New toxin: Alang in midst of HIV scare

NGOs may be protesting the entry of Blue Lady, but Alang is not in the pink of health, writes Chetan Chauhan.

Updated on: Jul 7, 2006, 05:40:00 IST

None | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

Not just toxic tubs, Alang has several other reasons to panic.

Environmentalists may be protesting the entry of French ocean liner — Blue Lady — into the world’s largest ship-breaking yard in Gujarat, but Alang is not in the pink of health.

More than the threat of toxic cargo carried by the ship, sexually-transmitted diseases like HIV/AIDS are endangering lives of Alang workers, a recent survey by the International Metalworkers Federation (IMF) warned.

The statistics are alarming: 50 to 55 cases of sexually-transmitted diseases or HIV/AIDS cases come are detected by doctors at the local Bhavnagar Blood Bank office every week. “We estimate that the actual figure is much higher as the Bhavnagar Blood Bank is too small to cover 55,000 migrant workers. The other clinics do not have HIV/AIDS testing facilities,” said Ramapati Kumar, a Greenpeace campaigner.

Majority of the migrant workers are married, but lack of permanent employment in Alang compels over 88 per cent of the total workforce to leave their families behind and stay in shared accommodation. And, over 50 per cent of them are below 30 years. Flesh trade is rampant. “The villages turn into prostitution dens especially on days when the crew gets paid. They splurge on “entertainment” — mostly sex and alcohol,” Kumar added.

The “pay and play” syndrome is not restricted to Alang alone. Even the hometowns of the workers feel the pinch. Every year, HIV/AIDS cases are reported from Bahrampur district of Orissa and Khurja in Uttar Pradesh — home to majority of the Alang workers.

Coupled with it is the the threat of pollution-related diseases caused by exposure to “toxins” dumped by ship and poisonous cargo ferried by “dead” foreign liners like Clemenceau and Blue Lady. “Proper medical treatment are not available in the area — which has only one hospital with the bare minimum facilities,” the IMF survey report said.

The international body has recommended a legal framework to provide health and employment security cover to the Alang workers to tackle the situation. The environment and forest ministry admits that Alang workers do not have access to basic amenities. A committee headed by environment secretary Prodipto Ghosh is likely to submit a report to the Supreme Court on how to improve the workers’ lot. The apex court is hearing a related case.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

Follow India news real-time updates and the latest news covered on Hindustan Times, featuring today's critical updates on Sonam Wangchuk LIVE and more across India.