Panipat's 20,000 factories process more than 1 million tons of discarded clothing from the US, Canada, and Europe each year into goods for major brands. While India's 1948 Factories Act mandates safety safeguards, machinery continues to lack critical protective mechanisms, and laborers receive no safety training or gear. Routine hospital admissions reveal frequent amputations of fingers, hands, and legs across the workforce. The crisis persists largely because official inspections require advance notice, and buyer audits routinely emphasize product quality over personnel welfare.
Key points
Dangerous machinery and an absence of safety training cause catastrophic daily injuries f…: Dangerous machinery and an absence of safety training cause catastrophic daily injuries for Indian textile recycling workers.
Regulatory enforcement remains weak because government inspectors are legally required to…: Regulatory enforcement remains weak because government inspectors are legally required to give advance notice before visiting factories.
Commercial buyer audits continue to prioritize commercial product standards while neglect…: Commercial buyer audits continue to prioritize commercial product standards while neglecting dangerous physical conditions for recycling laborers.
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For three months, Suraj Kumar’s job was to feed discarded clothes into shredding machines in Panipat, an industrial city in the north Indian state of Haryana. Clothes discarded in the US, Canada and Europe arrive in the city to be torn back into fibres and spun into yarn, feeding a textile recycling industry that supplies markets across the world.
Suraj, 19, had travelled from West Bengal state to work in Panipat’s factories, following his cousins and friends who had already found jobs there. He hoped to earn enough to send money home to his parents. But in late August, an electrical short circuit in the machine propelled him into the shredding mechanism. The accident crushed both arms.
“I wish I had died rather than lost both my arms,” Suraj says. An only child, he had hoped his job in Panipat would support his parents. Instead, he fears he has become a financial burden on them. The work he had taken up to help his family has left him dependent on others, with no certainty about what his future will look…
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