Leather exports worth millions from neighbouring Bangladesh are flooding the luxury goods market, but at a huge cost to the health of workers and residents living near the tanneries in Hazaribagh, Dhaka.
In a report released in New York on Tuesday, the Human Rights Watch, said these tanneries, spewing pollutants, were not only harming the environment, but also the lives of workers, including children as young as 11, who suffer from respiratory and skin diseases. The Hazaribagh tanneries employ up to 15,000 workers.
“Foreign companies that import leather produced in Hazaribagh should ensure that their suppliers aren’t violating health and safety laws or poisoning the environment”, Richard Pearshouse, senior researcher in the health and human rights division of Human Rights Watch, told Business Line.
According to Bangladesh Government estimates, about 21,000 cubic metres of untreated effluent is released each day in Hazaribagh, located in the heart of Dhaka, which contains among other substances, animal flesh, sulphuric acid, chromium, and lead.
Government officials and tannery industry representatives told HRW that no Hazaribagh tannery had an effluent treatment plant. To top it, no protective gear was given to workers who handle hazardous chemicals. “Even gloves that are sometimes given are insufficient,” said Pearshouse.
The report, “Toxic Tanneries: The Health Repercussions of Bangladesh’s Hazaribagh Leather,” points out that in the decade since 2002, the value of leather exports in Bangladesh has grown by an average of $41 million per year.
From June 2011 to July 2012, the country, India’s key competitor in the leather sector, exported around $663 million of leather and leather goods, including footwear to some 70 countries, such as China, South Korea, Japan, Italy, Germany, Spain, and the United States.
But, the Bangladesh Government has consistently failed to enforce labour or environmental laws in Hazaribagh. “It has even ignored High Court orders to clean up these tanneries”, Pearshouse said.
He said a senior official in Bangladesh’s Environment Department admitted that “We are not doing anything for Hazaribagh”.
While the Bangladesh Government has planned to relocate these tanneries, the report blamed Government inaction on a “Labour Inspectorate that lacks manpower and prioritises good relations with managements.”
HRW interviewed children, as young as 11, who were engaged in hazardous work, such as soaking hides in chemicals, cutting tanned hides with razorblades, and operating dangerous tanning machinery.
Women and girls, the report said, were paid comparatively less than men.
“The Hazaribagh tanneries effectively operate in an enforcement-free zone and the government has ignored deadline after deadline for solving the problem,” Pearshouse said.