By IANS
New York : Close on the heels of US clothing chain Gap cancelling some garment orders to India over reports of child labour abuse, now Indian foundries stand to lose contracts from the US over poor safety conditions.
In a front-paged story Monday, The New York Times has highlighted horrible working conditions at a West Bengal foundry in Howrah (also called Haora) that makes manhole covers for American concerns.
The story is supported by tell-tale pictures depicting scenes “like something from the Middle Ages” of bare bodied and barefoot labourers relying on physical strength and bare hands rather than machinery, toiling with molten metal at temperatures as high as 1,400 degrees Centigrade.
The factory, Shakti Industries, produces manhole covers for Con Edison, a US energy provider, and New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection, as well as for departments in New Orleans and Syracuse.
“We were disturbed by the photos,” Michael S. Clendenin, Con Edison’s director of media relations, told the Times. “We take worker safety very seriously.” He added that they were revising contracts with safety in mind.
When asked by the paper, Sunil Modi, director of Shakti Industries, responded, “We can’t maintain the luxury of Europe and the US, with all the boots and all that.”
But he claimed the factory followed basic safety regulations and never had accidents. He was at the same time concerned about the attention, afraid that contracts would be pulled and jobs lost.
A.K. Anand, director of the Institute of Indian Foundrymen in New Delhi, a trade association, said foundry workers were “not supposed to be working barefoot”, but he could not answer questions about what safety equipment they should be wearing, the Times reported.
Low costs pulls in the orders for Indian foundries. New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection, which gets most of its sewer manhole covers from India, follows the policy to source – through private agencies – the lowest-priced products available that fit its specifications. Manhole covers manufactured in India can be 20 to 60 percent cheaper than those made in the US because of difference in labour costs.