Ruining lives for 9 paisas in knee-deep salt digging labor

[Naveed Yaseen]

By Amar Guriro

KARACHI: Abdul Samad does not remember how long he has been working as a salt worker as time has frozen for him like the white shadows of the salt heaps spread around him have frozen in his eyes. Samad has spent most of his life working as salt worker on the salt fields spread along the shores of Arabian Sea, on the outskirts of Karachi. With no protective work gear including long boots, rubber gloves and protective glasses, he stands barefoot in knee-deep sea water, separating rock salt from the sea water for more than twelve hours every day. This toil has badly affected his eyesight and all he sees now are mere shadows around him.

Yet Samad is not alone, as the lives of hundreds of salt workers are melting away in the sea water on cheapest rates. Despite producing an essential item like salt from the sea water under severe weather conditions in the worst working conditions, these salt workers cannot make headlines in the media. There are hundreds of such sea salt manufacturing factories spread along the shores of Arabian Sea at Hawkes Bay, Ibrahim Hyderi, Rehri Goth, Jumma Goth and other areas. These salt manufacturing factories comprise of vast scattered land right on the edges of the sea, where land owners have made artificial ponds.

Small channels are made to take the sea water to fill these ponds with seawater, where the water is left for around seven days till it evaporates, leaving behind the sea salt. Before the ponds dry up completely, the salt is ready to be dug out. This is when the salt workers start their work. With a spade, they start digging out the salt and fill baskets, collecting the salt at the edge of the ponds. In summers, when the mercury level rises in Karachi, these salt workers can be seen busy, digging and carrying salt in baskets between huge heaps of salt on the shore.

On Tuesday morning, when this scribe visited one such salt manufacturing factory located just opposite Ali Goth, a small settlement in Rehri Goth just after Ibrahim Hyderi, about two dozens workers were busy collecting the salt between the salt heaps. There was no sheds even where they could take a nap to beat the heat.

When Samad, was asked about his well-being, he stopped digging for a while and then resumed again. “Saeen [Sir] we are digging our fate just to fill our stomach.” he replied in Sindhi and continued digging.

Though, these workers work all the day, the factory owner does not pay them much. A worker is given 9 paisa for digging and taking each kg of salt in a basket and making the salt heap. “We are paid Rs 4.50 to dig and take salt to the edge of the pond for a 50 kg bag,” said another worker. A worker can dig and make a heap of about 30 to 35 salt bags (each bag of 50 kg) if he works around twelve hours. Thus, a worker gets around Rs 150 for working all day in a salt pond. However, the owner sells the same salt for Rs 220 per a 50 kg bag.

There are no machines to weigh the salt and it depends on the owner as to how much he fills in the bag. No worker measures about how much a single bag weighs. Besides, there is no medical facility for the workers. “To work in these salt fields is like playing with poison,” said a worker, quoting a Sindhi proverb that if a horse gets unlucky, it is bought by fisherman rather than a king, when a bull gets unlucky it gets to work at a grindstone and if a man gets unlucky, he gets to labour at a salt mine. “We play with this poison at the cheapest rates,” he added. The workers said that if anyone gets an injury while working in the salt pond, it takes around seven months to heal. A salt worker loses his eyesight completely if he continues working for ten years and there are no holidays. When this scribe contacted Riaz Memon, the owner of the said factory to get his version, he refused to talk, stating that workers are given all the basic facilities according to the laws set by government but refused to disclose those laws.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...09_pg12_13