From India's largest newsroom, I'm Arun George and this is the Times of India podcast. Nearly two months before Diwali, the Delhi government announced that it would retain a ban on fireworks in the city for this year as well. BJP MP Manoj Tiwari promptly went to the Supreme Court seeking that the ban be lifted, only to have his petition dismissed. To top it off, he was chastised by the Supreme Court, the. Supreme Court said do something for people and if there is a ban, there is.
A ban if you want. To bust crackers go to a. State where there is. No ban. The debate over a ban on fireworks is now an annual one in parts of India when the religious sentiments of 1 Community are weighed against the health concerns of the entire region. We're bringing back this episode we'd done a while back in which we looked at the issue of firework bans and they fall out. Deepavali itself means a row of lights. It is a festival of lights. It's not the festival of fireworks.
Fireworks itself came to India at a much later stage, you know, through trade from China and other places. And and a lot of the critics of the ban of firecrackers often say that you're looking at, you're banning firecrackers, but you're not banning these other things that cause air pollution. But that's not really true. India actually spends billions of dollars in trying to make. Transport fuel cleaner to to install solar panels and all of that.
So, and those are things we cannot do without. You know, we cannot do without moving around. We cannot do without turning on the, you know, switch and having electricity. But you can avoid firecrackers because they're not an integral part of the economy. That was our little pre Diwali fireworks. We hope you enjoyed it and that that would be the extent of your
engagement with them. Deceptively enjoyable, the fatakas and the full juries have a deadly aftermath, especially in North India which anyway battles extreme air pollution. In today's podcast, we discuss how fireworks came to India. Is it possible to get greener, more environment friendly option? And what are the lacks of people, mostly poor, who are associated with the manufacturing of fireworks? With more and more states banning fireworks, what becomes of these people?
Firecrackers manufacturing in India dates back to the beginning of 20th century. So one of the main reasons I think Shivakashi and this region called the Virudhu Nagar district now. Might have been a pioneer because it doesn't have much rain. It's an aerate as you know, it's a rain shadow region. So the dry conditions favored it started with matchbox making. So you know, the World War or the Second World War, 1939.
That was the time when, till then, you know, the British were kind of importing fireworks for whatever celebrations festivities they had. Basically, I think from the UK, or maybe you're from Germany. But after the World War this import stopped, so indigenous fireworks got a boost. And Shivakashi, probably because Madras was already with the British and Shivakashi was not too far away.
That's that could be the probable reason, and given the climatic condition, Shivakashi was a good candidate. For this so from right from 1940s, we have had these companies which got into 5 words speaking Some of the some of them who have been making matchboxes shifted to 5 words because it was more lucrative. So I think that's the history and ever since there was no looking back till probably a couple of decades ago, Shivakashi has been the leader.
It remains the leader when it comes to this industry. You just heard my colleague Arun Ram, resident Editor of Times of India, Chennai, and now my other colleague Jaya Menon, who is political editor of Ty Chennai and who is frequently reported from the town of Shirkashi, gives us a lay of the land there and why tragedy haunts the by lanes that create the instruments of our celebration. If you actually go into the areas where the factories are located.
You will find that you know the entrances are like any other, you know, establishment. It is when you get inside, you find that you know it's like a vast space because there are certain stipulations by the authority as to how the sheds should be located, how many people should be working in a shed. So you find that, you know there's it's very well kept, very clean. These are the very organized licensed factories.
Now when you go into Sivakasi and you know outside Sivakasi rather where these villages where the cottage industries thrive. In fact, I am told that at least 50% of the industry is, you know. Contributed by the cottage industries, that is where the you know, the villages the families work towards, you know are given assignments by the factories.
