Jute Workers Research Articles

Effect of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Market Price of Jute in India

Jute is an important natural fiber crop cultivated in about 4 million hectares in India. Jute has the major export potential contributing to Rs.1, 000 to 1,200 crores annually. During the on-going pandemic COVID-19, the procurement is still lesser than the usual amount. As a result of the increase in demand for jute bags, there was an increase in the price of jute bags. But, the effect of COVID-19 on the prices of raw jute in the markets was not explored as most of the concerns are directed towards the jute industry and workers. Therefore, the study was carried out to assess the effect of COVID-19 pandemic on the market price of jute. The secondary data of market price and market arrival of jute before COVID-19 pandemic and during COVID-19 pandemic were collected from the official website of the Directorate of Marketing & Inspection (DMI), Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India for Champadanga (Hooghly), Jiaganj (Murshidabad), Katwa (Burdwan) markets in West Bengal and the data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Despite the price decrease during the pandemic, there was no significant difference in the price of jute before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. There were many variations in the market price of jute during the COVID-19 pandemic since the lockdown was enforced in five stages with strict restrictions in transport and other activities in the initial stages followed by relaxation in transport and other activities subsequently. There was a significant difference in the market arrivals of jute before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The arrival of jute in the market increased during COVID-19 compared to before COVID-19 because of the demand created for jute bags during lockdown due to closure of jute mills. There was a significant relationship between market price and market arrival during the COVID-19 pandemic. As the quantity of jute arrival increases the price of jute decreases in the market. Farmers did not bear the brunt of COVID-19 as much as the workers in the jute mills, it is, perhaps, because of the schedule of sowing and harvesting. As of now, the MSP for jute is less than the market price. Therefore, it is recommended that the MSP for jute should be increased to safeguard the interests of the jute farmers.

Left and communal problem: India (1925-47)

Communal disturbances broke out in Bengal over the question of victimization of some jute workers who had participated in a demonstration against the jute ordinance. Two workers had been killed and 40 injured in these disturbance. Subhas Chandra Bose had observed, “The strike breakers have fomented communal strife in order to put an end to the strike.” In the annual session of Hindu Sabha at Nagpur, the leading communal ideologue V.D. Savaarakr pleaded in his address for a Hindu National Front’ and appealed to communal minded person to boycott congress by stopping all kinds of monetary helps to it in running its affairs.

Peak Expiratory Flow Rate and Eosinophil Count in Jute Workers: A Cross- Sectional Study

Peak Expiratory Flow Rate and Eosinophil Count in Jute Workers: A Cross- Sectional Study

Byssinosis and COPD rates among factory workers manufacturing hemp and jute.

Prior studies have been performed on cotton textile plants throughout the world. This study was planned to identify the rate of byssinosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in hemp and jute workers and those who worked with both of them. The study was realized in a factory which consecutively processed hemp and jute. The study enrollment included 266 people, 164 of whom were active workers and 102 were retired. A questionnaire, plain chest X-rays, physical examination and pulmonary function tests were performed. Dust levels were measured in various sections of the factory during 8 h work shifts. Endotoxin levels of various quality hemp fibers and dusts were measured. The rate of byssinosis (28.2%) was higher among the workers that who exposed to both jute and hemp dust. The frequency of chronic bronchitis in retired workers who previously smoked was higher (20%) as compared to currently smoking workers (17%). High dust levels were measured in some parts of the factory (mean (M) = 2.69 mg/m3). Working in dense dust areas, active smoking, being older than 40 years of age, being an ex-smoker, and working in the factory for a period exceeding 15 years were significantly associated with bronchitis and emphysema development. High endotoxin levels were determined for fine hemp dust (605 EU/mg), coarse hemp dust (336 EU/mg) and poor quality hemp fibers (114 EU/mg), whereas in fresh hemp stalks the level of endotoxin was determined to be lower (0.27 EU/mg). Because of high exposures to jute and hemp dusts that are associated with high byssinosis rates, personal protection and environmental hygiene is crucial to prevention of byssinosis.

Jute in the world, worlds of jute

This paper is in two parts. The first sketches out the reach of jute round the world from ancient times to the present, and, through examples ranging from Brazil to Bangladesh and from Cote d'Ivoire to the USA, makes the case that jute has played such a significant role that it deserves a place in world history alongside other great commodities like spices, sugar, tea, cotton, coal, and oil, that have shaped global history. The second part of the paper opens up the worlds of jute - from peasants who grew the jute, to male and female workers in Calcutta and Dundee, to the factory owners and managers - and makes comparisons between jute settings in different countries. A key issue explored is the interplay between the economic and ideological forces inherent in the manufacturing and marketing of jute products and the local cultures and traditions of workers and peasants within which the drama of jute was played out.

