The report shows that India is
still in the age of Industrial revolution of Europe of 19th/early
20th century. Voicing such scenes to the public is good for democracy. What
is lacking in the corrupt Indian system is probably the implementation of the
existing Industrial Engeering Rules. The report does not mystreiously address
any of these.
Along with these any ongoing voice
from the society against Child Labor in India or secret Human Sacrifice in the
name of religion (not to mention the ongoing animal sacrifice in the name of Ma
Durga or Ma Kali) is also good for a stable democracy.
What I however failed to understand
or rather confused with the writer's concluding remark. Is it not supposed
to be a protest to the ongoing scene. Or what Ttehelka is trying to say?. What
is their point?.
> It remains to
> be seen whether Aram, presently residing in America, will choose to
> learn something from these unusual workers about respect, decency and
> dignity, and rehabilitate these workers back into the hellish world
> of metal polishing.
RB
> be seen whether Aram, presently residing in America, will choose to
> learn something from these unusual workers about respect, decency and
> dignity, and rehabilitate these workers back into the hellish world
> of metal polishing.
RB
----- Original Message -----
From: "Chan Mahanta" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, December 22, 2005 8:49
AM
Subject: [Assam] From Tehelka
>
> Dark, ghost-like figures in tatters, moving back and forth into the
> metal polishing machines. Exiled, stunningly condemned in the era of
> globalisation, with no human rights. Shankar Ramaswami captures the
> hellish life of workers in an American-owned metal factory in Delhi
> Click on the picture below to see a photo-essay on the subject
> Modern Times: American designer Michael Aram's metal factory in
> Delhi's Okhla Industrial Area
>
> When i first came to the metal artware polishing factory of Michael
> Aram Exports Pvt Ltd, B-156, DDA Sheds, Okhla Industrial Area Phase
> I, New Delhi, in the winter of 2001, the things I witnessed were
> disturbing. Dark, ghost-like figures in tatters, with dhoti scraps
> covering the head and face, undulating back and forth into the
> polishing machines, pushing and pressing finely designed steel pieces
> onto the buffs, pausing only momentarily to gaze down at microscopic
> imperfections under the gloomy and dim fluorescent light, wiping the
> cascading sweat intruding into the eyes, tightening the grip of their
> ripped gloves, and hurling themselves again into the machines. It was
> a strange, rhythmic, pulsating danse macabre of brute force and
> subtle grace.
>
> The deafening subterranean whirring of a poorly constructed
> pollution exhaust fan and ducting system did little to clear the
> thick, malodorous, grayish-black haze of metal dust, debris, and buff
> fibres looming on the shopfloor, yet forced workers to absurdly shout
> at each other even at half metre distances that separated them at the
> machines. It's stark, the barren and desolate expressions of the
> young, childlike helpers who monotonously apply abrasive emery powder
> to leather polish buffs by hand, using crude and noxious adhesives
> made of beef and pork fat, in preparation for the polishing process.
> The constantly watchful and prodding presence of the foreman, pacing
> and patrolling behind the polishers, ceaselessly demanding more
> pieces, more speed, more shine. These artware pieces are, after all,
> destined for the highest-end department stores, galleries, hotels,
> and museums of America.
>
> At the end of 12 hours of this hell, these blackened, grimy and
> emaciated bodies, marred with scars and injuries to the limbs from
> polishing work and worn down by austere diets, digestive disorders
> and respiratory illnesses, cram into a 3' by 3' by 6' single person
> latrine to scrub away the sedimented remains of the day, using
> carefully conserved fragments of an abrasive, cheap 555 detergent
> soap, given once a week in the factory.
>
> It was the horror of it all, along with the very palpable,
> unrelenting resistance to this horror - in humour, in individual
> defiance, in micro-collective struggle - that kept me coming back to
> this place. Over the course of four years, as I came to know these 50
> migrant workers from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Jharkhand, along with
> their families, residing in cramped, tension-ridden, 100 square feet
> rooms in urban villages and jhuggi colonies of outer Delhi, I was
> deeply educated by their knowledge, wisdom and insight into the fine,
> complex contours and topographies, not merely of steel pieces but of
> the social, political, and ethical structures of the factory, the
> neighborhood, the family, the village, and the modern society as a
> whole. These workers, I discovered, are poets, philosophers, and
> sages, however riven with ordinary weaknesses, distortions, and
> unrealised potentialities.
>
> Today these worker-philosophers are out on the streets of Delhi,
> conducting silent, non-violent placard protests against the
> activities of the Michael Aram Exports management which has denied
> them work since March 2005 (due to an inter-partner dispute), stopped
> their wages since September 2005, and at present, is seeking to
> coldly and illegally terminate them. Meanwhile, Michael Aram, a
> super-rich American designer, is conducting the very same metal
> export work in a neighbouring new factory at C-109, Okhla Industrial
> Area Phase I, under a different company name, Michael Aram Designs.
> These workers, now 18 in number (along with the widow of a worker
> killed in the course of filing a request for payment of wages in the
> Labour Court), are asking to be absorbed into the new unit, so that
> they may continue their livelihoods in a legal, secure, and dignified
> manner, rather than be re-cast yet again into the vast and widening
> ocean of hyper-exploitative casual and contract work. It remains to
> be seen whether Aram, presently residing in America, will choose to
> learn something from these unusual workers about respect, decency and
> dignity, and rehabilitate these workers back into the hellish world
> of metal polishing.
>
>
> The writer is doing PhD on 'Lives and Longings of Metal Workers in Delhi',
> Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago
>
> Dec 31 , 2005
>
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