. Venkataswamy, 38, and his wife Usha, 27, are working with equal strength as their threeyear-old watches on. I have two sons, they go to school in KV Kuppam. This ones too young (pointing to his daughter), we havent even named her yet. My children will not do this job, no way. You people are educated, you must know this already, Venkataswamy says, his legs knee-deep in mud. Their legs are visibly bruised
PHOTO: SAMEERA AHMED

Since the early 1940s, the tannery industry has boomed exponentially in India, aided by the fact that developed western countries washed their hands off tanning almost completely, developing strict environmental laws to prevent it. As per available estimates, there are 832 tanneries in Tamil Nadu alone and a great many of them in Vellore. This is due to the fact that the tannery industry is highly water-intensive. Each tonne of tanned hide or skin requires 40,000 litres of water. Even a small industry with a capacity to process only 3-4 tonnes of tanned hide per day can guzzle as much as 100,000 liters of water. The Palar river was not only deemed sufficient to meet these intensive demands but doubled as a convenient discharge point for effluents. In 1972, the central government sought to promote tanning with incentives and tax rebates. Before that tanning was mostly done using vegetable dyes and natural products such as marapattai (bark). But vegetable tanning takes more than a month to process. After the central government incentives, to meet increasing demand, most in-

HARSHVARDHAN SIDDARTHAN

Tanneries destroy the Palar lifeline

dustries switched to Chrome tanning or chemical tanning which is much faster as it requires only a fortnight to process but is more harmful. The subsequent constant dumping of untreated chemical wastes has taken a heavy toll on the land of all the surrounding regions. Activist Gajapathy Nayagam has been fighting the Vellore tanneries in court for the past seven years through his NGO, Vellore District Environment Monitoring Committee. A large plantation owner, Mr Nayagam became an activist after his sugarcane fields were rendered unfit for cultivation by pollutants discharged by the tanneries. According to Mr Nayagam, 186 villages across seven talukas in Vellore district have been severely affected by tannery pollution. This includes about 27,000 individuals and farmers, and 15,165 hectares of land either partially or fully rendered unfit for cultivation. So far the industries and polluters have been instructed to pay Rs 30 crore in compensation but this is barely enough. Environment officials only account for crop loss when they assess damage. They do not take into consideration socio-economic impact and loss of livelihood. has halved from 7-8 litres a day to just 3-4 litres. His cows are increasingly afflicted by diseases such as bowed legs, tuberculosis and asthma. Apart from environmental causes, the feed that they get is of poor quality and meagre in the neand supplecessary nutrients ments. Ramamurthy, a farmer in Somalapuramm, has had to make drastic lifestyle changes due to water contamination. The water from the river is now unfit for both cultivation and personal use. In my house, we now buy 20 litre water cans for drinking water and cooking. This costs Rs 66. On an average I make Rs 4,000 Rs 5,000 per month. How then can I afford this? Besides, as we cannot use the river water, we are entirely dependent on the vagaries of rainwater for cultivation. Ramamurthy says. He also adds, Every time we sow our crops it is a gamble that we take. A number of water intensive crops no longer grow here. This land used to be very fertile. But now, we can no longer grow sugarcane, betel leaves or paddy. Or if we do grow them, we have to spend twice as much in cultivating them. An acre of paddy now costs Rs 5,000.Twenty five years ago, it was half that amount. We cannot even subsist on the produce of our own land. We now have to go to the market to buy our rice and a 25 kg bag of rice now costs 1,100. Even what grows doesnt grow properly. Even after the monsoon, at the peak of their productivity tender coconuts only yield 100 millilitres of water whereas a healthy batch is supposed to contain 700 millilitres. It was only in 1994 that a Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) was established. Even then the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board set a total dissolving salt limit or TDS of 7,000. This is far from safe. Somalapuram Village, severely damaged, has a TDS level of 4,000. It was only five years ago that the the state government acknowledged that any amount of effluents discharged was harmful and a reverse osmosis (RO) process was introduced. Reverse Osmosis, commonly referred to as RO, is a process of purifying water by pushing it under pressure through a semi-permeable membrane, which allows the passage of water molecules but not the majority of dissolved salts. RO makes sure that there is zero outlet of water. Chemical water is treated so that 80 per cent of it can be reused in
PHOTO: ABHAY R JOSHI

