Devang and Anita got into matrimony after an year long romance. But an year of gossips could not give them a final destination for their honeymoon trip. Alps, Goa, Kerala, Kashmir, Hong Kong, Singapore and the list went on without any consensus. Ultimately they decide on Alang. They will get into a cruise liner that has come for breaking. They will stay there for a couple of days with food and beverage served by Gujarat tourism department. Thousands of such couples have skipped greatest honey moon destination to select Alang in Gujarat.
PUZZLED????
Well I was narrating this to my toddler and all of a sudden I woke from my slumber. Alang, to my knowledge, is the most unlikely guarded place for any journalists to visit. Even the IAEA would not have faced such a problem visiting uranium enrichment venues in Iran. But Alang is a place where the Gujarat government makes the visiting journalists feel that they have more to hide than reveal.
I believe Alang could have been a historically important place to visit where aging cruise liners, fishing trawlers and warships came to die. But Gujarat has never realized its tourism potential. And so like many other beautiful places in Gujarat, Alang is also untapped, unexplored because the government fears it might backfire if they allow Tom Dick and Harry to visit the place. The ship breakers have followed the suit putting boards to display “Visitors not allowed”. Perhaps the government may be toying the idea of putting this at the gates of TCGL. Wonder what TCGL is? It is Tourism Corporation of Gujarat Limited.
When I called up the Gujarat Maritime Board in Gandhinagar, the MD politely advised me to give a written application for the visit since there were two foreigners with me - two of my colleagues who happens to be Americans. I asked him whether an email would do and he sounded positive though he had no idea what the email address was. ( visit www.gmbports.org for their email address that nobody is aware of) As expected, there was no response to the email and then I got it printed and faxed it and also couriered it to the GMB address and also telephonically confirmed its receipt.
But even on the day of the visit – two weeks after the email and letter was dispatched, GMB showed its true government attitude and acted as if they haven’t received any such application. But on account of some personal connection and after pleading with the MD, it was granted on the eve of the visit.
This was where the notion of mistrust started and when I returned after the visit two days later, I had a set of ten toilet cleaner rolls, from some ship procured by some scrap dealer and purchased by me at a very low price. Not that I use a toilet paper but I bought it as my remembrand of the place, which I had visited a decade ago when there were no restrictions. Who knows the government will not make it tighter and tighter. And I didn’t want to preserve a lasting memory either. A toilet paper sufficed my need.
Situation in Alang is not a rosy picture and it was on the expected lines. The colonies where the workers stayed resembled any urban slum with no basic amenities. Some rights activists blame the ship breakers of not providing good amenities for these laborers. But they would have lived in a worse condition anyway had they been out of the ship yard as well. So if you don’t have any sympathy towards millions of slum dwellers in any parts of the country, what sympathy are you showering on these workers who live in almost the same conditions.
Secondly I found no Gujarati labourers working in the yard. The yards are dominated by Hindi speaking population mainly from BIMARU states. One of them even pointed out the reason for this. "To cut steel, you need the nerve of steel".
Without any doubt, they were doing the most dangerous jobs that a man can engage in. A Ship a day, an accident a day - is the norm that is widely used to justify the number of deaths that happens in Alang. But which job doesn’t have the risk? Is there a designated job or place where you are destined to die? Well, the answer to many is No. But to these labourers, it is a big Yes. If they go back fearing the dangerous working conditions, they will die of starvation back home. If they take up some other job, the amount of wages will not even suffice to look after oneself, leave alone their extended families back in their villages. So what are the options for them?
We went to Alang to look at the economic picture of the ship breaking business and not mainly to weigh the human sufferings. But no body was willing to take our word except perhaps the port officer who was candid enough to admit that there are dangers involved in ship breaking. Ultimately who doesn’t know that?
The biggest pain was an officer who was deputed not to assist us but to control us. Though the workers were trying to explain to us how they would work in Alang despite all the objections of an adverse working conditions, the GMB guy thought, they would spill out some beans. This meant, the GMB is primarily responsible for the bad press and they squarely blame on others. We were told that the workers and the ship breakers would 'cut us into pieces' if we go around unescorted. But what happened was the opposite. They wanted to tell us how the business is dwindling and how working conditions has improved - though we were not novices to take their word.
