Firozabad: At 6am on a March morning, two brothers Sunil and Anil were busy joining the two ends of glass bangles. Sunil’s wife Anjali also sat inside the 10 ft by 10 ft room at their Ambe Nagar house in Firozabad, discussing plans for the Mahashivratri mela. Soon, a blast would engulf the entire room, leaving the three with serious burns. Anjali would die after a month-long battle at an Agra hospital. A gullak – earthen piggy bank – filled with Mineral Turpentine Oil, or MTO, which is used as fuel to join the bangles, couldn’t bear the pressure of the oil, leading to the blast.
Deaths and fires have become more frequent in Firozabad’s bangle making industry in the past five years. It all began with a desperate shift from the domestic kerosene to a highly inflammable MTO five years ago, without any government oversight, training, study or scrutiny of its safety aspects.
Firozabad’s bangle industry is unorganised – often in headlines for child labour and hazard. It has been largely unregulated and ungoverned by business organisations. Household manufacturing units are left to figure out the operations by themselves. Seven to eight hours of bangle joining work barely gets them Rs 100-150. They work in small, dingy rooms without any protective gear. An ill-thought, knee-jerk decision led them to shift to a dangerous chemical that has left at least 16 dead and over 300 injured in the past five years. The glass industry is a major source of income for over 50 per cent of Firozabad’s population. It accounts for 70 per cent of India’s total unorganised glass production, with nearly 35 per cent of its products exported.
It took a while for the authorities to wake up to the unfolding safety catastrophe fuelled by MTO, but now local officials, the fire department and a loose workers’ body acting as a pressure group are scrambling to conduct safety awareness health camps. The administration is also planning for the Employee State Insurance (ESI) registrations for the bangle workers. And the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) is also in touch with the district administration regarding the workers’ grievances.
“Labour unions have been informed and have been asked to bring workers to the camps. The workers will be told how to use the MTO so that fire incidents can be reduced,” said Yashwant Kumar, Assistant Labor Commissioner of Firozabad.
This 200-year-old small industrial town in western UP houses workers who slog in long shifts. Bangle joining workers form the backbone of the Rs 1,000 crore bangle industry and are the key final manufacturing link. It’s all happening from the not-so-safe space of their homes. The abrupt and sudden switch to MTO in the middle of unavailability of kerosene at PDS centres has reinforced the vulnerability of the bangle workers.
“Patients with MTO burns come to us in a very critical condition. This oil affects the skin badly and recovery is quite slow. Such cases have increased recently. MTO is a chemically mixed compound so it reacts on the body very badly and injury is very intense,” said a senior doctor in the burns department at the district hospital who did not wish to be named.
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The bane of an unorganised sector
Of Firozabad’s 120 bangle-making units, only 50 are currently functional. The glass industry is a major source of income and employment. According to the District Industries Centre (DIC), there are around 5,000 household units involved in the bangle joining work.
Firozabad’s glass industry is estimated to have an annual turnover of Rs 10,000 crore, with a total capacity of 5,000-6,000 tonnes per day. Of this, bangle-making is estimated to be a Rs 1,000 crore industry, with a production capacity of 1,500 tonnes per day.
Till 1996, coal was the primary fuel running the bangle units. But a Supreme Court order that year not only prohibited any increase in manufacturing units, but also asked the industry to shift to natural gas. Firozabad comes under the Taj Trapezium Zone (TTZ) — a defined area of 10,400 sq km around the Taj Mahal to protect the monument from pollution.
The industry transitioned to natural gas but the workers engaged in bangle joining work continued to rely on kerosene before it shifted to MTO.
But MTO is a killer fuel. “Three months have passed but that incident still haunts us. We are completely broken. Nothing left for us now,” said Rajkumari Devi, Sunil and Anil’s mother, recalling the horror of that March morning.
The workers are not covered by any government benefits. And these accidents are burdening the victim families with the debt taken for treatment. Devi’s family now have a debt of around Rs 8 lakh. In April, they were forced to mortgage their house too.
Thankfully the fire did not enter my eyes so I am able to see but my body is burnt. I never thought of such an incident even in my dreams
— Anil Kumar, Firozabad bangle worker
Devi is holding photographs of her dead daughter-in-law. “Such an incident had never happened to us. We were in the business of bangle joining for three generations,” she said, wiping tears from her eyes.
The family has now given up this work and started selling mangoes this summer. Anil, who nearly lost his left eye in the blast, recently returned from the Agra hospital. There are burn marks on his eyes and eyebrows. He wears dark glasses now.
“Thankfully the fire did not enter my eyes so I am able to see but my body is burnt. I never thought of such an incident even in my dreams,” said Kumar, sitting near the mango cart parked in his house.
The factory owners in the city are aware that the workers have been demanding kerosene but expect their inability.
“We are incomplete without bangle joining workers as our relation with them goes back generations. Incidents of injury and death due to MTO have increased, we have also noticed. We can’t do anything about the kerosene availability. But we always stood with our workers and helped them in their difficult times,” said Mohammad Saif, manager at Nadar Bux & Co Glassworks — one of Firozabad’s oldest bangle factories.
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Awareness camps
The Firozabad district administration is now waking up to these frequent accidents that have taken innocent lives. In June, the DM ordered to set up camps in the bangle making mohallas and informed workers about MTO handling and best practices.
