'Horrors of Alang I can never forget'.

(From Lloyds List)

Byline: One of the few women campaigning against shipbreaking abuses in India tells James Brewer how she was moved to prioritise the industry as a target for drastic reform efforts

MADHU Dutta had become used to witnessing distress and dangerous working practices as a campaigner travelling around the 'toxic hotspots' of India.

What she saw at the shipbreaking yards at Alang in late 1997 really shocked her. Since then she has been a committed fighter for improved conditions, more recently as a supporter of the Brussels-based Platform on Shipbreaking, an umbrella body for environmental groups.

'My first visit revealed the horrors of working conditions in Alang,' she recalls.

'I visited the yards, the hospitals and clinics in Bhanvnagar (a town almost 50 km from Alang where injured workers are brought for treatment).

'I met dying workers with 60%-70% burns. They could be severely burnt during cutting operations with acetylene torches inside the small cabins in the ship, where pipes are full of gases even though a gas free certificate is a mandatory requirement for every ship to be dismantled.