VELLORE

The toxic effluents from the tanneries have destroyed the Palar river basin and left it parched. Part of the problem lies in the fact that the government was slow to realize the full extent of the damage caused by tanneries. Annadurai, a cattle herder in Somalapuram village has faced substantial loss. The village is a part of Vaniyambadi tehsil, which

contains the largest belt of tanneries in India. According to Annadurai, the acidic water has halved the reproduction of his cattle gradually over the last 10 years. From one birth a year, it has gone down to one birth per one-and-a-half to two years. The production of milk

the tanneries and the remaining 20 per cent is converted to salt. This reusable water with its chemical colouring removed has a TDS level of 1,000 as compared to the water with a TDS level of 7,000 which was let out before. The government has invested Rs.100 crore in the RO project. The CETP came up as a joint venture between the Leather Association and the Tamil Nadu government since it was not financially viable for individual companies to establish individual plants. Treatment of 1,000 kilolitres of water costs Rs.1.15 lakh. This is a fixed amount that is collected regardless of the level of production in a month. According to Soundarajan, a supervisor at CETP, it is now common for industries to send excess water since they have to pay up in any case. The damage wrought to Vellore district has been accrued over 25 years. It cannot be easily reversed. But the closure of 47 plants on November 26, 2013 shows that the government may have finally woken up to the dangers of tannery pollution. The efforts of people like Mr Nayagam and government interventions such as RO will eventually pay off.

Parents usually dream of seeing their children follow in their footsteps, take over the family business or pursue the same profession and lead a comfortable life. Beedi making households in Vellore, however, sing a different tune. G. Kumaran started rolling beedis as an 8-year-old. Twenty seven years down the line today, he is still doing the same thing. Family hardships struck young when both his parents died a few years after he was born. I dont even remember my father, said Kumaran. Brought up by his grandmother, he was left to fend for himself when she passed away when he turned four. This is all that I know to do. I did construction work for a while but it became too strenuous for me, he said, when asked why he resolutely stuck to a profession that pays less. A typical beedi worker rolls 1,000 beedis in a day. For this, he gets Rs 115. This, however, is way below the minimum wage set by the Department of Labour (DoL) under the Minimum Wages Act of 1948. The Act allows central and state governments to revise the minimum rates of wages payable to workers in the unorganized sector. The minimum wage set for making beedi was set at Rs 191.34 while the separate task of rolling 1,000 beedis earns a person Rs 82.65. Kumaran is the sole earning member in his family as his wife helps in the beedi making process. It is not an individual job as within a household, members of the family share the tasks of cutting the leaves into pieces, rolling them up with tobacco inside and then folding up the edges. Kumaran does all this with the help of his wife and nephew. The beedi industry functions on

SAMEERA AHMED

I wouldnt let my children work and help me even if they wanted to. The wages are too low here. When asked what he wanted his children to become when they grew up, he wasnt optimistic. I will try to make them complete school. After that I will have to shift jobs to construction to afford their college fees, he said.

a three-tier level where middlemen procure raw materials like the beedi leaves and tobacco from the local storehouse, they then distribute the raw material to the beedi workers who make the beedis in their houses after which they are returned to the middlemen. The finished product is branded and sold to states like Assam and Delhi for a higher price. Kumaran lives in a house with his wife and three children along with three other families. Most of his income is spent on household expenditure. I earn about Rs 2,400 a month. It is hardly enough to feed a family of five. The children do not eat much, he said. No matter how tight the finances, he is firm about one thing-providing sound education to his children. His two young daughters go to the nearby government school while his son is waiting to be old enough to attend school. His daughter avails a quota under the central governments Beedi Workers Welfare Fund Act of 1976 which provides special schemes for the education of girl children of beedi workers. Under the Central governments Beedi Workers Welfare Fund Act of 1976, special schemes are provided for the education of girl children of beedi workers. My father did this job. Now I am doing it. I will not let my children do the same thing, he said as he spoke about his childrens future.

Sounds death knell for pottery

PHOTO: SURAKSHA P

SAND MINING BAN

The government ban on sand mining has resulted in the decline of the once flourishing art of pottery. There is a sense of impending doom hanging over the potters of Vellore district. Pottery in the district has become a dying craft due to the restrictions on sand mining.

