All beautiful chooris begin with the melting of raw glass. Once the glass reaches the consistency of honey, a worker uses a metal rod to extract a glob and, as the molten substance cools, winds it around a rotating metal cylinder inside a kiln – creating a continuous spiral that is later cut into individual rings.
Glass bangles are born of meltdowns – forged in the intense heat of furnaces fired by gas. With the war in the Middle East approaching the six-week mark, the two-day-old ceasefire, limited and unreliable, has eased no worries in Firozabad.
The tradition of glassmaking in this town about 50 km to the east of Agra in UP is centuries old. The restriction of gas supply as a result of the blocking of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow shipping lane through which the bulk of energy exports from the Gulf pass, has put pressure on the industry.
All beautiful chooris begin with the melting of raw glass. Once the glass reaches the consistency of honey, a worker uses a metal rod to extract a glob and, as the molten substance cools. Express Photo by Gajendra Yadav
The heat chambers that must run at temperatures of more than 1,000 degrees Celsius to keep the glass molten depend heavily on gas. In some glass and bangle factories in Firozabad’s Makkhanpur, the hub of the trade, volumes of work are down by half since the war began at the end of February.
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It’s hot inside the bangle-making factories. The furnaces are fired up, the ground is littered with shards of broken glass. Workers in vests and track bottoms are carrying long metal rods with glowing tips that illuminate their sweaty faces.
But the volume of work is down to half of what it used to be before the crisis hit, said Pankaj Kumar (25). And he is being squeezed in other ways as well.
For workers like Pankaj, less work means less income. And the increase in the prices of petroleum products means increased costs of living.
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“It has become so difficult to earn money. We are barely able to manage two square meals a day with what we make now,” Pankaj said. He uses a kerosene stove to cook, and the price of mitti ka tel has doubled from Rs 75 to Rs 150 per litre. And at the factory, limits have been imposed on the use of gas, which workers like him use to join together the bangles before they are sent for designing.
These days I am barely able to earn Rs 200 a day,” Pankaj said.
At the factory where Pankaj works, only eight of the 15 kilns are operational due to the shortage of gas and the curbs on their use. And only about 150 of the 250 workers are on the job.
Pankaj Kumar (pictured), a glass bangle artisan from Firozabad, is facing a crushing economic “squeeze” as the ongoing conflict in the Middle East chokes critical gas supplies to his factory. Express Photo by Gajendra Yadav
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The “glass city” of Firozabad is the traditional nerve centre of India’s bangle-making industry, producing an estimated 70-80 per cent of all bangles in the country. There are more than 200 bangle-making factories and more than 400 registered glass businesses in the city.
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According to some estimates, the workforce in Firozabad’s glassware industry numbers upwards of 2 lakh. But this is not an organised sector, and the workers are vulnerable to the impact of shocks such as the ongoing war.
“Most of the work is done on contract basis. The daily wage depends on the production. A war thousands of miles away has led to a sharp reduction in the wages of our workers here in Firozabad,” a supervisor of a large factory said.
Eating his lunch at a kachori stall outside the factory, 33-year-old Pramod Kumar specified exactly how much workers were suffering. “I used to earn Rs 12,000 a month. Now I’m barely getting Rs 8,000. If this situation continues for another month, these factories may not survive at all, and we will all be out of work,” he said.
Pramod was sharing his lunch with three friends – two plates of kachoris split among four men. Ram Naresh (35), who said he lives in Salimpur village 12 km outside the town, echoed Pramod’s fears.
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“I am afraid that everything will shut down in the coming days and we will all become unemployed. I earned Rs 10,000 a month earlier. Now I am getting just Rs 7,000. Kaam to yoon maan lo ki aadha hi ho gaya hai. (You could say work has halved.) Bas khaane bhar ke paise bachte hain aur kuchh nahi (What we earn is spent only on food),” Ram Naresh said.
Pappu, who was sitting with Ram Naresh and Pramod, said he would work for roughly 26 days a month earlier, taking a day off every week. “But today we’re working for just 18-20 days. Incomes have fallen sharply,” Pappu (36) said. “If things don’t get back to normal soon, we may have to stop sending our children to school,” he said.
Through all the difficulties and reduced income, their work remains extremely hazardous. Ram Naresh extended his left hand to show a deep scar from an accident that had occurred years earlier.
Ram Naresh (pictured) says workers are now seeing their incomes slashed by 30-50% due to the West Asia energy crisis. Express Photo by Gajendra Yadav
“This is very risky work. My hand got burnt and I had to spend Rs 80,000 on treatment. That was seven months’ salary for me. The molten glass can burn through flesh as though it is nothing. If it falls on your head, it’ll pierce through your whole body,” he said.
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The banglemakers are perhaps the worst hit among all glassware industries in the Firozabad area.
“Half the cost in the bangle-making industry is the cost of energy. That is why they are the worst hit by the impact of the war shortages. Half of the workforce in some factories is no longer working full time. They have been told to come to work by rotation,” Nitin Bansal, director of Okay Glass Industries, which makes glass bottles, said.
Bansal’s office is close to a clutch of factories that make glass bangles. Factories making other kinds of glassware are impacted too, he said.
“All industries are facing indirect crises as the price of raw materials is rising. The suppliers of raw materials themselves need fuel,” he said.
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In his own business for example, the cost of glass bottles has increased because the amount of gas available every day has been cut by 20%, Bansal said. “We have had to increase our prices a bit. Since we are relatively more capital intensive, our workforce hasn’t reduced yet,” he said.
Nitin Bansal (pictured), Director of Okay Glass Industries, states that energy accounts for half of bangle-making costs, making the sector the most vulnerable to current gas shortages. Express Photo by Gajendra Yadav
There are around 20 bottle manufacturing units in Firozabad. Glass bottles are primarily used in three industries – liquor, the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector, and cosmetics.
“In liquor, the cost of packaging has risen,” Bansal said. “In FMCG, they have other options such as tetra packs if the prices of glass increase. Cosmetics use petrochemicals like perfume and nail polish so they’re facing a double price rise,” Bansal said.
All beautiful chooris begin with the melting of raw glass. Once the glass reaches the consistency of honey, a worker uses a metal rod to extract a glob and, as the molten substance cools. Express Photo by Gajendra Yadav
Pankaj Kumar (pictured), a glass bangle artisan from Firozabad, is facing a crushing economic “squeeze” as the ongoing conflict in the Middle East chokes critical gas supplies to his factory. Express Photo by Gajendra Yadav
Ram Naresh (pictured) says workers are now seeing their incomes slashed by 30-50% due to the West Asia energy crisis. Express Photo by Gajendra Yadav
Nitin Bansal (pictured), Director of Okay Glass Industries, states that energy accounts for half of bangle-making costs, making the sector the most vulnerable to current gas shortages. Express Photo by Gajendra Yadav