Cultures of Protest in Transnational Contexts: Indian Seamen Abroad, 1885-1945

This paper offers a preliminary exploration of contexts and forms of protest and defiance of authority by Indian seafarers employed on ocean-going steam vessels over six decades to the end of World War II. Though relatively small in numbers and apparently untypical in many respects of a ‘modern’ industrial workforce, the study of Indian seafarers can shed interesting light on several wider aspects of Indian labour history. The transnational and trans-cultural context of employment of Indian seamen also helps illuminate their subjectivities, knowledges, and agencies in ways that are obscured in more insular histories, while their encounters with bosses and others in authority invite us to re-examine pervasive notions of cultural difference–‘owned’ as well as attributed.
 
 This paper is not about union-led protests, nor about ‘everyday’ forms of resistance. It dwells instead on a potentially vast and apparently uncharted middle ground of collective resistance by ships’ crews. Such resistance, perhaps simmering for weeks at sea, came to head at key moments, usually upon arrival at a foreign port, close to sailing, or when seamen were being transferred from one vessel to another. It could involve, besides the seamen themselves and their ships’ officers, a swathe of state agencies including local authorities, the police, and the judiciary, though rarely if ever, unions of local seamen.
 
 On the evidence here, the culture of work and protest of Indian seamen appears to have been informed by a certain rationality–a certain careful weighing of costs, benefits, and opportunities for engagement and disengagement, including through protest–that is altogether at odds with characteristic representations of Calcutta jute workers and British maritime workers enduring similar circumstances or facing similar ‘choices’. At the same time this culture was open to modern, secular, and transnational solidarities grounded in universalist values. Paradoxes of this nature demand a sustained effort to recover and re-interpret the complex but immensely creative subjectivities that Indian workers and seafarers (and needless to add other Asian, African, and Caribbean workers and seamen) developed and articulated within the fluid and liminal spaces they inhabited.

Pulmonary Function in Jute Dust‐Exposed Workers: A Dose‐Response Relationship

Pulmonary Function in Jute Dust‐Exposed Workers: A Dose‐Response Relationship: Jie Chen, et ai. Department of Pneumoconiosis, China Medical University School of Preventive Medicine—Pulmonary function tests were carried out on 488 jute‐exposed workers in a jute mill and 332 control workers. An industrial hygiene survey was also conducted. Most workers in the mill were exposed to dusts containing less than 6% silica, whereas a few workers were exposed to dusts containing approximately 10‐16% silica. The cumulative dose of dust exposure [dust level (mg/m3) X exposure year (yr)] was used as an exposure index to relate pulmonary function injury in jute workers. The results showed that jute workers had lower percentages of predicted pulmonary function than those of control workers. As the cumulative dose of dust exposure increased, average levels of pulmonary function (FVC, FEV1, MMF, V50, V25) in smoking male jute workers and V50, V25 in nonsmoking female jute workers significantly declined, and pulmonary function abnormalities (less than 80% of predicted FEVt or less than 70% of predicted V50) significantly increased as the cumulative dose of dust exposure increased. Examination of the effects of dust exposure and smoking on pulmonary function injury showed that not smoking but jute dust exposure was a factor associated with the decline in pulmonary function; Moreover, smoking interacted with dust exposure in causing declines in FEV1 Our results demonstrated that there is a dose‐response relationship between dust exposure and pulmonary function injury in jute workers. Based on this dose‐response relationship and by using the life‐table method, an exposure limit for jute dust was proposed as 4 mg/m3.

Respiratory function and immunological reactions in jute workers.

A prospective study of respiratory function was performed in a group of 70 jute and 40 control workers. At the initial study there were consistently higher prevalences of all chronic respiratory symptoms in jute workers compared to control workers; however, the differences were statistically significant only for dyspnea (P < 0.05). At the follow-up study 19 out of the original 70 jute workers were examined 19 years later. There was a significant increase in the prevalence of almost all chronic respiratory symptoms among these workers. Similar across-shift reductions of forced vital capacity (FVC) and the 1-s forced expiratory volume (FEV1) were recorded on Monday and the following Thursday at the initial study. In the 19 jute workers followed prospectively there were similar across-shift reductions of FVC and FEV1 at the first and the follow-up study, the reduction being slightly larger for FEV1 than for FVC. Only one jute worker (5.3%) and two control workers (5.7%) responded to skin testing with specific textile extracts. Two workers developed symptoms of occupational asthma. One of these workers had a positive response to skin testing with jute extract. Our data suggest that exposure to jute dust may cause the development of chronic respiratory symptoms in some workers.

A longitudinal study of lung function in jute processing workers.