ROKTIM RAJPAL

The restrictions have made the transportation of raw materials costly and have reduced net profit earned by potters. Earlier, one tractor load used to cost Rs 500 but now costs have doubled. Even though I earn more than what I

According to current government stipulations, it is illegal to extract clay or sand from the river bed. This has adversely affected both the quality and quantity of production of pottery. Pottery can only be done using riverbed clay. Clay from other sources like lakes is useless as it contains salt. Due to the current restrictions, we find it difficult to get such clay, hence production has gone down. said, veteran potter, Munnuswami.

Nowadays, it is possible to earn about Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 a month by working, for just a few hours, in call centres. Such jobs offer tremendous growth opportunities. I see no reason to enter the profession of pottery and get on to the wrong side of the law, said Prem Kumar, the son of a potter. Prem also added that potters are often jailed and beaten by the police for using riverbed clay. As pottery is a craft that is passed from father to son, the younger generations disinterest has played a role in driving the profession to the verge of extinction.

earned three years ago, half of it is spent in transportation. The result is that I save only about Rs 3,000 a month. adds Munnuswami. Strict law enforcement by the police force as well as the availability of better career alternatives has resulted in weaning away the younger generation from the profession.

The decline of pottery has destroyed the social lives of potters by making barter exchanges difficult. Earlier people would give food grains and gifts in exchange for our pottery work. This, not only helped in our sustenance, but resulted in the formation of great friendships. However, now as production is expensive and sales are low, barter is not possible. The result is that we have become more or less isolated, said, the potters wife Vijaya.Requests to the government for the removal of the restrictions have been ignored. Our association filed a case against these restrictions with the collector. However, no action was taken, says Munnuswamy. The district collector was unavailable for comment.

Lamenting this, Munnuswami said: At present, there are just five potters in my village. Earlier, everyone was into pottery. It is difficult to keep the art and craft alive if no one is ready to learn.

Inbakumari, 13, belongs to one of the many narikurava tribes settled in Vellore district. She spends 12 to 13 hours per day making beaded chains and other jewellery. Having stopped going to school at the age of 10, Inbakumari has spent majority of her life helping her mother with the family business. Every morning, she and her mother make their way to the local attraction the Golden Temple and sell beaded jewellery along with other fancy items. The cost of each piece of jewellery is different depending on the amount of time I spent on making it and how difficult it is, she says. Her friend walks up to her and says something to her in a mixture of what sounds like Tamil, Hindi and some other unfamiliar languages. Inbakumari says it is the language they speak in the community. Girls in this community are made to quit school once they come off age, so I did too, she says. Inbakumari, like most of the other girls in her community, has resigned herself to her fate. Girls arent made to study because they think we will become too big for this community and leave, she says.Around her, little children run after brightly coloured chicks. Those chicks are hatched

AAKANKSHA S

No escape from child labour for Narikuravas

and heels, cracked. According to a study published in December 2013, Vellores Christian Medical College surveyed 310 brick kiln workers in the district and found a variety of musculoskeletal disorders and discomfort among brick-kiln workers, owing to heavy physical work, awkward working postures and manual handling of materials,leading to significant morbidity. Vellore has a large number of families employed in brick-making units. But the back-breaking conditions in which brick kiln workers labour surely call for a medical cover and other insurance benefits.

by using electricity on their eggs, she says as one chick runs past her legs, its owner following in its wake. People come here to sell it to us, each costs about five rupees, she adds. The chicks seem to symbolise the colourful nature of the narikurava clan, who are known for their spirited style of living.Some of the community openly admit that they own guns, licensed more often than not; to protect themselves and for hunting. Sometimes, they keep the kill for themselves and other times when they have a lot, they sell some part of it, Inbakumari says. Technically, Inbakumari is a child labourer, but she seems oblivious to the fact. To her, she is just another one of the many children who help their parents make beaded chains for a living something that is norm in her community. There are families in her community, she says, where only the children in the family work because the parents are alcoholics. It doesnt matter to her that shes just 13 and already working, which is more than what can be said of most non-narikurava children, it doesnt matter to her that she spends her weekends working double time.All that matters is making the bead chains so she can sell them with her mother and earn their next meal.