ALANG (BHAVNAGAR), May 30: They would stand out in a crowd because of the holes burnt into their clothes by the gas flames used for cutting metal sections for ships. They belong to the exploited group of gas-cutters at the ship-breaking yard in Alang.

Death, disease and fear stalk the workers in Alang, which houses one of Gujarat's biggest and richest industries. Although official figures say that 75 people were killed in accidents at the shipyard between January '96 and January '97, Akshay A Oza, president of the Alang-Sosiya Ship-breaking Yard Kamdar Sangh, put the figure at 150.

According to official figures, there were 104 fire accidents and 52 other mishaps in Alang and Sosiya during that period. Diseases like tuberculosis, malaria, jaundice and, as recent reports reveal, AIDS play a significant role in raising the mortality rate of the workers.

Compounding their health problems is the fact that most of the workers are either drug addicts or alcoholics.

Hooch is freely available here. According to bootlegger Ratan Gupta, the area has about 20 liquor dens, each of which pays the police department a monthly bribe of Rs 25,000. Despite the hefty bribe, Gupta claims he can make a profit of at least Rs 10,000 every month.

Even the doctors treating the workers are suspect. One of them, who runs a ramshackle clinic here, could not remember the name of the university or college from where he had obtained his ``medical certificates''. He claimed that he could only remember having studied somewhere in Jalandhar, adding that his ``certificates'' were at his hometown in Uttar Pradesh.

In addition, the 30,000 workers in Alang are victimised by the police, muquadams (supervisors) and maliks (owners).

Twenty-four-year-old Mukesh Yadav says muquadams are nothing less than slave-drivers. Recounting his experience, he alleges that he was put through 12 hours of back-breaking labour everyday for six months. He was paid less than half of what he had been promised.

Now a truck-driver, Yadav blamed the muquadams for exploitation of the workers. ``For a commission, they promise maliks that a ship-breaking job will be done in half the usual time. They then make workers, who need whatever money comes by, work like animals,'' he said.

Despite the hardship, nobody raises voice against oppression -- not even when their rights are denied. One of the workers, Dharampal, was seriously injured in a fire that broke out on March 31 and claimed eight lives.

According to him, the plot owner made him and three other injured persons sign on a blank piece of paper on May 11. He had no idea why his signature was extracted.

He was also unaware of a High Court interim order of May 9 which ruled that the Shipowners Association would have to pay a compensation of Rs 2 lakh to the relatives of the dead and Rs 50,000 to each of the injured. ``We will never get that money,'' he sighs fatalistically.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.