Planning for vulnerable industrial workers: a case of Vapi city

Abstract

Industrial cities in India have been the nodes for growth and development for the country but at the same time are cities with the poorest standard of living in the country. These industrial cities are labour-intensive cities and attract large number of workers both from nearby rural areas as well as migrated labourers from different states. The workers working in these industrial cities settle in and around industrial areas within the city. They live in very poor housing conditions and have poor access to services and safety. In these industrial cities, the industries generate a lot of industrial waste and are mostly released untreated into the nearby rivers or water bodies causing a lot of damage to the ecology, environment and human habitats living nearby. These industrial wastes are disposed of in the areas closer to the industries where most of the migrant labourers live around forming slums. Thus, these industries directly affect the workers and their families staying in those slums. The waste generated by the industries are in most cases hazardous and obnoxious thus deteriorating the health conditions of the workers and creating safety issues of outbreak of diseases in these slums with poor sanitation conditions. Apart from these effects these hazardous wastes affect the water bodies, rivers and groundwater in and around these industrial cities. Most of the industrial workers in India lack formal education and are mostly illiterate thus are unaware of their legal rights and entitlements. Workers migrate to cities to find better employment opportunities and source of income. As most of these workers are unskilled, they are not employed in formal industries and thus get absorbed by hazardous and labour-intensive industries. Most of the workers get employed with industries that are unregistered and which are hardly accountable to existing acts and laws. They seldom provide any safety and security to the workers or their families living in the slums closer to these industries. They stay in poor living conditions with no proper shelter and unhealthy and unhygienic conditions. Small unorganized Industries release considerable amount of pollution into the air in the form of smoke and gases. Most of these slums of industrial labourers are polluted by the industrial waste, chemicals and are majorly textile iv industries involving dyeing, painting etc polluting the groundwater as well as surface water. Apart from the living condition, working conditions in these industries are also very risky and involve high amount of safety concerns as well as poor job security. In these small and hazardous industries, the provision of safety norms and health care facilities are neglected by the owners. Vapi city is one of the hazardous industrial hubs in India which has a large number of labor intensive industries and attracts large number of migrant workers from all over the country. Because of the large industrial investments in Vapi more and more industries have come up in the last decade and at the same time infrastructure and services are growing less and less for the growing labour population and thus create a huge problem of space to live in. For the citizens of Vapi, the cost of growth has been severe, levels of mercury in the city's groundwater are reportedly 96 times higher than WHO safety levels, and heavy metals are present in the air it affected 71000 population the type of pollutants for this affects are chemicals and heavy metals. Most of the hazardous industries in Vapi don’t follow any industrial safety norms and rules and hardly provide any safety measures, and the workers who are working in the industries they don’t have any knowledge about with what they are dealing hence causing numerous hazardous incidents and accidents happen in these industries. In the case of Vapi city, GIDC is responsible for industrial growth and development but has failed to make enough provisions for industrial workers and their families. In the GIDC plan very small land has been allocated for the employees which serves only about 10 percent of workers and remaining 90 percent of workers live in slums. Vapi city has the slum population about 55000 and scattered in location, the major slum population lives in the 3 major locations, one is near railway station, silvassa road and another slum in the dungara, remaining slums are scattered in the city which consist of fewer population. Nearly 95 percentage of the population of these slums are working in the chemical and dyeing factories. This thesis study focuses on safety and living conditions of the labourers in Vapi city and to understand the livelihood and neighbourhood status of unorganized industrial workers. As most of the industrial workers lie under below poverty line v and with no form of financial or social security are homeless and are living in the slums with poor living condition causing various other social and economic issues for workers in the industries of Vapi city, the study aims to trace the reasons for these issues and provide implementable solutions and actions to enhance the living conditions of the labourers in these industrial cities. In the study, the Hazardous industries and slums of the industrial workers in Vapi city have been identified and with a detailed study of the socio-economic profile of the industrial workers in these identified slums, their vulnerabilities have been assessed with respect to various parameters under Safety, living condition and health conditions. Based on the assessment, reasons of these vulnerabilities will be found, and effective suggestions and recommendations will be made in the study.