A young boy is walking on the hilltop surrounding Jajmau Industrial Area.

‘Productive Lives’ is a series focusing on the socio-environmental exploitation in Jajmau Industrial Area, near Kanpur, central Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state and one of its poorest.

A maze of run-down buildings, narrow roads, dumping grounds and sewage drains, Jajmau is composed of around 400 tanneries, 40 per cent of which are considered illegal.

Grown uncontrolled on the banks of the Holy Ganges River, it is renowned for being one of the most important centres for leather in Asia. Its items, produced mostly on commission for international retail empires, are widely traded worldwide.

Hidden inside many of the tanneries I discovered children collecting skins in dark wet pools; others were bent under the Sun, employed in scraps disposal grounds. Spending long hours in toxic, harmful environments, they can earn as little as 60 Rs per day. (1 €)

A child is collecting skins from a bath during the process of liming, the removal of hair and impurities with the use of water and various agents

A child labourer in one of the tannery units inside Jajmau, is holding to the side of a pool while stepping on buffalo’s skins inside a bat.

Two children are using their feet to find the remaining skins in a bath during the process of liming, the removal of hair and impurities with the use of water and various agents.

Most  factories focusing on finished leather products destined to be exported, own only some tanneries which are not enough, on their own, to feed their manufacturing plants; they make use of agents.

Agents have links with various small and medium scale units within the industrial area which carry out only the basics of leather manufacture and it is at this end that child labor was most practised.

After the work is over, it is transported to the next small unit and again until the leather is ready to be given in to the larger manufacturers.

After visiting a few of the larger ones, I did find children in some of the places but in that instance others were ‘clean’.

Workers in one of the larger tanneries are stockpiling pieces of leather while trimming impurities and scraps before proceeding to colouring and finishing.

A man is moving a heavy load of half-processed leather on arrival from a different unit, to a new plant for further processing. Knowing whether children were employed in the process is the real challenge when outsourcing leather in Jajmau.

Three young men are working in a dark, dusty room where they smooth and cut leather. Labourers use almost no protection against the cancerogenic particles generated by this industrial process.

A child is sewing parts of what will be leather articles, inside a medium-size manufacturing unit. The boy was still working while most of the others had left the room for a lunch break.

The owner of a small unit and his men are showing the leather just painted.

Many units in the area continue to discharge wastewater into the nearby river and many tannery owners claim to be using governmental treatment plants, which are unprepared and in need of renovation to manage the massive daily flow.

Dumping sites have also grown of the Ganges River, revered as a God named Ganga Mata Ji (‘Mother’ in Hindi) by Hindus, and now choked by pollution. Here the raw material for fertilisers and chicken food is produced.

Young workers are feeding a few boilers in an illegal dumping and burning ground located on the banks of the holy Ganges River near the tannery area of Jajmau. The scrap leather is to be boiled and reduced to a thin dust: the raw material for fertilisers and chicken food .

A child is using his bare hands to collect leather scraps a few meters away from the banks of the Holy Ganges River, (visible in the background) in one of the dumping and burning grounds surrounding the area. The scrap leather is to be boiled and reduced to a thin dust: the raw material for fertilisers and chicken food production.

A group of slum dwellers on the hills surrounding the tannery area of Jajmau are busy collecting fresh water being provided to the colony daily by the government from 4 am to 7 am and again from 5 pm to 6 pm. The inhabitants are complaining that little water is provided for the large population of the area.

A large drain is pouring municipal and industrial waste into the Ganges River near Jajmau. Many drains are scattered around the area and discharge wastewater into the nearby river tainting underground reservoirs and endangering the fresh water supply.

Agricultural labourers are collecting water devoted to irrigation from pools forming on the side of the polluted Ganges River in Kanpur. Crops absorb the contaminants from the water and pass it on to those consuming the vegetables grown .

Children living in nearby villages are beginning to show symptoms of contamination by heavy metals, used in large amounts for leather processing, and penetrating local underground water reservoirs.

Koren, 5, is one of three children presenting a similar neurological disorder and living on the same road in Joana village, (pop. 1800) Kanpur. He is portrayed while in his father's arms. The village is located onto a series of drains joining the Ganges River nearby and the community is entirely reliant on the poisonous groundwater. Koren has serious cognitive limitations while his body’s right side is affected by a semi-paralysis and muscular defection. His family cannot afford even a rudimental medication.

As the local environment is degrading due to the general idleness around issues of pollution in Uttar Pradesh, villagers living near Jajmau are beginning to show symptoms of chromium contamination, used in large amounts for leather processing, and penetrating underground water reservoirs. Many complain of physical illnesses, low yields and fish catch.

Along a 50-meter road in Joana village, where drains contaminate the only available water supplies, I was able to find three children affected by a similar neurological disorder, typical of heavy metal contamination.

However bad the situation might look like, it is very hard to be certain of ‘who buys which leather from who’.

What is certain is that there are still working children under 14 in Jajmau, and that the Holy River Ganges, Hindu’s most sacred, is still being used as an unofficial ‘cheap’ drainage system.

While recently looking at the Ganges, some sort of ‘international’ pillar of Indian culture and beauty, known by many throughtout the centuries and especially, but not only, significative to Hinduism, my dreams and fascination about the river had somehow lost their meaning.

During these recent years of ‘Big Leap Green ’, this is a clear example that many of ‘our’ very companies do not worry enough if the problems they contribute in creating are away from their customers’ eyes and in a foreign country.

The polluted Ganges River in Kanpur, is photographed at dawn from its banks, bordering the large tannery area of Jajmao. Sustaining life for thousands of years along the Indo-Gangetic plains, the river’s ecosystem is in grave danger of being damaged beyond repair.

I wish for these images to help raising awareness leading to an action of renovation of Jajmau, a child-free leather industry and a clean Ganges, restoring sustainability and diversity while being in compliance to existing environmental and labour laws.

I have spared the names of those international brands involved with their Indian counterparts in operations within Jajmau because I would like to find a magazine willing to publish them along with this story.

Six boys are sitting on the banks of the polluted Ganges River in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India, near the tannery area of Jajmau.

 

Nevermind the subject – ‘leather’ is a bit ‘controversial’ due to most magazines having advertisers who trade in those products, I am confident in my choice to report on Jajmau; I believe that the many international retailers involved in Kanpur might be the real key for it to win over its degradation and pollution.

However, there is an urgent need to engage those companies, make them susceptible to their ethical obligations and the public opinion to persuade them to act swiftly and efficiently.

Then they might as well lure us with their ‘green’, child-friendly, multicoloured new corporate profiles, but that is a different story…

Alex Masi

For more ‘details’ about my findings on the outsourcing leather business in Kanpur, India, you can write to alex@alexmasi.co.uk

See more images on Alex Masi’s website and Archive.