A 5-y follow-up study of pulmonary function was conducted in 1982 and in 1987 for 50 current and retired jute-processing workers who had been employed for more than 10 y in a jute mill in China. Control subjects, who had no history of dust or gas exposure, were selected from a paper-packing plant in the same city. Forced expiratory maneuvers were conducted in the same manner in both 1982 and 1987. The jute workers' pulmonary functions, i.e., forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1.0), and forced expiratory flow (FEF25-75%), were more compromised than were pulmonary functions in the controls for the same 5-y period; however, only the increased incidence of abnormal FEV1.0s in jute workers was statistically significant. Male jute workers had significantly higher annual decrements of FVC, FEV1.0, and FEF25-75% than did control workers. Regression analysis indicated that in 1987, predicted values of FEV1.0 and FEF25-75% for the jute workers were related to years of employment. Our results suggest that long-term exposure to jute dust could produce chronic loss of lung function.

Women, Work and Collective Action: Dundee Jute Workers 1870 - 1906

Women, Work and Collective Action: Dundee Jute Workers 1870 - 1906

Variation of lung function during the workshift among cotton and jute workers.

Cotton and jute dust exposure is known to induce reversible airway obstruction. We compared 50 exposed workers to 99 non exposed workers for the prevalence of respiratory symptoms and ventilatory impairment, and for variations in pulmonary function after five working days and after inhalation of salbutamol. The prevalence of respiratory symptoms was not significantly different between the two groups. Pulmonary function was not different on Monday morning, however, significant differences were observed on Friday afternoon. The exposed workers had a lower flow rate at 75% of exhaled forced vital capacity than controls (P less than 0.01). Salbutamol induced greater bronchodilatation in the exposed group. Comparison with a control group is necessary to take into account the change in pulmonary function. Repeated tests, combined with pharmacological tests, are able to differentiate the lung function pattern of exposed and non exposed workers.

Effects of different vegetable dust exposures.

Valic, F., and Žuskin, E. (1972). Brit. J. industr. Med., 29, 293-297. Effects of different vegetable dust exposures. In order to establish the rank of biological activity of vegetable dusts, five groups of non-smoking female workers exposed to similar concentrations of hemp, flax, cotton, sisal, and jute airborne dust, respectively, were compared as to the prevalence of byssinosis, chronic respiratory symptoms, and one-second expiratory volume changes over the Monday shift. The groups were selected in such a way as to differ in the distribution of age and length of exposure to the respective dust as little as possible. The prevalence of byssinosis in hemp and flax workers was approximately equal (44% and 43% respectively), in cotton workers it was considerably lower (27%), while no byssinosis was caused by either sisal or jute dust. The highest prevalence of other chronic respiratory symptoms was recorded in hemp workers (39%), followed by flax (36%) and cotton workers (27%), while in sisal (13%) and jute workers (13%) it was the lowest. Significant mean FEV 1·0 reductions over the shift were recorded in all the groups of textile workers with the largest reductions in hemp workers (19%) followed by flax (11%), cotton (8%), sisal (7%), and jute workers (5%). The application of orciprenaline before the shift diminished the mean acute FEV 1·0 falls over the work shift in all the groups studied.

A comparative study of respiratory function in female non-smoking cotton and jute workers

<b>Valić, F., and Žuškin, E. (1971).</b><i>Brit. J. industr. Med.,</i><b>28,</b> 364-368. <b>A comparative study of respiratory function in female non-smoking cotton and jute workers.</b> To compare the effect of cotton and jute dust, respiratory symptoms were studied and respiratory function measured in 60 cotton and 91 jute non-smoking female workers of similar age distribution, similar length of exposure to dust, and exposed to similar respirable airborne dust concentrations. Cotton workers had a significantly higher prevalence of byssinosis, of persistent cough, and of dyspnoea (P &lt; 0·01) than jute workers. Among cotton workers 28·3% were found to have characteristic symptoms of byssinosis, whereas none was found among jute workers. Exposure to cotton but also to jute dust caused significant reductions of FEV_1·0, FVC, and PEF (P &lt; 0·01) over the first working shift in the week. Functional grading of jute and cotton dust effects has shown that about 30% of cotton workers had functional grades F1 and F2, while only 13% of jute workers were found in the same grades (F1). It is concluded that cotton dust may be considered more active than jute though the latter cannot be considered inactive.

Ventilatory capacity changes on exposure to cotton dust and their relevance to byssinosis in Australia.

