Description
Ship-breaking is one of India’s economic success stories, but the working conditions in the yards resemble the dark satanic conditions of the European mills in the 1800’s. Rusting ships from all over the world are cut up and re-cycled here in the world’s biggest ship-breaking yard. A six-mile stretch of shoreline in Gujarat is largely obscured by dozens of rusting tankers dumped here. They have come from Germany, Russia, Britain and many other countries. The work is dangerous, backbreaking and by western standards cheap – a ten-hour shift pays as little as one dollar. The workers are regularly injured and inhale chemicals, but still go to work. We went to the yards with a local environmental crusader who was attempting to find out more about the working conditions and the environmental impact of the toxic waste being dumped in India from the ships.