With vivid colours, adornment aplenty and the very familiar accompanying tinkling, bangles are one tradition that has zealously been kept alive for generations. Such an integral part of female ‘ensembles’ are they that the celebration of Eid seems almost meaningless to women if they are robbed of the pleasure of accessorising with bangles that match their outfits for the special day.

Women throng bazaars, especially in the last week of Ramazan, where showcases full of bangles in every colour, style and size, lure them, almost magnetically.

Made from plastic, metal or most popularly, glass, bangles attract all females, from young girls who often don the glittery glass variety, to older women who prefer gold or gold-plated ones. On occasions like Eid and the wedding ‘season’ special varieties of bangles can be spotted at various stalls in the market, set in elaborate displays and seemingly screaming, “Buy Me!”

Regular glass bangles are immensely popular among the middle and lower-middle income groups, whilst those belonging to the upper strata splurge on gold, especially the kundan variety. Thari style bangles that cover one’s arm up to the elbows or even higher also seem to be a popular trend these days.

Famed for its palla fish and sweetmeats such as rabri, Hyderabad is also home to a sprawling bangle making cottage industry. It’s not as glamorous as it sounds, though.

Before they end up in the market, to be admired by discerning customers, these bangles pass through quite a few hands. Whilst the end product is a thing of beauty — a symbol of celebration — the fact is that bangle workers have a miserable existence, scraping money together to barely make ends meet. They put their lives at risk, exposing themselves to innumerable health hazards during the manufacturing process to earn a modest living.

Only a few buyers are aware of the pathetic conditions the workers are subjected to whilst making the product itself. Once the finishing touches have been applied, the bangles themselves look so glamorous that it is difficult to associate them with destitution.

Actually though, bangles are made by recycling the glass in discarded bottles, etc., which are painstakingly sifted from garbage by rag pickers.

This glass is thrown into a furnace to melt and is then shaped into bangles. Men work in such sweltering factories without proper safeguards, exposing themselves to the risk of asthma, loss of eyesight and other disabling illnesses.

Now comes the role of the contractors, who seem to have no qualms about thoroughly exploiting the workers. They deliver the bangles to women in their homes for what is known in the bangle industry as sadai (levelling) and jurai (welding the ends), which are complicated tasks, yet very poorly paid.

“We get Rs2 per tora (around 314 or so bangles) for sadai. We do about 20 toras a day to earn Rs40,” says Shazia, who is assisted by her little sister — a class IV student — in earning a little money to run the house.

No better off is Parveen, who works with her daughter in jurai. “They pay us Rs4.50 for one pair of bangles and we work on around 25 pairs for about four to five hours a day to supplement our income,” says a bespectacled Parveen.

Jurai is a tricky job wherein the workers have to keep their eyes riveted to the flame to weld both ends of the bangles. In the process, most workers end up damaging their eyes — Parveen’s glasses, which she bitterly calls the “fruit” of her labour, are testimony to the fact.

Though given the status of a “home-based industry”, these families live and work in nothing better than slums. Owing to the government’s apathy, labour laws apply to neither bangle factory workers, nor the women working at home.

A 1998 Inter-national Labour Organisation (ILO) survey estimates that 10,000 families are associated with the bangle industry. The factory owners get away with providing their workers neither a social security allowance, nor a gratuity or pension under Employees Old Age Benefit Institute (EOBI). The employees aren’t even allowed annual leave, nor are they paid the government-fixed minimum wage of Rs7,000 a month.

Labour leader, Rana Mehmood Ali Khan, deplores the fact that despite the various seminars held by the ILO on this issue, nothing tangible is being done to ameliorate the lot of workers, who are denied all facilities made mandatory under labour laws.

“The government seems uninterested in putting its foot down to ensure due wages to bangle workers,” he points out.

On the other hand, contractors, factory owners and whole-sellers make major gains out of the sale of bangles. Fancy bangles are sold, at the very least, at Rs15 to Rs18 per dozen.

The cost of four decorated bangles with two bracelets having special work on them can be as high as Rs180, which reflects the profit involved at the retailer’s end.