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Ship breaking industry remains largely ignored

REAZ AHMAD
Ship breaking industry fetches an annual revenue of Tk 900 crore for the government and directly employs around 40,000 people but lack of proper policy and unsafe working conditions are greatly affecting the sector.
The industry is the third largest in the world in terms of breaking old ships into scraps, coming next to India and China.
Located on the 10km-long seashore along Sitakunda in Chittagong, the industry comes out on top in breaking the world's largest ships. Shipyards at Alang in India's Gujarat and Shanghai in China mostly break small and medium ships.
The sector feeds raw materials for re-rolling mills in the country, contributes 80 percent of construction iron, and employs about 1.5 lakh people through its backward and forward linkages.
But the ship breaking industry
remains largely informal with almost no application of rules and regulations in regards to labour laws, safety measures and overall working atmosphere.
On February 19, hundreds of unskilled labourers were seen busy working, mostly in hazardous working atmosphere, exposing themselves to all sorts of poisonous gases. Almost no-one of them was wearing any kind of masks, eyeprotections, hand gloves or protective boots.
The lone ship breaking industry has also earned the notoriety of providing very little or no care at all for its workforce, most of whom are tender-aged and unmarried hard-up youths from the poverty-stricken northwestern and central-north regions.
Young Power in Social Action (YPSA), a Chittagong-based NGO, has recorded that at least 400 workers were killed and 5,000 others were injured in the industry in
last five years.
The NGO, which is working for the betterment of the sector's poor human rights condition for almost a decade, has held responsible poisonous gas emissions and hazardous working conditions for the accidents.
YPSA Programme Manager Abdullah Al Mamun told reporters, "We certainly don't seek the closure of the industry. We want a congenial and safe workplace for the poor workers, whose parents would be paid in advance by the industry people to get their uninterrupted services in the following months."
A man introduced himself as foreman Khokon at a staff quarters near one of the 32 shipyards in Sitakunda. He admitted that they recruit workers, mostly from greater Rangpur, Jamalpur and other adjoining regions, on behalf of the yard owners, by paying the parents of the workers Tk 400-500 in advance.
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He said accidents occur frequently in the industry as most of the activities are manually performed and scraps weighing hundreds of tonnes are handled by unskilled workers.
He however claimed owners sometimes pay up to Tk 10,000 in compensation in cases of major accidents.
A 20-year-old young worker, Md Sharif, had all set to enter on a new career in Saudi Arabia in three months last year. But destiny had something else to play on the poor youth when a 5,000-ton iron accidentally fell over him.
On that fateful day in September, Sharif lost a leg and is still undergoing treatment. Against Tk 82,000 his parents, colleagues and wellwishers have so far spent for his treatment at Chittagong Medical College and Hospital, Sharif got only Tk 22,000 as compensation.
When workers and social and human rights bodies hold the industry people responsible for the inhuman practice, Bangladesh Ship Breakers Association (BSBA) has its own version to tell.
BSBA Executive Secretary Kabir Ahmed Khan said the government has not yet recognised their trade as an industry despite 15 years of strong lobbying and as a result there is no obligation for the owners to abide by the labour laws.
He admitted that residents of Chittagong do not work in the indus-
try due to poor and unhygienic working and living conditions. Rather, unemployed youths from monga-stricken north take the risk of working here, he added.
The BSBA official however has given credit to the YPSA's awareness building campaign in the sector, saying the industry people are now trying to do something for workers' welfare with support from the UN Development Programme.
With financial support rendered by Manusher Jonno, a rights and governance initiative, YPSA is working for improving the ship breaking sector under its programme titled Advocacy for a Public Policy to Ensure Human Rights in Ship Breaking Industry.
YPSA officials said they have succeeded in pursuing individually several owners of ship breaking yards to improve the overall working condition over the last one year. However, they are yet to meet the industry people collectively under the BSBA banner.
Besides, the YPSA also wants to carry on its advocacy for a public policy in the industry by convincing the policy planners in Dhaka.
It puts emphasis on the fact that a better working condition, stringent labour law enforcement and recognition of the sector as an industry will earn dividend for the economy at large.