No healthcare facilities for them

The shipbreaking business at Chittagong was an accident. Literally. In 1965, a 20,000 dead weight tonne (DWT) vessel was driven ashore by devastating tidal waves. It turned out to be the first ship scrapped on the Chittagong beach. Again, in 1970, another major cyclone drove a few ships ashore. These were also scrapped as it was impossible to salvage them en masse. Ships damaged in the 1971 war were also scrapped here. All this scrap fed re-rolling mills. "These events strengthened the idea of breaking ships to get raw materials for iron products and make business with scrap,' says Bishwajit Roy, a Chittagong-based occupational and environmental health expert, in his research on