Tannery workers of the city battle life long diseases, no medical insurance.
Out of 10 tannery workers at least 4 suffer from deadly diseases such as Tuberculosis and Asthma
Rakshita kumar
22 Feb 2022
Tannery town, situated in the middle of the Devarajeevanahalli area, was a hub of all the tannery factories in the city. For years, these factories were trading skin of animals to all the southern states of India. But unfortunately, in the past 2 years the number of factories have come down from 40 to hardly 4. The main reason behind this is , the much talked about construction of metro lines, that made most of them shut down. But for years the tannery town has suffered different ailments that no one considered to bat an eye upon.
Saleem Ahmed, who is one of the very few factories, said that in his last 30 years of working there he has seen around 40 workers lose their lives as their health problems have always been ignored. “They have suffered from deadly diseases like asthma and Tuberculosis and most of them have lost their lives over the years but nobody ever came to help us.” he added. Saleem owns a godown under which many workers were employed. When noticed, most of the workers had bruises and blood clots all over their legs and hands. The workers spend most of their time cleaning and preserving the skin of the animal which makes them stay in water and salt for very long hours, this makes their skin swell and look like bruises and wrinkles. These workers stay in constant fear of their life and if something deadly happens to them they don’t have enough money or financial support from the government to get themselves treated. Tannery is a skill based work that can’t be learnt overnight. These workers claim in order to master it, it takes months and years. Day by day the factories are dying as there are a very few workers left, if this continues, the city that owned biggest and oldest tanneries and had a rich business of exporting it to other states will just become history.
The Aam Aadmi Bima Yojna launched by the government , that includes tannery workers claims to provide insurance from the nodal agency when some mishap occurs like permanent total disability, or death due to accident, but there is no financial support to get the treatment done.
Tannery is a skill based work that can’t be learnt overnight. These workers claim, in order to master it, it takes months and years. Day by day the factories are dying as there are very few workers left. If this continues, the city that owned the biggest and oldest tanneries and had a rich business of exporting it to other states will just become history.