Large vessels waiting in the wings to cut into pieces is a treat to watch. It is especially great for those who have never entered a cruise liner. Well, if a state like Kerala can promote rains as one of the tourist attraction, it is yet another opportunity lost for Gujarat. Devang and Anita will go anywhere but Alang.
Binu Alex
PUZZLED????
Well I was narrating this to my toddler and all of a sudden I woke from my slumber. Alang, to my knowledge, is the most unlikely guarded place for any journalists to visit. Even the IAEA would not have faced such a problem visiting uranium enrichment venues in Iran. But Alang is a place where the Gujarat government makes the visiting journalists feel that they have more to hide than reveal.
I believe Alang could have been a historically important place to visit where aging cruise liners, fishing trawlers and warships came to die. But Gujarat has never realized its tourism potential. And so like many other beautiful places in Gujarat, Alang is also untapped, unexplored because the government fears it might backfire if they allow Tom Dick and Harry to visit the place. The ship breakers have followed the suit putting boards to display “Visitors not allowed”. Perhaps the government may be toying the idea of putting this at the gates of TCGL. Wonder what TCGL is? It is Tourism Corporation of Gujarat Limited.
When I called up the Gujarat Maritime Board in Gandhinagar, the MD politely advised me to give a written application for the visit since there were two foreigners with me - two of my colleagues who happens to be Americans. I asked him whether an email would do and he sounded positive though he had no idea what the email address was. ( visit www.gmbports.org for their email address that nobody is aware of) As expected, there was no response to the email and then I got it printed and faxed it and also couriered it to the GMB address and also telephonically confirmed its receipt.
But even on the day of the visit – two weeks after the email and letter was dispatched, GMB showed its true government attitude and acted as if they haven’t received any such application. But on account of some personal connection and after pleading with the MD, it was granted on the eve of the visit.
This was where the notion of mistrust started and when I returned after the visit two days later, I had a set of ten toilet cleaner rolls, from some ship procured by some scrap dealer and purchased by me at a very low price. Not that I use a toilet paper but I bought it as my remembrand of the place, which I had visited a decade ago when there were no restrictions. Who knows the government will not make it tighter and tighter. And I didn’t want to preserve a lasting memory either. A toilet paper sufficed my need.
Situation in Alang is not a rosy picture and it was on the expected lines. The colonies where the workers stayed resembled any urban slum with no basic amenities. Some rights activists blame the ship breakers of not providing good amenities for these laborers. But they would have lived in a worse condition anyway had they been out of the ship yard as well. So if you don’t have any sympathy towards millions of slum dwellers in any parts of the country, what sympathy are you showering on these workers who live in almost the same conditions.
Secondly I found no Gujarati labourers working in the yard. The yards are dominated by Hindi speaking population mainly from BIMARU states. One of them even pointed out the reason for this. "To cut steel, you need the nerve of steel".
Without any doubt, they were doing the most dangerous jobs that a man can engage in. A Ship a day, an accident a day - is the norm that is widely used to justify the number of deaths that happens in Alang. But which job doesn’t have the risk? Is there a designated job or place where you are destined to die? Well, the answer to many is No. But to these labourers, it is a big Yes. If they go back fearing the dangerous working conditions, they will die of starvation back home. If they take up some other job, the amount of wages will not even suffice to look after oneself, leave alone their extended families back in their villages. So what are the options for them?
We went to Alang to look at the economic picture of the ship breaking business and not mainly to weigh the human sufferings. But no body was willing to take our word except perhaps the port officer who was candid enough to admit that there are dangers involved in ship breaking. Ultimately who doesn’t know that?
The biggest pain was an officer who was deputed not to assist us but to control us. Though the workers were trying to explain to us how they would work in Alang despite all the objections of an adverse working conditions, the GMB guy thought, they would spill out some beans. This meant, the GMB is primarily responsible for the bad press and they squarely blame on others. We were told that the workers and the ship breakers would 'cut us into pieces' if we go around unescorted. But what happened was the opposite. They wanted to tell us how the business is dwindling and how working conditions has improved - though we were not novices to take their word.
Large vessels waiting in the wings to cut into pieces is a treat to watch. It is especially great for those who have never entered a cruise liner. Well, if a state like Kerala can promote rains as one of the tourist attraction, it is yet another opportunity lost for Gujarat. Devang and Anita will go anywhere but Alang.
Binu Alex
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