Hello everyone.
Welcome to the this issue of Notes from South Asia. You can find the previous one here.
Today, we will cover fireworks industry in Tamil Nadu, India, Elections in Bangladesh, and Women and Girls’ resistance in Afghanistan.
India
Fireworks Safety and Regulations
Fireworks is a major industry in Tamil Nadu. However, regulations are not often endorsed, safety norms are disregarded, and the result is blasts that kill people, most of whom come from the marginalised sections.
Sangeetha Kandavel writes about Tamil Nadu’s tragedies-plagued firecracker industry
For years, Tamil Nadu, and particularly Sivakasi, an arid region in Virudhunagar district, has been known as the fireworks capital of the country. It all began in the early 20th century when two young cousins, A. Shanmuga Nadar and P. Ayya Nadar, set off to Calcutta to learn about the match work industry and came back with enough knowledge to set up two fireworks factories. The business did well in the region where rainfall was scanty and agricultural production low. Over the decades, more and more factories came up and the Sivakasi industry grew to account for 90% of fireworks production in India. According to estimates of the Tamil Nadu Fireworks and Amorces Manufacturers Association (TANFAMA), there are around 1,085 cracker manufacturing units in and around the Sivakasi region today. At least 8 lakh people are directly and indirectly involved in the fireworks and allied industries, including transport.
However, in the last few years, the industry has become much more dispersed, with small units, both legal and illegal, coming up across Tamil Nadu, with many of them being set up by those trained in Sivakasi. The head of a cracker manufacturing unit says this spread is due to high profit margins. “This is why even people with a retail license are venturing into the manufacturing business,” he says. “Workers from Sivakasi are paid double or even triple the wages to work at these units for eight to 12 hours of work during the festival season.”
Many of these units are under the radar; they function with little supervision, monitoring, or official inspections. This has resulted in a spate of accidents in recent times. On June 1, 2023, for instance, an explosion occurred at a licensed private cracker manufacturing unit in Salem West Taluk, about 370 km from Chennai, claiming nine lives. On October 17, accidents took place at two fireworks units in Virudhunagar district, killing 14 people, most of them women. In recent months, the central region of Tamil Nadu witnessed four blasts in licensed country cracker manufacturing units in the Ariyalur, Pudukottai, Mayiladuthurai, and Nagapattinam districts, which killed 19 labourers. On September 12, for instance, an explosion took place at a godown which was part of a firecracker manufacturing unit at Ayakkaranpulam near Vedaranyam in the coastal district of Nagapattinam. The unit was one of the four licensed units functioning in the district. “All these units had been functioning for more than three decades. But they were involved in manufacturing firecrackers only for local temple festivals and processions and not for Deepavali,” says a senior official from the Revenue Department. All these tragedies have turned the spotlight on smaller and often unregulated units.
Lack of experience is blamed for the blasts.
Those who have been in the business for decades point out that such accidents happen for several reasons. Sometimes, units stock chemicals above the permitted limits. Many units also employ workers without any training. The blast at a licensed firecracker manufacturing unit at Thillaiyadi in Mayiladuthurai district, about 250 km from Chennai, on October 4 claimed the lives of four people. The tiled-roof building housing the unit, functioning since 2008 on the outskirts of a residential area on a dry patch of land, was reduced to rubble within seconds. “The accident occurred because of the mishandling of explosives by inexperienced and untrained youth who were employed at the unit,” says Mayiladuthurai District Collector A.P. Mahabharathi. “The unit was closed down.”
During the festive season, some licensed units also sub-lease work to smaller units which have no experience. “Certain processes have to be completed within a stipulated time,” says the proprietor of a popular firecracker brand. “For instance, the mixing and filling of chemicals. Only a skilled person can do this in a chemical room. And 80% of accidents happen during this process alone.”
Officials say that the blast in Salem district on June 1 occurred due to this. P. Prakasam, the son of one of the victims, Banumathi, recalls how he found out about her death. “I rushed to the Salem government hospital, believing that my mother was admitted there. But I didn’t find her. Then I came to the accident spot and found her nose stud. I knew then,” he says.
The Salem District Collector and Tamil Nadu Industrial Explosives Limited Vellore both say that in this case, there were no violations. But there is a shortage of staff at the authority responsible for monitoring. And opacity in the issuance of licenses.
However, the proprietor says monitoring by officials is done “only during the festive season when production is high or after there is an accident, although work happens the year round.”
