AGRA: Work at the 200-year-old glass industry in Firozabad has nearly come to a standstill with the dengue outbreak forcing most of its 80,000-odd artisans and labourers to stay home. The Rs 10,000-crore industry was just seeing signs of recovery after the second wave of Covid-19, raking in orders worth Rs 700 crore in the past three months, but business has stopped again. And with it, the only source of livelihood for workers.
Firozabad has been the epicentre of a viral outbreak in western UP, with hundreds infected and nearly a hundred dead in the district alone. “The dengue outbreak in the district has come as a major setback for the local industry after the second Covid wave,” said Mukesh Kumar Bansal, treasurer of the All India Glass Manufacturers’ Federation and a Firozabad-based glass exporter. “Production has been affected because workers are down with fever themselves or someone in their family is. The other reason is also that representatives of major buyers have not visited so far.”
Firozabad draws buyers from across the world
Making glass products — bangles, labware, chandeliers, lighting equipment, figurines, toys — is labour-intensive. And the manufacturing hub at Firozabad, with 400 registered manufacturing units and 1,500 supply units, still relies on traditional methods. That is one of the reasons it draws buyers from across the world — the UK, the USA, Canada, Brazil and Australia. Each bangle, for instance, passes through 80 hands when being made. So, an absent worker can’t just be replaced. The timing has been especially difficult. It is around September that most orders from across the country and the world come in, so the products can be shipped around Diwali and Christmas. Of its Rs 10,000-crore annual turnover, Rs 2,500 crore is made only during this festive season.
“A majority of the manufacturing unit workers live in the city’s slums. Those areas have been worst hit by the outbreak. Around 50,000 workers have not been able to go to work,” said Ramdas Manav, president of the Kanch Evam Churi Mazdoor Sabha, a workers’ body. “They get Rs 200 a day for eight hours of work. They are grossly underpaid. Covid made things bad for them and dengue made it worse. The government should consider a relief package for them.” The workers are anxious. “I have not made a single penny in five days because the manufacturing unit stopped working. I don’t know when I will be able to get back to work,” said Vinod Buddha, 30, a glass unit worker. “My five-year-old son is sick. I had to borrow Rs 2,000 to buy his medicines and our food. We don’t know what we will do if the situation does not improve.”
