Workers say claims of toxic air are exaggerated

More than 1.5 lakh skilled and unskilled workers work in the thousand gold polishing, designing and melting units in Kalbadevi and Mumbadevi. They claim that the units hardly emit any toxic gas as they use very little amount of chemicals.

Uttam Mazi, a senior member of Bengali Swarna Shilpa Kalyan Sangh in Mumbadevi, said that a majority of the work is related to designing and that does not require much chemicals. "Only polishing work needs chemicals and only five per cent of the workers are associated with polishing works," said Mazi, adding that the units should not be removed as that would mean snatching away the jobs of many workers.

Raj Purohit, MLA from Colaba also agreed that only 20 per cent of the units generate toxic air and these units need to be shifted. "There is a need to shift these units to other places so that their business is not affected," he said, and added that the state government is planning to give the units around 20 acre of land in Navi Mumbai for rehabilitation.

A majority of the workers from the units are of the opinion that the issue has been propagated unnecessarily. "We can carry out out work without a chimney as we hardly use furnace or chemicals," said one of the workers.

In the past two years, according to many jewellery designers from Kalbadevi, the market is not good for them. "Due to a number of steps taken by the government like introducing GST, the business has anyway not been favourable," said a worker. A worker employed at the jewellery designing units earns between Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 per month.