‘This Diwali is like an exam’: SC ban tests industry in TN fireworks hub; workers fear job losses

Sixty-year-old M Rani was 18 when she first started working at a fireworks factory in Sivakasi town in central Tamil Nadu. Over the next 40 years, she made her living using her bare hands to fill cardboard cones and tubes with toxic chemicals. Her husband, Mariyadas, did the most hazardous work in the industry for years. He mixed the four or five chemicals, including explosives, that go into crackers, wearing only a flimsy cotton face mask for protection.

“For 15 years now, there have been small boils all over his body,” said Rani. Their expenses, including significant amounts on health, has driven them into debt running into thousands of rupees.

Rani’s wages have barely risen from what they were over 40 years ago. “Back then I used to earn 5 paise to fill one full bundle of crackers,” she said. “Now I earn 75 paise.”

Despite the pitiful wages, hazardous working conditions and the long-term risk to health, Rani is now worried about not being able to find work in Sivakasi, like several others like her.

On October 9, the Supreme Court reinstated a 2016 ban on the sale of firecrackers during Diwali in the Delhi-National Capital Region until November 1. The next day, Maharashtra’s environment minister also called for a state-wide ban on firecrackers.

Workers in this fireworks cluster are worried that the ban, and any others that may follow, will put their livelihoods at risk because the demand from North India drives the fireworks industry, and there is no other scope for employment in Sivakasi, whose name is synonymous with fireworks in India.

The industry is already hurting because of last year’s demonetisation, which sucked out 86% of the cash in circulation in India overnight. The introduction of the Goods and Services Tax regime, which saw firecrackers being put in the highest tax slab of 28%, from July 1, seems to have exacerbated the slowdown. GST subsumes all the indirect taxes that businesses earlier paid the Centre and states separately with the aim of creating a common market.

“If the firecrackers industry closes down, we will all have to leave Sivakasi,” said 23-year-old R Muthulakshmi, a worker in the town.

Workers face joblessness

Sivakasi is a dry, arid town in Sivakasi taluk of Virudhunagar district. Before it became India’s firecracker hub almost 100 years ago, rain-fed agriculture was practised in the region. Now, with around 900 firecracker factories spread across Sivakasi taluk as well as neighbouring taluks, the district produces about 90% of India’s firecrackers with an annual turnover of around Rs 2,000 crores. It also has a thriving printing industry, which is largely dependent on the fireworks industry. This industry produces the shiny wrappers that the crackers are encased in, as well as labels and boxes.

Around five lakh workers depend directly on the firecracker industry for work, said P Balasubramaniam, general secretary of the Virudhunagar District Cracker and Match Workers’ Union.

The Supreme Court had temporarily relaxed its November 2016 ban on the sale of fireworks in the Delhi-National Capital Region in September. At that time, the court said that it would be extreme to place a complete ban on firecrackers, but emphasised on the need for a phased reduction in the use of firecrackers. While reinstating the ban on Monday, it cited the need to assess the difference in air quality in the highly-polluted region. The order came as a huge blow to the industry.

“Delhi alone comprises around 20% of our sales,” said G Vinayakamoorthy of the Meenampatti Fireworks Manufacturers Association. “In fact, it is politicians and government officials who are our biggest bulk buyers.” He added that if states like Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra also imposed a similar ban, the industry would see a 50% drop in sales.

Declining demand

A Muthukrishnan, who owns a fireworks factory and a wholesale fireworks shop, said that he had cut down production by 30% this year. He said that demonetisation had led him to halt production for a few weeks last year because the lack of cash made it difficult for him to purchase raw materials and pay wages. “If last year, we produced [fireworks worth] Rs 5 crores, this year was only Rs 3.5 crores,” said Muthukrishnan.

In June, when it was announced that firecrackers would fall under the highest GST slab, the Sivakasi fireworks industry shut down for two weeks in protest.

Manufacturers are now waiting to see the impact of GST on actual sales. Though Muthukrishnan’s entire stock has been sold to wholesalers in other cities, he will not get orders for next Diwali unless they clear their stocks.

Vinayakamoorthy said that awareness campaigns in schools across India about the environmental pollution caused by firecrackers had already brought down demand over the past five years.

“This Diwali is like an exam for us,” said Muthukrishnan. “Depending on how much we sell this year, we will know if it is worth staying in business next year.”

Because of all these factors, those employed in the fireworks industry have seen fewer days of work and lesser cash in hand this year, said Balasubramaniam. Elderly workers are the most vulnerable to losing their jobs. For instance, contractors have already told Rani that they do not want to hire old people.

Twenty-one-year-old M Saravanan, who works as the chemical mixer at Saravanan fireworks, finished work two weeks earlier than usual this year. He earned Rs 500 a day. Earlier, Saravanan worked eight hours a day from January till October, right up to Diwali. But this year, he said he has barely been employed for three months in the year, and for just three hours a day.

But it is the women who are most dependent on the cracker industry, said Balasubramaniyam. Even if men choose to leave the industry and migrate for work, the women usually stay behind and earn enough for daily household expenses, he said.

‘Only job I know’

At noon on Tuesday, on the outskirts of Sivakasi, around two dozen women in a fireworks factory swiftly pasted colourful wrappers on conical firecrackers called anaars in front of them. Seated under a green tarpaulin sheet, next to a small pile of wrappers, crackers and a large bowl of glue into which she dipped her fingers, Muthulakshmi said that this was the only skill she knew.

“Apart from the firecrackers industry, we have no other source of employment in Sivakasi,” she said, as a few women around her nodded in agreement, not taking their eyes off their work.

Each worker earned Rs 6 for wrapping every 100 anaars. With just about a week to go for Diwali, this was the women’s last attempt to scrape in as much money as possible before they went out of work until mid-January, when the small and medium-sized cracker units in Sivakasi usually resume production for the next year. But the workers are unsure if they will find work next season.

High-risk industry

Over the years, Sivakasi has seen several explosions in firecracker factories in which several workers were killed and injured. Last year, eight workers, including six women, were killed in a fire at a cracker unit.

The long-term health hazards associated with this industry due to prolonged direct exposure to chemicals has led to skin disease, as in the case of Rani’s husband, respiratory ailments and eye problems among several workers. Most of them do not receive medical attention owing to their meagre income.

It is not as if workers are unaware of the risks. “The chemicals often go into my eyes and burn them,” said Saravanan. “Nothing is wrong with me now but I know that when I grow old I will have breathing and skin problems.”

Despite this, workers in the industry say it is their lifeline. Both workers and manufacturers alike vehemently disagree that crackers are major pollutants.

“Just for the sake of one day’s pollution, why does the Supreme Court go to the extent of banning crackers?” asked Muthukrishnan, a manufacturer. “Vehicles emit more pollutants every day.”

Workers said that they would have to leave Sivakasi if the fireworks industry shut down and pointed out that the allied printing industry would also collapse, leaving more people without jobs.

“It is North Indians who buy most of the crackers,” said M Mahesh, a worker engaged in packaging crackers. “If they ban all the crackers, we will have to move to North India and start making chapattis.”