60 THE WEEK • AUGUST 4, 2019
UTTAR PRADESH
LEATHER INDUSTRYeight employees, which depend on the Common
Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) run by the Jal
Nigam. Tanneries pay a monthly user charge of
0 5.33 per hide for treatment of the water they
send to the plant. Most of the estimated five lakh
employed by the industry—many among them
migrants like Kishwari—have depended on the
smaller units for generations.
Many of these units come under the Small
Tanners Association. Its president Hafizur
Rehman says that the government had falsely
held the industry responsible for discharging
effluents in the Ganga. According to him, the
discharge from the tanneries goes to a network of
underground channels—think of it as a conveyor
system—and onwards to the CETP, from where
it is treated and carried to fields to be used in
irrigation. “If we were to release our water, it
would spill on to the roads as there is no way for it
to bypass the channels,” he says. “The government
does not care. We are surviving on just one meal a
day. We have had a grim Eid (in June). There was
no money to even buy clothes for the children. The
situation cannot continue.”
The first leather factory was set up in 1858,
and since then the industry has steadily grown.
A chronicle of the district’s history penned in
1858 by Durghaee Lal, who was employed in
Kanpur’s High Court, reads: ‘The industry, which
first made Cawnpore famous, was that connected
with the tanning and currying of leather and
the production of articles made therefrom.”
The British promoted the industry to meet the
demands of its troops. Kanpur accounts for more
than 20 per cent of the leather and leather goods
exported from the country. Experts say that the
leather produced here is of a compact and moist
quality, lending it a kind of durability that makes
it ideal for use in military boots, safety shoes and
saddlery that are put to rough use. The industry is
an inclusive employer, taking in men and women
from different religions and of different skill sets.
Last year, it earned 0 10,000 crore, of which 0 6,500
crore came from exports.
Sarveshwar Shukla, joint commissioner of
industries (Kanpur Division), says that the
government’s commitment to promoting the
industry could not be questioned. “Our coffers are
open for its promotion,” he says. “We are providing
loans, skill training, marketing support, tool kits
and fiscal incentives to it. But there must be a
switchover to clean and sustainable technologies.”
The help that Shukla refers to is part of thegovernment’s One District One
Product (ODOP) scheme, initiated
in 2018 to support and develop
indigenous products and crafts that
are unique to the state’s 75 districts.
In Lucknow, for instance, it is the
craft of chikan embroidery. In
Kanpur, it is leather. In 2018-2019,
loans totalling over 0 3.38 crore were
provided to 16 beneficiaries for
expansion of the leather business
under ODOP. These beneficiaries,
as per documents procured by THE
WEEK, include those who have
criticised the government for the
current crisis. There are murmursMOUNTING TROUBLES
A worker sorts hides at
a tannery in Kanpur. The
closure of tanneries has
led to immense loss of
livelihood, especially to
those working in smaller
unitsPAWAN KUMAR