This photo is courtesy of Mr. Raja Islam. The place is Gadani’s Ship Breaking area some 40 km west of Karachi. Ships of all sizes and shapes are broken down into small pieces of scrap here using mostly the hand tools. It is a work of sheer labor. When I first saw this picture in Raja Islam’s collection it was titled as ‘Egyptian slaves at work’. Breaking a ship into small pieces by using simpe hand tools is probably very close in effort to building a Egyptian pyramid.
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Stereotype “rona pitna ” instead of getting the culprit
somebody was paid for stranding ship for scrap, why are u
guys so classique old style bavardeur, delateur, don’t u
have courage to denounce MQM’s Ghori, denoucing mullah
is very easy, worry for the day when they will react.!!!
Viqar, perfect choice of ’sher’. very appropriate
taQdIr ke QAzi ka yeh fatwA hae azal sE
hae jurm’e za’Ifi ki sazA marg’e mafAjAt
Big health and safety concerns with the dismantling of thse ships as well:
http://www.greenpeaceweb.org/shipbreak/
“Shipbreaking takes place in poor countries, where once pretty beaches in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Turkey are turned into ship graveyards.
At the end of their sailing life, ships are sold for their valuable steel. However, old ships contain hazardous substances such as asbestos, lead paint and PCBs. During scrapping these poisons are released into the environment and the workers’ bodies. Greenpeace urges the shipping community to take immediate action and develop international legislation on ships-for-scrap”
Tu Qaadir-o-Adil hay magar tere jahaN maiN
HaiN talkh bahut banda-i-mazdoor kay auqaat
I think this picture shows us part of the story. The thing missing in picture, is a simple pulling machine with a large pulley.These guys might be unwinding the cable from the pulley. Who knows ? I may be totally wrong.
Neena,
I am very well versed in the dynamics of ship breaking having done a lot of research recently on scrap steel market in Asia for one of my clients.
I know the condition of the labor is not great but that problem exists everywhere from mining to farming in Pakistan.
If a ship breaker is to invest a large amount of money (in Millions of U.S$$$) in his operation including cranes and hydraulic cutters he will have to amortize that cost in the price of his product (steel plates). His competitors i.e India and Bangladesh will beat his price and run him out of business. With his absence from the local market we will have a shortage of steel and we will be forced to import steel plates from India or Bangladesh. See how a competitor can run our people out of business just by using cheap labor and machines and still sell us that very product??
Unless all the countries involved in the business impose strict standards, this practice will go on. Even if strict measures are imposed, the market for recycled steel may see a decrease because of the price hike.