For this, the administration has decided to divide the city into six sectors. Each sector will see three camps. Workers’ unions have been given the task of mobilising the industry workers.
The Labour Department will be the nodal body for these camps.
“Labour unions have been informed about this and they have been asked to bring workers to the camps. This work will start soon. Workers will be told how to use MTO so that incidents like fire can be reduced,” said Yashwant Kumar, Assistant Labour Commissioner, Firozabad.
It is advisable that MTO, which is mainly used in the paint and solvent industry, be applied in an open area.
“The administration has adopted a sensitive approach on this issue and we are taking appropriate action. If workers start getting kerosene, such accidents will stop,” added Kumar.
The BMS is also planning to spread awareness about the dangers of MTO through e-rickshaw campaigns that will run in different mohallas of Firozabad.
“We will go to different localities and make people aware. The livelihood of lakhs of people depends on this work. Because the work cannot be stopped, we will tell people the right way to use oil,” said Ramakant Yadav, Zila Mantri, BMS.
35-year-old Pankaj Yadav, who is in bangle joining work for the last 15 years says there is no support from administration and from the factory owners.
“We just received orders from the factories and sent back the final product. They never give us any protective gear for work,” he said, adding that the worker union is the only hope for the workers.
We will go to different localities and make people aware. The livelihood of lakhs of people depends on this work. Because the work cannot be stopped, we will tell people the right way to use oil —
Ramakant Yadav, Zila Mantri, Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh
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The safety hazard
Kunwar Sen, who has been engaged in bangle making for three decades, said they “never used any gloves or masks” when joining the bangles.
“No one provided these to us. But MTO is highly flammable and explodes after coming in contact with even a small spark,” he said.
Ramdas Manav, general secretary of the Glass and Bangles Workers’ Association, said that these workers are not given any safety manual on how to use the oil, nor are they briefed about it.
Four to five Bangle workers usually work simultaneously in a very small and dark room. They don’t use any masks, gloves or other preventive gear while working and the distance between their face and the flame is less than a metre.
“This is the only work that everyone knows here. We have to do it even by putting one’s life at risk because in the end we have to run the household,” said Kunwar Sen, who lives next to Rajkumari Devi. He is holding coloured bangles and slowly joins them with the flame.
The MTO in Firozabad is currently being supplied by Agra-based Satish Chandra and Company. The district administration has also sought a response from this company on the incidents.
When ThePrint contacted the supplier for a response on the fire incidents, the company rejected all allegations. “These incidents are sad but we have no involvement in them. We are providing good quality MTO from our side,” said a top official of the company. However, the official admitted the company doesn’t provide any safety equipment for using the oil.
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The unions
The workers’ union in Firozabad finds itself helpless when it comes to providing any level of relief to the aggrieved families. They have reached out to the administration. But besides that, the only help they can offer is sympathy.
Whenever a worker gets injured due to an MTO blast, union members knock on their doors and visit them at hospitals, like a family member.
Ramdas Manav is a key figure whose efforts have highlighted the issue. In June, he and other union members visited a family that lost three of its members in an MTO fire.
42-year-old Ramanand who lives in Bihari Nagar Mohalla is often haunted by the image of his son engulfed in fire climbing down the stairs. In the horrific fire, he lost his mother and wife too.
“These workers came from poor backgrounds. They earn very less. Some have lost their whole family,” said Manav.
Manav breaks down as Ramanand narrates the story. But as the workers’ union leader, it’s his job to console the former. So, he must stay strong.
“Now you are the only support for these two children. Have some courage. We all are with you,” Manav tells Ramanand.
In a single day, Manav visited four victim families, including one in the district hospital.
“Incidents of people getting injured and dying have become frequent in the last four to five years. This was not the case before. They were getting blue kerosene. But now, it is not available. We have asked the administration to provide kerosene oil to the workers,” said Manav, adding that if the demands are not met, the union will protest in front of the DM office.
Manav and his team have met Firozabad DM with demands that include banning MTO and going back to kerosene, compensation for those injured and killed, and higher wages for workers in the bangle industry.
Manav said that Firozabad needs 96,000 litres of kerosene every month. Every day, eight lakh todas (units) are produced and each toda contains 316 bangles.
“The DM has said he doesn’t want a single life lost under his administration. He has asked the Food and Logistics Supply Department to provide kerosene oil. Till the oil is made available, he has promised to focus on spreading awareness about the use of MTO,” said Manav, who was present during the meeting.
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‘Can’t leave this work’
At the Firozabad district hospital, patients with burn injuries due to MTO blasts are a common sight. Thirteen-year-old Shivani nearly lost her right ear when the MTO-laden earthen gullak blasted while she was helping her mother at home.
“As the night progresses, the pain increases,” said Shivani moaning, lying on a bed in the hospital’s burn ward.
Tara Devi, 34, who lives in a one-room rented house with three other family members in Mathura Nagar got burnt while making bangles on the evening of 21 May. She was admitted to the district hospital for about a month.
“I rolled my way out after the fire engulfed the room. I would not have survived,” said Tara whose face and legs carry fresh burn scars.
Meanwhile, in houses adjacent to Tara’s, business as usual continues. Several men are busy joining the glass bangles.
“No one here knows any other work. Everyone knows about my accident, but it is difficult to leave this work. When I recover, I will have to return, even when I don’t want to.”
(Edited by Anurag Chaubey)