Comments on: The Men Who Make the Manhole Covers

By: Arunabh Das

Arunabh Das — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 07:25:25 +0000

Jobs suck. That’s why they call it a “job”. If jobs blew, they would have called it a “job”. Why do you want to rob those workers of their only means of livelihood. Please go and take a dump NOW so that the city of New York can order more manhole covers and those workers can eat. Seriously!! – Arunabh Das

By: big bhapa

big bhapa — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 06:05:14 +0000

Safety for workers 8,000 miles away clearly has not been a major concern for those buying the thousands of manhole covers that New York City needs each year.

NYT Editorial in today's paper Re: yesterday's photos.

By: cookiebrown

cookiebrown — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 03:03:18 +0000

Uncle Cookiebrown remembers that this is the second time in 25 years that the New York Times has done a story on manhole covers made in India. But an archive search reveals nothing. Anyone else remember this?

Anybody who has been near a steel factory or foundry will attest to how ridiculously hot such a place can be. While industrial safety is a must, it must be awfully tempting to take off your heavy, hot boots in conditions like these. Just like the engineer's cab in an Indian Railways steam locomotive. Anyone here have a memory of observing one of these in the summer heat in Northern India?

Talk about a hard living...But I'm pretty sure these workers take a very macho pride in their ability to stand the heat. Its a desi thing; my dad-in-law always talks about the "good heat" when its 115 degrees in the shade in Delhi.

[BTW, I don't mean to minimize the OSHA issues...]

By: Amit

Amit — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 18:55:26 +0000

To be fair and equal, I think Con Edison should start buying some womanholes instead. The oppressive and dominant manholes have to go.

By: Brij

Brij — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 18:45:53 +0000

all, here is somebody making a case for third-world sweatshops

The next time you feel guilty for buying clothes made in a third-world sweatshop, remember this: you're helping the workers who made that clothing. The people who should feel guilty are those who argue against, or use legislation to prevent us, giving a boost up the economic ladder to members of the human race unlucky enough to have been born in a poor country. Someone who intentionally gets you fired is not your friend.

considering this would Con Edison's management make the same case for buying the manholes from India ?

By: khoofia

khoofia — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 13:14:59 +0000

Found a lot of the photojournalist’s previous work here.

Thanks for the bio. I should have guessed where he was from

Really nice guy.

Indeed.

By: Amrita

Amrita — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 09:23:41 +0000

Found a lot of the photojournalist's previous work here. Really nice photos.

Really nice guy.

By: DizzyDesi

DizzyDesi — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 04:17:06 +0000

Itâ€™s written largely from a photographerâ€™s point of view, and thereâ€™s a great audio + images slideshow accompanying the piece here.

When I read the article and the slide show, it did not seem this way (especially when I noticed which cities the quotes came from). The focus the on the skill of the workers seems to be be the Photojournalist's contribution from Haora, while the safety issues part seems to be the NYT Delhi Bureau reporter's contribution.

Found a lot of the photojournalist's previous work here. Really nice photos.

By: rob

rob — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 03:46:13 +0000

That slideshow is amazing. Compared to these guys, I’ve never done a day’s work in my life!

By: tasman

tasman — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 02:29:36 +0000

As someone who has worked in Calcutta (as an apprentice in the Calcutta Port Trust foundry shop), doing somewhat similar work more than 20 years ago (albeit for just a few months), I can attest that decent coveralls and shoes (the basic kind - obviously not steel toed timberlands!) were generally used in most reputable foundry/industrial shops, even then.

Unfortunately, the 'outsourcing' trend runs deep in India too. The 'reputable' companies that NYC deals with are probably sourcing through multiple layers of contractors, and companies such as these are at the bottom of the pile, and probably earn a mere pittance.

That being said, a lot of folks working is such conditions probably consider themselves lucky to have a job in the first place, which are, in the grand scheme of things, a lot safer than many others available to them.

Bottom line, it's really hard to make a judgement call on cases like these.