Not really legal, not licensed, but the you know they get a better deal out of. They may not pay as much as they would have to if, you know, workers are sitting in sheds and working so. Cottage industry is a big business and a lot of accidents happen there too. In fact, when they finish their consignments, they keep it inside the house. So they sleep along with these sacks of senior body. They call it, you know, the
small crackers. There are 1070 licensed fireworks manufacturers in Sivakasi, but many more unregulated cottage industries, several of them operating from people's homes. Even though the National Green Tribunal has laid down safety norms, adherence to them is poor and deadly accidents in norm, says Jaya Menon. Every year, at least a minimum of 10 to 15 people die in such accidents. I'm giving a very minimal kind of a figure. I'm trying to be a little, you
know, not exaggerate. Now there are also strict norms as to how you store these. You know the kind of sheds that are to be used, the kind of, you know, ventilation and where it should be located. So those kind of norms are also there. None of them are followed. Sivakashi and the district it falls under, Virudhanagar, are in the rain shadow region and therefore arid. With little by way of agriculture, poverty is rife and
the fireworks industry. Checked it about 6000 to 10,000 crore is the mainstay for families, the business employees and unusually large number of women and children, Jaya Menon tells Arun George. During the pandemic, what happened was the mothers took the children along to the a lot of women work. In fact, they say 45% of the workers are women. So when the women go to work, they took the children along. And of course it worked well
both ways. It was a win win situation for the employers and for the women, because the employers gave lower wages for the children. And for the women it was additional income. And these children were not, I mean, attending online classes, obviously, because they didn't have the wherewithal, not neither the gadgets nor the connectivity to have, you know, for them to participate in online classes. So these children were taken along by the mothers and they were actually found working with
the women. Now they were there are raids, I mean there are frequent raids and all that, but always, you know, there are, there's deals are struck on the ground, bribes are paid and even the, I mean the employers, if it's cottage industry, the villagers pay bribes to the inspectors and the work goes on. What is happening the rest of the year? And like, say, where are the men
working in that sense? That's an interesting thing because as soon as the Diwali gets over, work begins for the next Diwali. So all through it is not just Diwali. There are a lot of temple festivals like Vinay, the Vinayga, Chaturthi in Maharashtra, for instance. They are huge customers. They're big customers for Sivakasi. So through the year you have temple festivals happening across the country, so there is never a lull in business.
So for Diwa, after Diwali finishes, the work starts for the next Diwali. For the temples, festivals that come, all through the other festivals that come, So it's a continuous process. There's never a lull. With the NGT ordered green crackers, a ban on fireworks by states like Delhi, Orissa, West Bengal. Plus the pandemic of the last two years, it is all clobbered the fireworks industry, says Balaji TK.
He's part of the family that runs Sri Balaji Fireworks and is also the legal advisor to the Indian Fireworks Manufacturers Association. From the 2015, we are facing the court case pressure from all the sectors. Because of the court case, we have lost huge amount of orders. Protection, capacity, marketing and everything. And it has become a big issue for the people who have taken the credits from the bank they couldn't repaid. Many banks have liquidated the assets of many manufacturers.
The one point in that the Supreme Court case is another big issue that has to be solved. 2nd is the state going again with the band? Recently, the government of Rajasthan, which had banned firecrackers, modified its order to allow for green crackers, a concept mooted by the Supreme Court. But what exactly are green crackers? How do they work and are they effective in reducing air pollution?
Chennai TOIRE Arun Ram Vaysin. I think it's an oxymoron, the green cracker only that even Neri and other scientific institutions have agreed have. Even the manufacturers are in agreement that no cracker can be completely green. It's like calling like a healthy drink of 6 packs of whiskey. The government and agencies like Neri have decided, have put a cap on the use of certain chemicals.
And the when when firecrackers are burst, the emissions, so emissions have to be 30% less is what the last decision was. The court is still hearing this case. It's going back and forth, but there is a general agreement that a green cracker has should have an emission of 30% less than the ordinary normal cracker. When it comes to decibel levels, the decibel levels have been as high as one 5160, even around 200. Now it should not cross 125 decibels.
So these are the broad criteria of a green cracker. You know firecracker is is a is a concentrate of every imaginable pollutant as we know the the biggest pollutants being barium and you know the emissions are sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, You think of any bad thing in the air, a firecracker has it. So there is no dispute over. The environment, friendliness so to say, of any firecracker when you had a crisis in the national capital, fireworks also probably
became a point of discussion. And wherever we could cut on pollution, regular pollution, we could not cut much. Though there was a shift from diesel engines to petrol and we are still struggling with electronic automobile. But I think firecrackers was an easier target that way and rightly so. So that that problem was the beginning of a legal tasking or a movement against biker Packers. But I think parallelly there was solved also a people's movement especially driven by children
across the country. You know if you look at schools having campaigns against bike Packers, this whole fad, if I may also to go between without even understanding it, but in a in a in a good way it has resulted in a higher awareness. Balaji TK says that adapting to green crackers is challenging and expensive. It requires new formulation, but he adds that the industry is trying. We're completely going for eco friendly crackers. The main question raised by the environmentalists and
firecrackers is pollution. So to the point we can say the firecrackers in the not in the top 20 list of polluting industries. In the country and we are celebrating on one day and that's a unite uniting factor. We celebrate on Diwali. It unites all the religion people and we celebrate on newer. It unites all the religion fact people. So it's it's even though it's challenging, it's not in the top 20 list. We have to consider the religious factors associated with the happiness.
We cannot completely accept the environments and the band of fireworks and these things and all it's some religious factors. Even the car is polluting more. The PM 2.5 and PM10 particles entered by the car is much more than anything. If you look at the sources of air pollution in any given year. Or any given season for that matter. You will see that the largest sources of outdoor air
pollution, ambient air pollution are Rd. vehicles, industries, power generation, dust you know, from construction sides and roads and so on. Additionally, there are, you know, other factors such as open base burning or diesel generator sets, or in the case of Northern India, there's stubble burning as well, right? But if you look at, you know, air pollution on the specific days where.
