CHENNAI â€" A fire that killed dozens this week at an unlicensed fireworks factory in Sivakasi, the hub of India's multimillion-dollar pyrotechnics industry, has revived a familiar debate about safety norms in the business.
More than 700 factories in the Sivakasi area make some 20 billion rupees, or $360 million, worth of fireworks a year, generally at small and midsize plants where chemicals are often mishandled and safety precautions flouted. The workers, who are paid as little as 150 to 300 rupees a day, are mostly uninsured, and the factories are far away from good medical facilities.
For many years, the industry employed thousands of children, because they were paid half as much as ad ults and their hands were suited to working with the small firecrackers that most factories made then. Child labor has yet to be eradicated from the industry, according to P. Rajagopal of Nethers Economic and Educational Development Society, a Sivakasi-based nongovernmental organization that has been campaigning on behalf of fire victims and child laborers in the area.
“I was not surprised to hear about this accident,†said R. Vidyasagar, an independent Chennai-based researcher, who travels to Sivakasi every year to study child labor issues and who lived there for three years in the early 1990s. “People happily forget about accidents and there is no political will to see that the workers are provided safety.â€
The latest fire broke out on Wednesday afternoon in the production facility of Om Sakthi Fireworks Industries. It triggered an explosion that killed 38 people, mostly bystanders, according to Bhola Nath, director of Ta mil Nadu Fire and Rescue Services.
The factory's license had been revoked the day before due to safety violations. Mr. Nath said that more inventory was on hand than regulations allow, apparently in anticipation of India's peak fireworks season, Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, which falls in November this year. On Thursday, Press Trust of India reported that the factory's owner was missing. The Hindu newspaper said that 12 Om Sakthi employees had been arrested.
The fire Wednesday served as a grim reminder of past industry disasters. Hundreds of workers have been killed in accidents in Indian fireworks plants in recent years, including two in Uttar Pradesh in May, and 35 in Bihar in 2005.
In a book titled “Kidnapped Innocence,†John Kunnappally, a former journalist with the regional newspaper Malayala Manorama describes a similar disaster at the New Dawn fireworks plant in Meenampatty, near Sivakasi, on July 12, 1991 that killed 38 people. A fire broke out there at 11:30 a.m., just as work at the plant was reaching full speed, Mr. Kunnappally wrote. “The midday sun was getting hotter. The fire that broke out with a thunder engulfed the whole factory within seconds,†he wrote.
Since the Meenampatty fire, the amount of government compensation paid to the families of the workers who die in such catastrophes has quadrupled, to 200,000 rupees. But in other respects, the situation in India's fireworks capital has yet to improve. According to Mr. Vidyasagar, there are no first-rate burn wards in Sivakasi; most victims are driven 60 kilometers, or 37 miles, to the town of Madurai for treatment, if they survive the ride.
“Wednesday's fire is truly a major one that points to the failure of many things that have been glaring at anyone's face who went there,†said Asha Krishnakumar, who runs a market research firm and has investigated the Sivakasi fireworks industry. “These facilities have to be inspect ed frequently. So, why wasn't it done?†While the Om Sakthi plant's license had been revoked, Ms. Krishnakumar notes that that apparently wasn't enough to keep it from operating on the next, fatal day.
Mr. Vidyasagar said that most laborers in fireworks plants, who tend to be temporary workers paid on a piecework basis, not only are uninsured but take further risks during the peak season by bringing raw materials home to assemble fireworks there.
A government official says they are taking steps to make the business safer.
“We are discussing measures to improve safety conditions†in the factories, said B. Rangaswamy, deputy chief controller of explosives with the central government's Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organization. He said his team hopes to expand fire-hazard training and develop methods for automating the manufacturing process.
The Hindu quoted a government statement as saying that Tamil Nadu's chief minister, J. Jayalalithaa, has earmarked 11.3 million rupees for a burn ward at the Sivakasi government hospital, to be run by Madurai Medical College Hospital. The Hindu added that the Tamil Nadu government plans to double the number of beds in the government hospital to 60, in addition to building an intensive care unit, an operation theater, a plastic surgery unit, an orthopedic unit, a physiotherapy unit and a rehabilitation center, with the total cost estimated at 45 million rupees.
Researchers say the fireworks industry's safety practices need to be monitored more regularly, by elected officials as well as nongovernmental organizations. “When deaths occur the whole world wakes up,†Ms. Krishnakumar said.
