Issues in Kerala Plywood Industry

Issues Specific to Plywood Industry in Kerala

While all the above issues are applicable to small scale plywood industries anywhere in the developing world, there are some very unique challenges associated with the ply wood industry in Kerala. So analysing the plywood industry in Kerala through a global framework may not demonstrate the full environmental and social consequence which the industry is causing in Kerala. This section highlights the key issues which are unique to the plywood industry in Kerala.

Young, Inexperienced and Fragmented Industry:  

While the plywood industry has more than a century of existence around the world, large scale proliferation of plywood in Kerala is a relatively new phenomenon. The new wave of plywood industry grew out of the old timber mills which once depended on hard timber from forests. However, once the commercial felling of trees from forests was banned, these mills became redundant. At the same time, massive plantation of rubber prompted by rising price of rubber, resulted in availability of rubber timber. Some enterprising persons then translated hardwood timber mills into plywood industry. The profits from the industry were soon evident to all and the industry proliferated. The rest is history, as they say.

In a small city, called Perumbavoor, in Ernakulum District, there are over 1000 plywood industries, 90% of them established in the last 10 years. A small village, called Vengola, which had about 20 saw mills in the 1990s, now have 276 plywood industries.

While the total quantity of wood processed may be massive, the individual size of the industry still remains small. There was no systematic financial support from government or institutions to achieve scale. Finally, as the industry came without any technical assistance or technology transfer, it has not assimilated good international practices. The consequence is that there is an industry which is generating significant private profit but at a large social cost.

Chemical Processing and 24/7 Working

Unlike the hardwood industry which preceded it, the plywood industry use significant quantities of hazardous chemicals. The community which saw plywood industry just as an extension of the saw mills did not understand this and is only now slowly starting to comprehend. The health impacts are already widely felt, so much so that in July 2014, the Gram Panchayat of Vengola sent a request to the Health Department, Government of Kerala, to undertake a targeted study to understand the rising trend of cancer in Vengola.

A second aspect of the plywood industry which is new to the community is the 24/7 working, which is causing noise nuisance at night.  As the demand for plywood increase and the difficulty to find new land for establishing new industrial units increase, it makes ecomic sense to maximise the use of established facilities. This is causing serious loss of quality of life to the community.

Lack of Environmental Controls

The small scale plywood industries in Kerala have very limited environmental controls for a number of reasons;

1.      Most industries are of small scale and professional environmental controls will be expensive for them to install and operate

2. There is not enough awareness about the environmental risks or possible environmental controls

3. There is not enough expertise locally available to operate environmental management measures

4. There is not enough land available for the industry to establish the required environmental facilities such as proper storage and handling for chemicals and hydrocarbons away from workforce and community

5. There is no awareness among the employees on the environmental issues and so even established controls are not operated to standards

Lack of Regulation and Enforcement

The improper environmental management in the plywood industry is further exacerbated by the fact that the industry came up so fast that the regulators have a catch up problem. They neither have the law, nor the skills to deal with the environmental issues relating to the plywood industry. The overall issue of capacity, governance and transparency which transcends all environmental issues in Kerala is also relevant in this context. The consequence is that while industry is able to get away with gross environmental damage, the local community has no grievance.

Location and Land Conversion

The plywood industry in Kerala came in the context of two unfortunate land issues. Firstly, the cost of land was growing at a very high rate and therefore finding suitable land for industrial purposes was a challenge. Secondly, land use laws were not fully in place so that people could establish a small scale industry basically wherever they wanted, including by converting agricultural land/wetland to industrial areas. This is one of the major issues associated with the plywood industry in Kerala. The key issue associated with the location/land conversion are;

1.     Many plywood industries are located right next door to peoples housing, causing all environmental issues to be exacerbated manifold

2. A number of industries have come up converting paddy field and wetlands affecting both drainage, local water table and food security

While the arrival of the plywood industry initially contributed to the increase in the land value and hence appreciated by the local community, the environmental pollution is now causing severe loss of quality of life. People adjacent to the plywood industry now have severe health impacts and people in the area suffer severe loss of quality of life. Land prices now show a negative premium based on their proximity to the plywood industry.