The Petroleum and Explosive Safety Organisation (PESO), the licensing and regulating authority for large fireworks units, is short-staffed. PESO licenses are granted to outlets handling 15 kg to 2,000 kg of fireworks. PESO now has only five officials in Sivakasi — two at the rank of controller of explosives and three deputy controllers of explosives — to monitor more than 1,000 units. [...]
Officials also say that the opacity of PESO and lack of communication pose problems for the district administration. In Krishnagiri, 30 outlets have been granted PESO licenses. “PESO is extremely understaffed to conduct inspections. They don’t have any links with the district administration,” says a source in the collectorate. “We have flagged 20 outlets which have a PESO license for being located in crowded areas, especially in Hosur and Bagalur, based on a police report. At first, we were informally told that there were no restrictions to locating units in crowded areas. Later, we were told PESO has issued notices to those outlets,” he says. PESO Vellore, which grants licenses to nine districts including Krishnagiri, did not respond to interview requests.
Soon after the Ariyalur blast in which the unit owner and his relative were arrested, the police seized country crackers stocked illegally at unauthorised places in the district. They also detected violations at five firecracker manufacturing units and 25 stockists which had permanent licences to sell firecrackers.
Bangladesh
Elections
Daily Star editorial writes about the lack of consensus building in operation of Bangladesh election including the scheduling.
We are deeply disappointed that what we feared has ultimately prevailed—an election timetable announced by the Election Commission (EC) in the glaring absence of a consensus among the major political parties over polls-time government. As the Awami League and its allies brought out celebratory processions all over the country, BNP and allies rejected the schedule, while the Left Democratic Alliance as well as the Gonotontro Moncho also denounced what they believe would be a sham of an election. Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Habibul Awal may well hope that the upcoming polls will be "free and fair, impartial, participatory… credible and praised at home and abroad," but we would be living in a fool's paradise if we believed that such a scenario is possible under these strained circumstances.
Following the controversial elections of 2014—in AL won 153 seats uncontested—and in 2018—in which widespread irregularities and ballot stuffing took place—there have been repeated calls at home as well as from outside to hold a credible election. The government, unfortunately, seems to believe that holding an election under any circumstances is a "win" for the ruling party, wilfully ignoring that another discredited election will do irreparable damage to its own image and destroy whatever remains of our democratic institutions and aspirations. In the lead-up to the election, when it should have demonstrated its commitment to the democratic process, including upholding the opposition's constitutional right to freedom of assembly, the Awami League chose the path of retribution, arresting over 10,000 BNP activists and leaders, many on false or trumped-up charges. These actions, alongside the incendiary rhetoric from the top leaders of the party, have foreclosed any possibility of a dialogue.
BNP, on the other hand, has also remained stubborn in its refusal to even attend a dialogue unless its one-point demand for the resignation of the government is met. Such an uncompromising stance, however legitimate the party may have felt its demand was, has not borne fruit and instead led it to a point of no return. At least 117 vehicles have been burnt all over the country from October 28 till November 15—during its blockade programme—and even if it claims to have played no part in the arson attacks and violence, it must ultimately realise the trap it is setting for itself by going down its chosen path. As a party that professes to speak for the people, it also should not ignore the loss of lives and livelihoods of people during the worst economic downturn the country has faced in decades.
Awami League, led by Bangladesh’s PM, Sheilk Hasina, is the party in power in Bangladesh. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) is one of the main opposition parties. The BNP has called for a general strike of 48 hours to protest the election scheduled for January 7 (report from Dhaka Tribune).
The BNP has called a 48-hour hartal (strike) from Sunday across Bangladesh demanding the cancellation of the national polls' schedule.
Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, senior joint secretary general of the party, made the announcement in a virtual press conference on Thursday afternoon.
The party rejected the announcement of the election schedule and vowed to continue protesting against the government’s decision to carry on with the election process.
Several other opposition parties, including Gono Odhikar Parishad (Nur-Rashed) and Gantantra Mancha, also called for a 48-hour hartal from Sunday protesting the poll schedule.
After a rally on October 28 that was foiled by clashes with law enforcement, the BNP called a hartal the next day and subsequently announced a three-day countrywide blockade to protest attacks on its gathering and arrest of its senior leaders.
The fifth phase of the blockade started at 6am on Wednesday and will continue till Friday 6am.
Following a brief pause over the weekend, the BNP and its like-minded parties will hold the two-day hartal to press home their demands.
Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal on Wednesday announced the schedule for the 12th parliamentary elections, with the polls set to be held on January 7.
Freedom House that evaluates democracies across the world ranks Bangladesh as partly free.
The ruling Awami League (AL) has consolidated political power through sustained harassment of the opposition and those perceived to be allied with it, as well as of critical media and voices in civil society. Corruption is endemic, and anticorruption efforts have been weakened by politicized enforcement. Due process guarantees are poorly upheld and security forces violate human rights with near impunity. Violence and discrimination against religious minorities and refugees, particularly Rohingya who have fled Myanmar, are significant problems.
Afghanistan
Women and Girls
Anushka Sisodia writes for the Diplomat about the resistance of women and girls in Afghanistan.
Despite the Taliban’s early pretense of respecting human rights, the millions of women and girls previously enrolled in schools and universities find themselves banned from attending educational institutions, making Afghanistan the only country in the world where girls cannot study beyond primary school. It is hard to overstate, or even imagine, the despair of an entire generation of girls and women mourning their right to education and the futures they deserve. Sixteen-year-old Atefa, in a 2022 interview with Human Rights Watch researcher Sahar Fetrat, offered a glimpse into her grief: “For Afghan girls, the earth is unbearable, and the sky is unreachable.”
For the people of Afghanistan, these circumstances are a somber echo of the past, as education for girls was also outlawed during the Taliban’s first reign between 1996 and 2001. Mirroring the strategies of their previous rule, the Taliban’s attack on education encompasses a radical overhaul of the school curricula to support their extremist ideologies, in what seems to be a mission to transform the education system into a chain of madrassas focused on indoctrination. Entire subjects, including visual arts and civil education, are being erased from the schooling system, and all images of living beings are being removed from textbooks. The prohibitions extend to the celebration of Nowruz, advocacy for democracy and human rights, encouragement of music, and mentions of non-Muslim figures and elections. The decades-long progress made by education activists and women’s rights campaigners to restore the country’s academic system has been dismantled in just a few years.
I wish she did not use the word Madrassa. It is meant to provoke strong anti-Muslim reactions and is, I think, racist. Madrassa or Madraseh just means school in Persian, Urdu or Arabic.
Anyways, moving onto resistance.
But like previous generations of Afghan women, this generation is finding ways to resist the oppressive forces thrust upon them. Fawzia Koofi, Afghanistan’s first female deputy speaker of parliament, shared in a meeting at the United Nations’ gender equality conference (CSW67) the novel tactics that women are using to access knowledge and educational resources, harnessing digital platforms to connect to other university students, professors, and international educational opportunities such as online degrees from U.S. universities. An online education cannot replace a regular education, Koofi noted, but in the absence of formal schooling, women and girls are leveraging the available technologies to their benefit.
In addition to online options, underground girls’ schools have also emerged throughout the whole country in defiance of the education ban. These clandestine education centers take various forms: private schools that have decided to keep their doors open to girls; informal classes held in local mosques or the homes of teachers; and even underground book clubs where girls gather to read and promote discussion.
These efforts seem to be just as much about boosting morale and engendering a sense of symbolic power as they are a temporary replacement for a formal education system. Mahdia*, a recent graduate from one of Afghanistan’s top universities, set up a school teaching seventh grade classes in a mosque near a provincial capital. She explained to journalist Emma Graham-Harrison of The Guardian: “I do this as a volunteer, to support the girls and create hope in their future… Every day when we start and finish I talk to them a bit, and try to motivate them, with messages like ‘no knowledge is wasted.’”
The activists are asking for a new name for the condition of women and girls in Afghanistan.
But operating under constant fear of detection and threat of punishment takes a heavy toll. “I have noticed plenty of changes in our students… they used to come with lots of energy and excitement. Now they are never sure if this will be their last day in class. You can see how they are broken,” said the head teacher of a school in Kabul.
Women are now campaigning for the situation in Afghanistan to be termed a “gender apartheid” and recognized as such under international law. Applying that formal label will serve as a means to trigger global legal accountability and “expand the set of moral, political and legal tools available to mobilize international action” against regimes of systematic gender-based oppression.
That is it for today. Thank you for reading.
I have selected the publish group as South Asian Kos Community. Choosing the option however would only queue this post to be published into the community blog space. I believe posting to South Asian Kos community blog would have to be done manually after this. Am yet to figure out how to do that using the community itself. Will let you know if I figure it out.