Alang se palang” (from Alang to the deathbed) is a grim saying among workers at the ship breaking yard in Alang in Gujarat. This proved true for five workers who died in a gas explosion on June 28, sparking fresh concern on environmental and safety standards. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) had commissioned a study on Alang in 2013 by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). Preliminary findings indicate that conditions have hardly improved despite official claims to the contrary. The final report is due for submission by July 30. The study is based on intensive year-long field work at Alang Sosiya from April 21, 2013. The preliminary report, which looks at the challenges of implementing workers’ rights, finds poor enforcement of safety regulations, inadequate health facilities and an abysmal track record of punishments. There are just two health facilities — an understaffed nine-bed hospital run by the Red Cross Society (which came up in 2003) and a small clinic run by a private doctor. There is no operation theatre or emergency facilities and injured workers have to wait for hours for the government ambulance or the one provided by the ship breaking association to get to Bhavnagar, 50 km away. From 1983 to 2013, 470 deaths were reported in the ship breaking yard, according to official records. Mr. Geetanjoy Sahu, assistant professor and chairperson, Centre of Science, Technology and Society, TISS, who headed the study, had to use the Right to Information Act to get these facts. The real number could be much higher. The Alang Sosiya ship breaking yard, in operation since 1983, has dismantled nearly 6,318 vessels producing three million metric tons of scrap metal annually. According to Mr. Sahu, ship breaking violates several national and international regulations related to pollution, hazardous waste and labour rights. He sought details of the number of prosecutions and the status of the cases on violations of the Factories Act from 1983 to 2013. Of the 576 cases, 338 had not reached any conclusion. A number of vacant posts in the Directorate of Industrial Safety and Health is another problem. Of the sanctioned 349 posts in class I to IV scale, only 202 have been filled. One Special Assistant Commissioner of Labour and a Labour Officer were recently appointed at Alang. It was only after the Supreme Court’s directions in 1997 and 2003, that infrastructure was built to handle hazardous wastes. Preliminary report finds poor enforcement of safety regulations, inadequate health facilities