Falling global demand, environmental regulations and contemporary cow politics have choked the leather economy of Uttar Pradesh’s largest industrial city.
Shadab Hussain, 23, dropped out of school at age 11 to work in a leather factory in Kanpur, the oldest and largest industrial city of India’s most populous state. To support his family, parents and four siblings, he worked eight-hour shifts every day for a monthly salary of Rs 9,000.
Over eight years, he remained semi-literate, but he learned the fine art of creating new shoe designs from photos, making sure the shoes would fit, last and be comfortable. But his skills did not change his status as a casual worker with no medical or other benefits and no prospect of pension. As Hussain came of age working with cow hides, Kanpur’s once booming leather economy began to shrink, pushed to the edge by falling global demand, environmental regulations and contemporary cow politics.
Three years ago, with no prospects of a better life or a pay hike, Hussain and five friends from his mohalla (neighbourhood) quit the only job they knew. He drives an autorickshaw today; the others run roadside snack stalls.
In the 1990s, Kanpur’s leather industry employed a million workers (there is no official data), according to IndiaSpend’s inquiries with the government and leather-industry representatives. With 176 of 400 leather tanning units shutting over 10 years, according to a joint secretary –who requested anonymity since he is not authorised to talk to the media – in Uttar Pradesh’s industries department, that number has halved.
But earnings from the auto were irregular, from Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 a month. So, Hussain is about to begin a job designing and fixing “uppers” (the upper part of a shoe that contains the tongue) at a shoe factory in Noida, located in Uttar Pradesh but an extension of the metropolitan region of Delhi, India’s richest province, by per-capita income.
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