Delhi smog chokes Sivakasi
SC BAN IN CAPITAL Month after Diwali, cracker manufacturing hub in Tamil Nadu yet to resume work SIVAKASI (TAMIL NADU):
“Has smog in Delhi disappeared after the ban on crackers?” asked 72-yearold S Vellammal as she sat down for a frugal lunch along with some 40 other women, young and old, on the premises of Thavamunneswara temple in Naranapuram village, some 4km from the Sivakasi town, India’s fireworks manufacturing hub.
For decades now, Vellammal, who has lived in Naranapuram all her life, has been rolling out pistols for sale during Diwali but her livelihood is now in danger with the Supreme Court hearing a plea to ban the sale of firecrackers across India, after first introducing it in Delhi this Diwali.
“Our earnings are just about enough to meet our hunger needs,” Karupaayi, 60, said. Jyothi, a worker, says there has been “no increase in our bonus in the past 20 years”. “While the cost of living has gone up, our earnings remain static.”
P Lakshmi, 41, echoes sentiments of Vellammal’s, and of many more in Sivakasi — “Diwali has come and gone but people in Delhi are still wearing masks”. All seem to ask the same question: can crackers alone be blamed for Delhi’s air pollution?
“If the claim that crackers are responsible for smog in Delhi is true, then people in and around Sivakasi should be the worst affected. The manufacturing units burst around ₹1 lakh worth of crackers every day to test them,” G Abiruben, managing director, Ayyan Fireworks, said. But, “the air is good here.”
Workers rue that the uproar over air pollution in northern India was jeopardising the livelihood of over five lakh people directly or indirectly associated with the business of crackers in this town about 600km from Chennai in the southern region.
“The industry enables us to work from home,” said one Lakshmi. “If firehouses (cracker units) die, we all will die, as we have nowhere else to go to earn.”
WORK IS SLOWING DOWN
In Paraipatti village, almost every household is engaged in the business of fire crackers.
The family of T Selvakumar, 48, who lives with his wife and two sons — both diploma holders in engineering – takes up contractual work of rolling thin paper tubes in which chemicals are later filled. “Since last year, orders are slowing down,” Selvakumar said. A few houses away, a family of six spends the better part of the day rolling paper tubes sitting on the floor — “it is a back breaking job”.
FEAR OVER FUTURE
Everyone in Sivakasi is shaky as the Supreme Court will next hear the plea on November 24. The ban on sale, introduced 10 days before Diwali this year and only in Delhi, cost the industry about ₹1,500 crore. The plea in the top court wants a permanent ban, and across the country.
“If the industry goes down, the entire town will go down as it is the driver of the economy of this region,” said a hotelier, whose business was impacted this year as traders from north India did not come to place orders.
Even a month after Diwali, the work is yet to resume in full swing, locals say, blaming uncertainty over the future and hiccups because of the introduction of Goods and Services Tax.
The threat to Sivakasi has united the workers, trade union activists and owners of the fireworks factories (represented by Tamil Nadu Fireworks and Amorces Manufacturers Association) for a concerted action to save Sivakasi from “unknown forces” targeting the fireworks hub for the past several decades.
Manufacturing unit owners say they were earlier targeted for child labour, then for noise pollution and now it is air pollution.
K Mariappan, TNFAMA secretary, said the expert bodies – IIT Kanpur and National Green Tribunal – listed out several reasons for smog but firecracker smoke was not one of them.
“We have gone to the IIT Madras with a request to study the industry and advise us as to how to reduce smoke emissions,” said Abiruben, who is also the association vice president. “It is a hazardous industry, but one that functions under the strictest of regulations,” he said.