The same plan of investigation as was used in a previous study of jute workers (Gandevia and Milne, 1965) has been applied to a survey of 50 workers in the blowroom and carding and spinning area of a Sydney cotton mill. Significant decreases in ventilatory capacity were recorded on Friday, Monday, and the following Thursday, with, on the average, complete `overnight9 recovery, as indicated by similar morning values. Slightly, but not significantly, greater differences were observed in seven subjects with mild byssinotic symptoms and in five subjects with an observed productive cough on request. No effect of sex, shift, or history of cough and sputum was demonstrable. By contrast with the jute workers, no influence of smoking habit was apparent. The larger decreases in ventilatory capacity were observed in those with the higher F.E.V.<sub>1·0</sub>:F.V.C. ratios, whereas the reverse trend was noted in the jute workers. The occurrence of significant large decreases in those employed in the industry for less than a month, in conjunction with other evidence, suggests that a factor of `self-selection9 may be operative among cotton employees in this country and may be related to the apparently low prevalence of clinically important byssinosis. Attention is drawn to two different patterns of change of ventilatory capacity over a week in subjects exposed to dusts sometimes associated with symptoms of byssinosis; the relationship of these changes and of chronic bronchitis to the development of clinical byssinosis is discussed.

Dust diseases in Dundee textile workers. An investigation into chronic respiratory disease in jute and flax industries.

A survey of respiratory symptoms and function was carried out in Dundee among 123 men and women in the jute industry and 242 in the flax industry. The selection of workers was biassed in favour of those working in the dustier departments as judged by eye and those in the older age groups. A group of 72 men in a heavy engineering firm were also selected as controls for comparison. Chronic bronchitis, as defined by Ogilvie and Newell (1957) was recorded in 27% of those interviewed, whose average age was 49. Byssinosis of various grades was recorded in 30% of all working in flax; of these 35 had cough alone worse on Monday, 34 had other respiratory symptoms worse on Monday and in only four persons did the exacerbation persist longer in the week. In spite of the occurrence of byssinosis, chronic bronchitis was no more prevalent among flax workers than among the others, the average ventilatory function was no worse, and radiographs of the chest revealed no differences. The characteristic fall in expiratory flow rate during the course of exposure to flax dust on Mondays is similar to that found in cotton workers, and is absent in jute workers and in flax workers not admitting to symptoms of byssinosis.

Dermatoses in jute workers.

Although skin changes in workers associated with the manufacture of various textiles, especially cotton, have been the subject of numerous com munications (e.g., Southam, 1927 ; Brockbank, 1941) there are few references in the literature to dermatoses in jute workers. Henry (1947) refers to one case of scrotal carcinoma in a jute worker out of a total of 1,421 notifications to the Factory Inspectorate. Even the standard textbooks on occupational diseases of the skin (Schwartz, Tulip?n, and Peck, 1947 ; Prosser White, 1934) contain little information on this subject, and a paper on jute dermatitis in Indian workers (Curjel and Acton, 1924) describes only the follicular lesions of oil acne. There has not been, to our knowledge, any com prehensive survey of skin changes in jute workers. One of us (J. K.) had noted certain changes on the exposed skin of elderly jute workers, and since the major part of jute manufacture in Britain is con centrated in or around Dundee, it seemed that a planned survey in this region would fill a gap in our knowledge and produce results of some value. This study only refers to skin changes which may be associated with the manufacture of jute from its raw state as received in this country to the finished woven article. The principal difference between the manufacture of jute and that of most other fibres is that jute has to be treated with a mixture or emulsion of oil and water before it can be spun ; the jute worker therefore is exposed to an unnaturally oily fibre in addition to any contact with oil used in lubricating the machinery. Up till about 25 years ago whale oil was used but since then varying proportions of mineral oil have been added and whale oil has been used less and less until the recent war years when its scarcity and high price stopped its use altogether. The oil is added to the jute fibre in the first stage of manufacture (known as batching ) when it is softened between rollers. It is then prepared by a carding process similar to that used in the cotton and woollen industry ; the sliver ribbon then goes through the drawing department in which it is thinned and elongated and is then twisted on to bobbins ready for spinning. Jute spinning, unlike cotton spinning, is done on frames with spindles revolving at the high speed of some 4,000 revolutions per minute. The spun yarn is wound either for the warp ( spool-winding ) or for the weft ( cop-winding ) and the beamers make the warp thread ready for the weavers. Woven jute is coarse material, used for a variety of purposes such as sacks or backing for linoleum. The woven cloth may be taken to the sewing flat for conversion into sacks or to the calender where it is folded, rot-proofed if need be, and otherwise prepared for the market. In one establishment we visited there was a tar house in which jute yarn was coated with tar for a special purpose. Terms used for other workers are self explanatory. All had contact with jute except the office and canteen staffs. Our investigation was divided into two main parts : (1) a clinical survey covering a period of one year (July, 1952 to August, 1953) of all new patients over the age of 16 attending the ordinary skin out patients clinic of Dundee Royal Infirmary, the only centre for such clinics in the city ; and (2) a field survey of all workers in seven jute mills and factories in the city.