Firecrackers are used on those days and the days surrounding it, the days following it. Firecrackers are definitely one of the biggest and most dangerous sources of air pollution or causes of health elements in that period of time. So at those very high level of concentration, air pollution from firecrackers is way more dangerous than any other source of air pollution on those specific days.
Last year, my parents got COVID. Just around Diwali, it was, you know, a coincidence that happened at that point of time, and my dad's oxygen levels in particular started dipping. Luckily, there was a firecracker ban, so there were very few firecrackers actually went off. But I was imagining if that time, if it was as bad as it had been in the previous years, where, you know, the smoke just kind of gets stuck in the air and there's no way for it to leave and there's no way for you
to escape it either. What would have happened if if you know it was that bad last year? That Siddharth Singh, author of The Great Smog of India, a definitive account of India's troubles with air pollution. He tells Arun George how abandoned fireworks can help clean up Indian skies. Firstly, bans on sales cannot be effective the way that they're being done currently, right?
These bans are often announced just a few days before Diwali, or a few days before the any given day when you're going to be using it. And that causes obviously financial harm to manufacturers as well as sellers, retailers, they become very hard to implement something when the goods that, you know, the stock of firecrackers is already in the marketplace. So it's very easy for it to leak out from there and find its way into people's homes.
You know, secondly, if they're banned in one location, for example one city, but not in the neighborhood, neighboring cities or neighboring states, then of course you know there's no restriction for people to travel and and you will find firecrackers being used from beyond that. I think a far more effective approach would be to combine a more. I guess national, regional ban with alternatives so that people still feel involved on those
particular days. You know there are in other parts of the world, for example, you have community fireworks, right? So instead of everyone buying and you know, therefore lighting fire crackers, perhaps at a social level, at at the level of neighborhoods or villages or even cities, they can be specific locations where people can congregate. And you know they can be certain types of firecrackers used that are perhaps less damaging.
Secondly, you know in in China and other parts of the world they have now started using drones. So, so imagine a night sky of drone displays where there are, you know, grand and majestic sites to be seen. I I assume that such kind of alternatives would keep people engaged and and therefore providing an alternative along with the ban would be something that would be far more
effective. Bad air quality impacts all of us. It impacts, you know, even the, in fact it impacts the person who's lighting the firecracker more than anyone else. So I'm sure they would be understanding only if we were to have a dialogue as opposed to, you know, to to extremely unplanned and disruptive changes at the last minute. But the transition to a firecracker free country is not coming anytime soon and it is fraught with environment to the one side.
And livelihood of hundreds and thousands of people on the other, says Arundram. Political parties have to take a populist, if not a populist, A sympathetic attitude towards firecracker makers. So if you see Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, an appeal to those States and Chief ministers who had banned even Green trackers. And Rajasthan was the first one to obliged so. This is this is the political aspect of it so.
But the problem remains that for many decades we have not been updating our fireworks industry to be less polluting, or rather more technology oriented. To give you a classic example, slightly strained from the main topic, it is also about the accidents if you look at it. The number of accidents, if you look at it, has gone up after probably 2000.
This is the reason I feel is because that was a time when Indian fire crack makers, fire firework makers, especially shabnashi tried to shift from their conventional traditional methods to adopt A kind of Chinese fireworks. No, Chinese are the masters of viral techniques. So. That was also the time when there was a shift from more sound to more color. But the problem was they brought in a new sulphur based new barium based bearing is the the best of colors chemicals.
But our industry most of it was. Most of it was a cottage industry did not know how to deal with it. You know we had this own way of grinding certain chemicals which led to accidents. So this is. This is a hallmark of Shivakashi, that how when the demand went up with the profits went up with the number of people depended on this industry went up.
We did not catch up with technology and make things safer and less polluting and now I think there is no point of return and we'll have to probably completely shift and rehabilitate this population to a new industry or something else. We'll have to think probably out-of-the-box because agriculture in the conventional way is not possible in such a great shadow region in the coming days. In the coming decades I'm sure that fireworks would altogether disappear.
As we have seen in some of the Far East countries and even China, there are fireworks happening without even one explosion. That is a virtual fireworks. It would light up your sky, it would give you the effect of the light, sound, everything without smoke, without emissions. So when everything is going virtually, why should we invest more on something which is endangering lives?
Today's episode was produced by Jayaraj Singh, Sunai Marathi and Anuja Singh. For a daily spotlight on people, ideas and stories that matter, subscribe to us. We are available on TOI, Spotify, Apple, Google Podcasts and all other platforms of your choice. For any news tips, e-mail us at TOI Podcast at Timesinternet in.