Shipbreaker: A Look into the Life of Shipbreakers in Alang, India
Shipbreaker is a title that is used to define a character who is paid to oversee the destruction of old ships. With the intention of making profit, such individuals ply their trade next to the oceans. As workers on a contractual basis, shipbreakers are subjected to specific living conditions that serves as their identity marks in their communities. The Outlaw Sea: A World of Freedom, Chaos, and Crime offers a critical view of the ship business across the globe. Written by William Langewiesche, the book assumes a curious approach towards the life of a shipbreaker in Alang, India.
The Life of Shipbreaking Managers
The life of a shipbreaking manager is shown to be disciplined and demanding. Pandey works at night mostly and avoids the complications occasioned by emotion, to oversee the completion of his duties. Equally, Pravin Nagarsheth projects the image of a man who is disciplined. The ability to preside over a large number of workers requires shipbreaking yard demands the ability to organize, distribute and facilitate the maximum utilization of the available resources. The shipbreaker’s discipline is also manifested in Pandey’s stature. Essentially, “he was a powerful state official in a nation of powerful officials: he was the port officer of Alang, a man who rode in a chauffeured car with a state emblem on the hood. And it was important to him to appear rational at all times” (Langewiesche). Since the efficiency of operations in the shipbreaking yards depended on their initiative, shipbreaking managers such as Captain Pandey were expected to project a sense of calm.
The Life of a Shipbreaking Worker
The life of a shipbreaking worker is shown to be full of imposition, dangerous and poor. Essentially, the exposure to chemical hazards as a result of shipbreaking portends a significant impediment to life longevity among the shipbreaking workers. The squalor that is found in their living quarters reflects the challenges that they experience given their disadvantaged positions in the social hierarchy. The regions that were inhabited by the workers were “dusty, tough, and crowded. Unemployment there was high. The residents were almost exclusively men, migrants from the distant states of Orissa and Uttar Pradesh. They toiled under shipyard supervisors, typically from their home states or villages, who dispensed the jobs, generally in return for a cut from the workers' already meager pay” (Langewiesche). Overall, the life of shipbreaking workers is projected to be insignificant, necessarily short and challenging.
What is the Work That They Do and What Are the Conditions, Good or Bad, of That Work?
The shipbreaking workers were responsible for cutting and disentangling the steels that made up a ship. When the ship had been broken, it was dismantled into small pieces to facilitate the sale of the resulting materials in the scrap metal markets. To oversee the completion of their mandates, the workers used sledgehammers and crowbars. The conditions of that work were bad. The workers operated without any protective gear and hence were exposed to the adverse effects of fumes that resulted from dismantling of the ships. Additionally, being squeezed into a single location provided a significant health issue in the shipbreaking yards. Crowding limited the sustenance options that were available to the workers. Thus, many were contented with the meagre earnings that they got from their duties in the yards, despite the extensive energy that they expended in their roles.
What Choices About the Work Do They Have?
The workers have a choice on whether to work or quit. Principally, they are not forced to work in the shipbreaking yards. The decision to work in the shipbreaking yards was inspired by the desire for sustenance. Since there are many willing workers, despite the meagre pay and environmental hazards, individuals are forced to accept register for the work. Therefore, “They knew it was risky and could make them sick, but they seemed more interested in letting me know they were cutters and stood high on the scrapyard scale” (Langewiesche). The workers recognized the limitations of their jobs but made a conscious decision to continue working.
Is it Useful to Consider the Workers vs. the Managers of the Shipbreaking Yards?
It is useful to consider the workers and managers of the shipbreaking yard. The latter group is shielded from the challenges that face the former group. Additionally, managers lead better lives than the workers. While the majority of the workers stay away from their families for extended periods of time, the managers enjoy the benefits of a routine family life. Nonetheless, there is need to understand that the managers have not alienated themselves from the workers. In cities such as New Delhi and Bombay, there is a clear-cut distinction between the upper class in the society and the poor. The shipbreaking managers were “direct men who walked willingly among their laborers; and though they had grown wealthy on the backs of the poor, they had maintained a connection to them nonetheless. The alternative seemed to be the disengagement I had witnessed in New Delhi and Bombay, where the upper levels of society were floating free of the ground, aided by the airlines and the Internet, as if the poverty in India were a geographic inconvenience” (Langewiesche). Considering the disparities between the two groups provides a framework through which the sustainability of the shipbreaking can be achieved.
How Does Langewiesche Feel About Those Workers and Their Working and Living Conditions?
Langewiesche projects an ambivalent attitude towards the workers and their working and living conditions. While on one hand he is sympathetic to their situation, he contends that they are better than the workers at the mills. Of the workers he indicates that “They were very dirty. They were very poor. But they lacked the look of death that I had seen on the men in the Bhavnagar re-rolling mill. They were purposeful” (Langewiesche).
Conclusion
In the analysis, Langewiesche hoped to convey two perspectives on the same story. It is an attempt to explain the Western and Indian view of the attempts to impose regulations on the shipbreaking. While the working conditions in the shipbreaking yards are deplorable, it is important to note that the shipbreaking managers are not solely responsible for the tribulations that are facing the workers. From the analysis, the audience is able to infer that the managers are not solely inspired by greed as is emphasized by environmental and humanitarian groups in Europe. Principally, the workers recognize the limitations of their positions and do not necessarily blame the managers for their circumstances. Langewiesche sought to engage an objective perspective in the assessment of the roles of managers in the determination of living conditions for the workers.
Work Cited
Langewiesche, William. The Shipbreakers. The Atlantic Monthly, 2000. https://www.wesjones.com/shipbreakers.htm#Copyright. Accessed 26th , 2018.
