"Why a dying port town is still a migrant destination", 20 Jan 2025

The slowdown at Gujarat’s Alang – the world’s largest ship-recycling yard – has forced migrant workers to seek employment elsewhere, but they return here whenever a ship arrives because the work, though hazardous, is continuous and pays more.

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..Since 1983, privately owned yards near the villages of Alang and Sosiya have taken apart, piece by piece, ships decommissioned from global shipping routes. Over the years, the volume and regularity of vessels arriving from Europe, Japan, Greece and Singapore reshaped the local economy and labour market, drawing workers from across India to what became one of the world’s largest ship-recycling zones. However, since 2011-12, ship-breaking at Alang has slipped into an uncertain rhythm. The forces reshaping global shipping—trade disruptions from the Ukraine war, ships diverting away from the Suez Canal amid Red Sea attacks linked to Israel’s war on Palestine, tightening margins, and the rising costs of environmental and safety compliance—have collectively squeezed the flow of vessels to the shipbreaking yards. Ship arrivals here were no longer regular or predictable; work picked up briefly and then dropped off. As a result, the livelihoods of thousands of migrant workers like Kumar became uncertain. They ended up waiting for work, then returning to their villages, then coming back again when a ship arrived.

..For migrants, this gradual transition, from being single men who arrived alone to being workers who settled down with families, reshaped the social fabric of the area, said Vidyadhar Rane, president of the Alang-Sosiya Ship Recycling and General Workers’ Association (ASSRGWA). Since 2011-12, however, when fewer ships started to arrive at Alang, the workers’ settlements began to thin out, and the workforce shrank to a fourth of its size, from 60,000 to around 16,500. ..ship-breaking, here, has witnessed a slowdown over the last decade. According to the India Ship Recycling Industries Association, the number of vessels dismantled at Alang fell by nearly 70 % between 2011 and 2024, from 415 to 101. Large stretches of the Alang–Sosiya Ship-Recycling Yard now lie quiet as do the labourers’ settlements. And many migrants moved back to their villages because of the uncertainty of employment. ..In 2019, India ratified the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships (HKC) and passed the Recycling of Ships Act, 2019, both of which fundamentally altered how ship recycling operates along this coast. Yards at Alang now had to comply with the pollution-control measures and ensure that workers were trained in safety protocols. Ship-breaking is one of the most dangerous jobs in the world, according to the International Labour Organisation. This compliance increased the yards’ operational costs, however. As a result, Alang was at a disadvantage in regional markets. These pressures were compounded by disruptions in global shipping, including fewer ships being decommissioned since the Covid-19 pandemic and global geo-political tensions.