Concerns of shipbreaking industry

Why in news?

India has made a draft legislation to set Labour Safety and Environment Benchmarks for ship breaking.

What are the impacts of shipbreaking?

• Shipbreaking is a process of breaking down a ship, when it completes its life tenure..
• It is one of the most hazardous jobs in the world because most ships are used to carry radioactive materials, toxic wastes, extremely poisonous chemicals and oil.
• It directly affect the health of the workers, hundreds of manual labourers move onto the beach to dismantle each ship.
• Many ship breaking yard has poor working and living conditions, workers face many serious work-related injuries.
• It is also an environmental time bomb as workers strip the ships marooned on the sea shore.
• Which leads to severe contamination of the sea bed, eventually seeping into the marine food chain.

What is the account of shipbreaking industries in India?

• In 2016, India dismantled over 300 ships, against about 220, 140 and 70 in the case of Bangladesh, Pakistan and China.
• Alang in Bhavnagar district, Gujarat, considered the world’s largest shipbreaking facility.
• Alang houses at least 50 companies in ‘plots’ along a 12-14 km stretch along the sea coast, employing an estimated 40,000 workers.
• There are no reliable records on accident deaths, but practical narrative estimates that for each day one worker dies for dismantling a ship.

What is the significance of the draft law?

• India, which along with Bangladesh dismantles most of the world’s discarded ships, has drafted a legislation to set benchmarks for shipbreaking.
• The proposed law is aligned with the Hong Kong convention adopted by the International Maritime Organisation in 2009.
• Which is so far ratified by Norway, Congo, France, Belgium, Panama and Denmark.

What are the areas yet to be addressed by the draft?

• Ships in India and Bangladesh are dismantled on the beach rather than on dry docks, which adds to the toxicity of the soil, water and air.
• ‘Beaching’ is banned under EU regulations, while the Hong Kong convention pushes for clean beaching practices.
• Hong Kong convention is yet to be addressed by 15 countries with accounts for 40% of world’s merchant shipping capacity.
• Greece and Germany are top offenders in outsourcing their vessels to be beached.
• Efforts to clean up the industry should include bringing such grey activities under the scanner.

Source: Business Line

Quick Fact

International Maritime Organisation

• It is the United Nations specialized agency with responsibility for the safety and security of shipping and the prevention of marine pollution by ships.
• Its main role is to create a regulatory framework for the shipping industry that is fair and effective, universally adopted and universally implemented.
• It is headquartered in London,there are 172 member states of the IMO, which includes 171 of the UN member states plus the Cook Islands.