The Issue of Migrant Labour

One of the biggest specificities about the plywood industry in Kerala is the presence of large number of migrant labour in the workforce. This workforce comes from Assam, Bangal, Orissa, Bihar and also from Bangladesh. Their presence creates a set of issues of its own which are also not present in other countries. The key issues associated with the migrant labour are;

1.   Housing of the migrant labour in camps which are unhygienic

2. Occupational Health and other Labour issues associate with migrant labour

3. Human rights issues of the migrant labour, their families

4. Social issues arising from the presence of migrant labour in the community

Labour Camps

Majority of the workers in the plywood industry are migrant labour, often from over 2000 kilometres from Kerala and not at all speaking the local language. They are housed in labour camps, often within the factory premises. Regardless of where they are housed, their housing situation is primitive with too many people crammed into limited bedding space, insufficient toiletry arrangements, very poor sanitary conditions of the limited toilets/bathrooms and no appropriate communal arrangement for cooking for food handling. All these combined to make a number of problems for the employees as well as for the community.

1.     The fact that the staff is living within the premises increases their exposure to the occupational chemicals.

2. The unsanitary living conditions cause health problems for themselves

3. The lack of proper cooking arrangements cause both air pollution and electrical safety hazards for the employees

4. Epidemics are often brought from the locations where they come in. This include diseases which were eradicated in India decades ago

5. The life in labour camp make them prone to rapid proliferation of epidemics, such as malaria, chicken pox and other diseases

6. The unsanitary toilet arrangements cause pollution to seep into water contaminating the neighbourhood causing problem for the community

Occupational Health and other Labour Issues

The state of Kerala has a long history of labour activism and through collective bargaining has achieved significant labour standards. However, the migrant labour is not organised under established labour organisations and all their labour rights are denied. This include appropriate pay, getting paid in time, overtime benefits, health benefits, family benefits, provident funds and accident compensation.

Also the migrant labour is a workforce in flux and employees turn over frequently. Employers are also at liberty to fire the employees without giving any notice or assigning any reason. Absence from work, even due to occupational illness is often reason for termination.

A more complex issue is the absence of healthcare to deal with longer term consequences of exposure to chemicals and noise. The full health effects of exposure to carcinogens and noise will only be felt after many years, often decades, after the exposure. In the absence of any post employment health benefits, the migrant labour will not be able to claim or receive any assistance for the damage they suffered while in the service of the company.

Human rights Issues of the Migrant Labour and their Families

The concept of human rights is not fully understood in these industrial areas. As seen above, the migrant labour is not part of the employee organisations and is therefore at the mercy of the employers. At the same time, the local systems, police, labour department and health department all behave in a discriminatory manner with the migrant labour. Decisions are always made in favour of the employer or local community whenever there is a dispute. In the absence of knowledge of local laws and access to local politicians, they are doubly disadvantaged when it comes to protecting their human rights.

One of the issues associated with the migrant labour is the fate of their families. 99 % o the migrant labour comes to these areas as bachelors but very few bring their families. The families often find it difficult to rent housing in the area (locals refuse to rent house to them as they are not sure about their background, comfortable with their culture and not familiar with their language). The families do not get access to the local public services, such as health, education, banking as they often lack the required paperwork.

Social Issues Arising

In addition to the environmental, health and human rights issues, there are  number of social issues arising from the presence of migrant labour in the community. The following are few of them.

1.    Increase in commercial sex activity. As 99 % of the migrant labourers are young men, away from their family, with no legitimate access to sex, commercial sex work is thriving in the area. The demand is met often by migrant women themselves, often trafficked from Bangladesh, against their will.

2. Increase in Sexually Transmitted Diseases: The prevalence of commercial sex work and increasing opportunistic homosexual encounters is causing rapid increase in sexually transmitted disease in the area. This could potentially include transmission of HIV AIDS though no systematic studies have been done yet. Commercial sex workers could be a transit point for diseases from the migrant labour to the local community.

3. Crime Involving Migrant Labour: Young people, staying away from their social support systems, exposed to hard labour and living conditions and unappreciative host community is sure mix for increasing crimes. There has been rapid rise in major crimes (serious assaults, murder) in the recent period in the area.

4. Clash between local community and migrant labour: While Kerala is a state which has a high proportion of migrants, it is still xenophobic when it comes to accepting inward migrants. The local community and the migrants live in two worlds, though side by side, often separated by physical barriers. When occasionally they intersect, such as through the pollution or noise from the labour camp reaching the local community, it leads to arguments and occasionally violence.