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Society
Murky Meat Factories
by Alka Arya
Madhu*, 40,
has been working in a meat processing factory for the past 20 years.
While men do the heavy jobs, women are hired to perform tasks like
packing, which is what Madhu does. Her job requires her to remain
standing for about 10 to 12 hours everyday.
"There is a constant pain in my arms and legs, and my hands and feet
swell up often. I think the zero-degree temperature in the packing area
is doing this to me." The meager protective clothing - rubber gloves, a
plastic cap over the head and a cloth over the mouth - she wears is
hardly enough to keep the cold out. Madhu works with Hind Foods' factory
in Sahibabad, Uttar Pradesh. She visits a doctor thrice a month and
spends around Rs 200 a month on medicines, mostly painkillers.
Madhu's colleagues complain of other health problems. A common complaint
is unusually heavy bleeding during menstruation because they have to
move heavy packets of meat - weighing between 15 to 20 kg - from one
table to another.
Sahibabad, only 15 km outside the capital, Delhi, is an important meat
processing centre in India. It has a six, largely export-oriented, meat
processing factories (Allana Foods, Hind Foods, M K Overseas, Arihant
Export, Mircha Export and Fair Export). Ramashray Tiwari, Assistant
Director of Factories in the state Labor Department, Ghaziabad, says,
"The total number of laborers in these six factories is around 1,200 -
about 200 of these are women."
But Upender Jha, General Secretary, Centre for Indian Trade Unions,
Ghaziabad, disagrees. "There must be over 3,000 workers in these
factories; about 600 of them are women. Only 180 of these women have
their names on the muster rolls. The rest get very low wages. While the
minimum wages for the industry are Rs 2,700 per month, those who are not
on the rolls get about Rs 1,500. Most workers here are hired by
contractors, brought all the way from Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar.
These contractors work like close-circuit cameras, keeping an eye on
everyone."
Sunil, a contractor who hires women for Allana, admits that he tells the
parents of these women that they will get well-paying jobs in garment
factories. "If I told them the truth, Hindu families would never send
their daughters to work here." The girls realize that they have been
cheated, but have neither the means nor the know-how to return on their
own. They have never traveled alone before. So, they work for six months
to a year, and then go home with the same contractor. Most never return.
"That is no problem. The contractor finds a fresh batch of 20-25 women
from other parts," says Narayan Murthy, who works with Allana and was
brought here by the same contractor. The contractors are paid hefty
amounts to lure hapless workers to these factories.
The laborers in these factories cut and pack meat that is exported to
Iraq, the Philippines, Jordan, Dubai, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia. The
combined turnover of these factories totals several millions of rupees
(US$1=Rs45) every year, according to Jha.
Slaughtered buffaloes are brought in from various slaughterhouses in
Uttar Pradesh and other parts of the country. The butchers at the
factories prepare smaller cuts, de-bone the meat when required, clean it
and pack it. Men cut the meat and carry the heavy loads to the packing
trays, where women do the actual packing at temperatures close to zero
degrees Celsius. "It's much worse for the women," says Jha.
Women who are slow at their work or do not adequately obey an order are
punished by their supervisors; they do not get their wages, sometimes
they are thrown out. They work for 10 to 12 hours, have no fixed
lunchtime, and even drink their tea on-site so that they do not take a
break. There is no rest time. The women workers cannot even go to the
toilet - let alone step outside the factory gate - without the
supervisor standing outside and hollering at them to hurry up. "What can
the women do to rest their tired feet but go to the toilet and sit for a
while? The supervisors know this and stand guard," says Geeta, a sweeper
with M K Overseas.
The women workers of Allana Foods stay in large on-premise dormitories,
with 20-25 women packed into a room. Others are packed four-apiece into
tiny rooms in localities that are a couple of kilometers from the
factory. The male workers, by contrast, are far less dependent on the
contractors and make their own arrangements. From their meager salary of
Rs 1,800 a month, they have to shell out Rs 500 towards mess charges.
They are not allowed outside the factory premises except on Fridays -
and then too under somebody's watchful eye, and only if they have 'valid
reasons', like buying undergarments or 'bindis'.
Unsurprising in a system that is so exploitative, sexual abuse is a
major problem. "We do get some complaints and try to help the victim. We
approach the supervisor, the manager and the police. In most cases, none
of them cooperate. It is our estimate that at least 20 per cent of the
women leave their jobs because of sexual harassment. Many more are so
scared of losing their jobs, or of the stigma that is attached to
victims of sexual abuse, that they never complain," Jha says.
The factories do not maintain proper records of workers and the labor
department is negligent. "Two years ago, the Mulayam Singh government
issued an order to the Labor Department not to inspect factories. We are
now allowed to go only when we get a complaint. And we have had no
complaints since the order," says Tiwari. Clearly, this order was the
result of pressure that the factory owners brought to bear on the Uttar
Pradesh government.
In 1991, the workers of the Sahibabad's food industry formed a union
called 'Khadhee Payuee Padarth Employees' (Edible Items Factories'
Employees), which now has 485 members - 180 from meat export units; of
these, 150 are from Hind Foods and only 30 from the other factories.
These workers are on the muster rolls, and get fair wages, provident
fund and overtime after eight hours of work.
It is after this union was formed that employers began seeking the help
of contractors to hire migrant workers from Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.
Says Mohit Bansal, assistant manager of Hind Foods, "These 150 laborers
are a burden for us. We don't like having permanent laborers because
they take their job for granted, and their efficiency level goes down
from 90 per cent to 60 per cent." The impunity with which he says this
speaks volumes about the management's attitude and the workers' plight.
(* The names of workers, contractors
etc have been changed to protect their identities.)
November 12,
2006
By arrangement with
Women's Feature Service
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Society
The Week of November 12, 2006
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A Panoply of Orchestrated Fraud by V.
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Buddhism and Quantum Physics by Christian
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Are We Really Civilized? by TA Ramesh
Anger of Varunavrat by VK Joshi
Shaking up the Structure by Zofeen T Ebrahim
Wanderlust by Attreyee Roy Chowdhury
Khat e Kabuliwala: Inside an ancient temple near
Mazar-e-Sharif by Rajesh Talwar
Following the Coast by Naiya Sivaraj
Pachmarhi, Nature's Gift to Madhya Pradesh by
Anil Gulati
If You Can't Slap 'Em, Snap 'Em by Elayne Clift
Women Presidents Pack a Punch by Ambujam
Anantharaman
The Politics of Hair by Nilanjana Biswas
Murky Meat Factories by Alka Arya
Sex Workers' Bank - Healthy Returns by
Nilanjana Bhowmick
A Louder Voice by Rodrick Mukumbira
Reneging the Blue Billion by Priyadarsi Dutta
Strange are the Ways of God by Arya Bhushan
The Witty Side by Melvin Durai
How to Deal With - Analytical Physiologist Disorder
by Michael Levy
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