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.
