Question

What are problems faced by the bangle makers?

Answer 1

The bangle-makers of Firozabad were born in the caste of bangle-makers which meant that they had seen nothing but bangles in their house, yard, in every other house and yard and on every street. The spirals of bangles in every colour lay in mounds in unkempt yards, piled on four-wheeled carts pushed by young men along the narrow lanes of the shanty towns. In the dark tenements inhabited by them, next to lines of flames of flickering oil lamps, boys and girls sat with their fathers and mothers welding pieces of coloured glass into circles of bangles. Their eyes were more adjusted to the dark than to the light outside and that is why they often ended up losing their eyesight by the time they were adults. They worked mechanically on the bangles which were considered to be sacred relics of a married woman. They did not have a light in their eyes because there was no food in their stomach. They had not enjoyed even one full meal in their entire lifetime. They knew nothing but bangles and even then they never had enough to eat. The squalid conditions in which they lived were antithetical to the joy they produced through the bangles. They worked themselves to death so that people could use these ornaments.

Answer 2

Most of the bangle-makers are ignorant of the fact that employing children in bangle making is illegal. This is a hazardous industry. Many children become blind before reaching their adulthood. If the law were enforced strictly, 20,000 children would be released from working hard throughout the day at hot furnaces with high temperatures.