A photograph is said to convey a thousand words. This picture, by J. Adam Huggins, in the New York Times conveys a million. Shot at a Bengal factory which makes manhole covers for New York City, it captures “shirtless, whip-thin men rippled with muscle forging prosaic pieces” with their bare feet.
“Seemingly impervious to the heat from the metal, the workers at one of West Bengal’s many foundries relied on strength and bare hands rather than machinery. Safety precautions were barely in evidence; just a few pairs of eye goggles were seen in use on a recent visit…
“The scene was as spectacular as it was anachronistic: flames, sweat and liquid iron mixing in the smoke like something from the Middle Ages.”
Read the full story here: NY manhole covers, forged barefoot in India
Thats India in 21st Century . Revolution in one particular sector or
a Fab mall , Forum Mall or a PVR Cinema doesnt signal the progress
of a country . This is real India .
India where there are still millions of children who toil day and night with elders for a meal . Thats India for you .
A few Gucci stores and a Mercedes or a Lexus on streets
of MG road is not a signal of economic growth .
Ignorance is such bliss!
this is India for you, and shall be so as India is karma bhoomi
Sad but true! Well what do you expect from the comrades and their fellow travelers aka ‘seculars’? Amazing! The stoic nature of our people! mind boggling!!
Obviously the foundry guys who get paid 25$ per hour paid the guy who ‘produced’ this article.
I wonder – why does it take a NY Times to get a photograph like this? Why does it take a CBS to do a story on child prostitutes? Where are our Indian journalists?
Perhaps they are writing posts like “Why Deve Gowda is our smartest politician??”….
i donot want to belittle the efforts of labour unions and labour rights, but would love to see brinda karat’s take on this.
TS very important point. please add the HIV infections in our own state to that list. Wonder how much knowledge sharing and fact finding has been done on that. How many cameras went following that story i wonder.
How about some sleuthing in in U.S Schools to identify who are carrying guns and potentiak campus killers?
Yeah, so what? If NYT is so much concerned about labour policies in India, they have two options: 1. Cancel the contract to the Indian company manufacturing the manholes and find an industry in teh US or elsewhere which uses adequate protection in the manufacture of man-holes.
2. Pay them more so that adequate labour policies are implented and carried out.
1. is unfortunate for India while 2 will hurt the American consumer? Between 1 and 2, its upto NYT to decide whats the best option. If they are so concerned about labour policies, they better do something about it instead of mindlessly cribbing about harmful policies outside “the great and benevolent” US. Remember all this rant about Chinese toys didnt come up even though American companies knew about the harmful labour policies about China, but they became an issue, because the toys were toxic and could hurt Americans. After such a debacle, I could care less about the NYT.
I remember, way back in 2002, when I was walking with my friend near the Wall St in NY, i had spotted a manhole made in india. I had proudly pointed to my friend saying – at least something here is made in india! Looks like there is nothing to be proud of :-(
It is for the factory owners to ensure safety of these workers. Nothing seems safe in the photograph.
On a lighter note…send some gujari guys from mandi mohalla and all the manhole covers will vanish overnight. I remember this happening one morning in Lakshmipuram where over a dozen manhole covers were removed.
Somehow Taslima Nasreen and what she said about another religion seems to have been placed at a higher level for the comrades in Kolkata over the plight of labourers….
no,no,no alok, you are mistaken. bunch of fellow travellers and worthies do make grand eloquence but then reality hits and they have to backtrack or worse coverup.
example: some doode wrote a dialectic on mohammed in a party magazine. it got published and then printed. then somebody threatened with ‘how dare he say that’. he didn’t say it is false or a wrong interpretation or anything such thing, he just threatened. immediately, buddha pulled that magazine out of the markets.
so far nobody ever WROTE about why taslima was wrong, they have burnt her book, dissed her, hit her, threatened her, held a city to seige everything else but no criticism apart from that she is a needless provocateur.
for all you know, this article is sponsored by a foundry in China, with hope of banning Indian import to the US, and bag that order!
Yeah well, Chinese toys and food products are also under scrutiny in the US. All a play of market forces (including any lobbying done by anyone). And in the market cheapest goods for same quality always wins.