Till August 31, 2006, 19 workers had died in explosions aboard ships in various stages of being broken down. The blasts occur for various reasons: LPG cylinder leaks, inflammable oil residue, or sealed chambers that explode when handled by untrained hands.

The shipbreakers do not disclose the nature of contents in the ships even if there is considerable residue of hazardous chemicals, inflammable material or oil. Sometimes even the ‘mukadams’ or gang-leaders are kept in the dark. So, while skilled workers like gas-cutters still get some protective gear, unskilled and semi-skilled workers climb aboard the massive ships usually with a prayer on their lips and little else.

Every Tuesday, chest physician P.K. Bansal who visits the Red Cross Society Hospital, Alang, gets about 20 new patients. “Due to the working conditions, they are exposed to metallic dust and other particles. The workers suffer from acute bronchitis, allergic bronchitis, bronchial asthma and tuberculosis. In the long run the diseases become fatal,” he says.

Though the Red Cross Hospital has a burns and orthopaedic ward, facilities are scanty and workers must go to Bhavnagar city for treatment. Cases of major burns caused by chemicals and broken limbs or multiple-fracture cases come in daily. In many cases the workers end up with crippling effects — it is easy to come across workers with fingers missing.

The Tuberculosis Research Centre near Songadh on the Bhavnagar-Rajkot state highway receives several patients from Alang, nearly 60 kms away. R.M. Thakkar, the centre’s head, says many of his patients are Alang workers but there are no ready statistics available.

While their work environment is hazardous, living conditions are sub-human. Till last year, about 50,000 migrant workers packed themselves in a colony that had no drinking water or even rudimentary drainage or sewerage systems. The wooden cabins they built out of waste from the yards had no ventilation and often 10 to 12 persons shared a cabin. The result? Rampant air- and water-borne diseases added to the misery of the workers.

Nilu Vaishnav of Bhavnagar who has done extensive studies on the health of Alang’s workers, including on the prevalence of HIV, says their living conditions are sub-human, like a concentration camp. Though the number of workers at Alang this year has come down drastically due to a smaller number of ships coming in, the conditions are the same even with the world’s attention on Alang.

A major worry, according to Vaishnav, is the spread of HIV among migrant workers. Tests done on a random sample size of 1,500 workers revealed 15 HIV positive cases. At any given time there are more than 10,000 workers at Alang. On the other hand, Greenpeace reported 102 HIV positive cases in 2005. The side effects of Alang’s labour colony are being felt in 10 neighbouring villages, where a number of women have joined the mushrooming commercial sex trade.

In spite of the hue and cry there is no single agency which monitors or studies the health and working environment of Alang workers. There is no database on either the number of workers who die every year or the kind of health problems they face. The statistics available with the Bhavnagar police are only of spot deaths at Alang. A large number of workers who fall sick at Alang and go back to their native villages die there. Neither health workers nor the authorities ever come to know of the cause.

The Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) which manages Alang has introduced ‘worker safety’ campaigns and awareness programmes. Films are occasionally screened on handling of hazardous material. The GMB introduced safety audits three years ago and results of the evaluations are conveyed to shipbreakers for improvement in safety implementation. However, except for providing helmets and gloves, nothing much has improved in the last three years. The 2006-07 safety audit is in progress.