A recently released report, Labour Rights of Workers in Fish Processing Industries in the Context of a Globalised Economy prepared by Dr Shobhana Warrier for the Centre for Education and Communication, highlights the gross exploitation of workers in an industry that earned the country Rs 4,642.93 crore in foreign exchange in 1997-98 and employs 63,000 workers, according to conservative government estimates. NGOs peg the figure at one lakh, though.

According to thereport based on field-work in Mangalore, Goa, Calcutta, Mumbai, Tuticorin and Kollam, the fishworkers are mostly migrant women from Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, who are made to work long hours in cold, unsafe and unhygienic conditions at dilapidated workplaces, and paid low wages. Never mind that the fisheries spot pompous names like Liberty, Baby Marine, Sonia and King Fisheries.

Workers are exploited despite most of them being educated. In the sample of 309 women workers, Dr Warrier found that 55 per cent were in the age group of 14-23. All of them had studied at least up to Class 5; 89 per cent had had middle and senior schooling. While favourite, upper-end workers are paid Rs 1,800 a month, beginners get only Rs 750, which is below the minimum monthly wage of Rs 2,000 stipulated for an unskilled worker.

Work conditions are even worse. Stating that the women are forced by the nature of their work to handle frozen raw material for long hours in damp workrooms, the report points out that mostworkers are not even provided gloves to work with. This has serious health implications for them. The commonest complaints pertain to irritation of the eyes, nausea, respiratory disorders, scabies, skin rashes and peeling of skin because of suspected ammonia leaks. The cold conditions exacerbate arthritis and joint pains. Workers are even susceptible to rheumatism, jaundice and diarrhoea. Bone injuries are also common because of slippery floors. And poor sanitation causes urinary tract infections. Besides, a large number of women are exploited sexually at the workplace, and some of them are forced to terminate the resulting unwanted pregnancies.

The report adds that the workers' lodgings are in equally bad condition. The employers have housed workers either above the processing units or beside them to ensure their availability whenever a consignment of raw material arrives. This arrangement is a health hazard because the ammonia-based freezing plants are potential accident sites. Even the flooring of theworkers' lodgings offers poor insulation from the dampness of the unit below. Caught between the hazardous workplaces and ill-equipped lodges, these contract workers have no soft options. It's either take it or leave it.