Workers' concerns

ASHA KRISHNAKUMAR

THE Madras High Court's directive to the polluting dyeing and bleaching units of Karur and Tirupur to wind up their operations, has given the environment movement a shot in the arm. However, it has put the livelihood of lakhs of families in peril.

Karur's handloom units and Tirupur's hosiery units are highly labour-intensive. These industries and their allied units employ, directly or indirectly, more than six lakh workers - four lakhs in Tirupur and two in Karur. Tirupur Banian Cloth Manufacturers Association president S. Rathnaswamy says: "The workers are the backbone of the industries in the two towns."

As the handloom, powerloom and hosiery units struck roots in the two towns, units involved in tasks such as dyeing and bleaching, stitching, knitting, knotting, packaging, transporting and trading came up in large numbers. One reason for the this is the very nature of the industry. No unit, however big, has under one roof the facilities to carry out all the processes required for the conversion of yarn into the final product. For instance, an entrepreneur could buy yarn and have it dyed or bleached at one place; knitted or woven at another; calendered (steam-ironed) at a third place; printed at a fourth; and then cut, stitched and 'finished' elsewhere. The disruption of any one of these activities will affect the whole chain. In Karur there are over 1,000 handloom or powerloom units and 1,000 allied units; Tirupur has over 1,500 knitting units and as many allied units.

Under this system, which allowed progressively greater division of labour, work was available in plenty and a skilled worker could earn Rs.600 to 1,200 a week in Tirupur and Rs.200 to 800 in Karur. People came to Tirupur and Karur every day for work from places within a radius of about 40 km; at peak season the towns attracted farm workers and also farmers from the arid southern districts of Tamil Nadu.

S. THANTHONI
Lakhs of workers, men and women, are employed in the dyeing and bleaching units. Picture shows colour mixing.

With the closure of a large number of dyeing and bleaching units (many more face closure) many of the workers have no fall-back option.

Karur district secretary of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), M. Kumar, said that most of the workers might migrate to adjoining areas in search of jobs. Many of them have begun to work as casual labourers.

The dyeing units faced closure towards the end of last year. But the closure was only for a short period and they remained in business with the help of stocks held. However, according to Kumar, this time around the situation is bad, for nobody knows how long the units will remain closed. According to Karur Exporters Association secretary M. Sivakannan, the impact of the court order will be felt after a month, when the yarn stocks are exhausted.

S.M. Murugesan, who worked for Balamurugan Dyeing (one of the units that was issued the closure order in April but was operating on May 9) for the last six years, went to nearby Chennimalai to work in a spinning mill when the dyeing units in Karur were closed last year. However, now he is not sure of getting a job even in the adjoining districts as, according to him, all units using hank yarn will be affected; 80 per cent of the hank yarn used anywhere in the State is sourced from Karur. Murugesan, like his co-workers Shanti, Periaswamy and Shanmugam, has come to terms with the reality, and has begun to work as a casual labourer.

S. Ramesh has been working in a dyeing unit in Karur for the last 12 years. He said: "Never was I worried about work as I am today. I do not know how I will support my family (of six) after a month if the dyeing units do not resume."

According to Kumar, the Pollution Control Board (PCB), the Government and the dyeing units allowed the problem to fester for too long. Kumar said that the number of jobs created as a proportion to the quantum of investment is higher in the case of smaller units. "So there is an urgent need to find a solution to the pollution problem," he said.

No one concerned - the owners of the units, the Pollution Control Board, environmentalists, workers or the Government - seems to want the dyeing and bleaching units to shut down. At the same time, everyone agrees that the units should not continue to pollute the environment. The only solution, therefore, lies in the Government, the dyers and the PCB making an all-out effort to set up effluent treatment plants at the earliest.

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