Machines | Echoes of Ship Breaking
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The bothering heat and shouts of his Mukadam mingles with the echoes of machine and men usually 30 to 70 feet below him. He has to silence it all when he turns on his blow torch and focuses solely on weakening the structure of the very ship he stands on; right now he is working on the metal holdings around the mast. He stands away cautiously as the weakened mast is hooked on to a whinge and it's pulled down. The bulking mast hits the bottom of the hull, the boom reaches his ears and touches his skin, it reminds him a little bit of his village, of his childhood, when he would drop a metal bucket in well to collect water. With no time for nostalgia he gets back to cutting another part of the hull, he does this every day for 8-10 hours; his safety net is his experience. He is one of the 66,000 workers who work on the ship breaking yards at Alang in Gujarat and Darukhana in Mumbai. They migrate from UP, Orissa, Bihar and various other states across India in search of employment and better life. The job of these workers is to strip the raw materials from these ships and sell them to various integral industries i.e. construction, steel mills, to name a few. The ship breaking industry as always been surrounded with myths and controversies. With many reports in the media mostly giving it a broad tag of "hazardous to environment" which is far from the truth, what ship-breaking actually does is reuse valuable raw materials striped from a dead ship, which would end up being more hazardous if left in the sea. The primary pressing issue of ship breaking which gets skirted is its workers. The process of ship-breaking requires workers from the start to the end. Often to skirt costs; untrained contractual workers will be hired, safety equipment will be ignored and benefits will be skimmed. In this documentary 'Echoes of Ship-Breaking' we'll be entering through the backdoor of the ship-breaking industry to see: • How the industry processes labour and ships • How ships are brought in and labourers are hired, and how it starts • The industry's questionable history regarding worker laws • Why and how ship breaking reached India • How ship breaking affects the environment • Breaking down the process of ship-breaking in India • Its contribution to India and the future of ship breaking in India
Comments
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These companies could provide some basic level of safety training as well as a little bit of personal protective equipment (PPE): hardhats, safety shoes, gloves, masks, reflective vests, and safety glasses and they would without a doubt see a massive reduction in the number of injuries and bad press. It would maybe cost $30 per worker, probably less. They don't even have to let the workers keep the PPE, it's literally chump change that would save so much human life.
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The interview shots were waaaayyy too boring, I loved the bits where they explained all the jobs like the cleaners, the cutters, the loaders etc. Interesting business.
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Yeah Razzors edge. it's exploitation. When you are hungry or have a family and this is the only work, you'll take it because you have no choice. That's why it's done here.
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I saw these docs years ago and never forgot about these poor people,, God bless there poor enslaved souls.
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A corrupt business as usual in this country, the workers get fukall in the way of good conditions, safety gear or living conditions no wonder it is cheap labour..............clean it up you assholes
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@14:55 toxic love
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Wonder what happens to the communications equipment ?
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bull shit this ship breaking yard had ruined the ecological balance of the place atleast 10 peoples are dying anually mainly due to dump safety measures its graveyard for ship as well as for the workers
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have less kids and living standards might rise
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the foot wear gets me
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Madness
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they need to do this in dry docs
but sad to think of the future of workers health -
The dude at 25:26 looks like a fucking zombie. How is he alive looking like Dawn of the Dead
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I just watched the Vice documentary about the corruption, hazards, and all around hell of this industry, absolutely horrifying.
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Yesterday I went to McDonald's and they forgot to put pickles on my burger
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Seems to be better regulated in India than in Bangladesh
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time to unionize the ship breaking industry
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Corrupt piece of shit business. no safety and pollution from hell. Govt. needs to shut this shit down.
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No safety nothing
What an shit hole country.....