“It is only for pride that we are in this industry. It is now a big question of survival,” said Mr J. Devadoss, Secretary, South India Match Manufacturers Association. His statement conveyed the distress of the safety match industry, which once used to be the pride of the small town of Kovilpatti, located nearly 60 km from the port town of Tuticorin.
Ten years ago, there were nearly 10,000 safety match factories in southern India employing nearly 7.50 lakh people. This has now dropped to nearly 1,000 units employing 50,000. Some of the biggest production centres include Kovilpatti, Sivakasi, Virudhunagar, Ettayyapuram and Sattur. The total production is estimated to be around 800 lakh bundles per year withrevenues of around Rs 2,000 crore.
Labour shortage
There is an acute shortage of workers in this handmade sector forcing the industry to go in for modernisation by importing old machines from China. Ten years ago, young people migrated from the agricultural sector to safety match industry, thus taking pride in working in factories. However, in the last few years, they have moved to textile, retail and gem and jewellery sectors, said Mr Devadoss.
For instance, youngsters are recruited by large textile companies located in bigger cities. They are given good food and a decent place to stay while their salary is directly sent to families back home. “Nobody is now looking at the safety match industry as a career option,” he said. This is despite the fact that a person can earn around Rs 150 every day, he said.
Types of production
There are three types of safety match production. In the hand-made style, dipping of matches in wax, box filling, labelling and packing are all done manually .In the second category, it is partially mechanised manufacturing where the dipping is done by machines and the box filling, label pasting and packing are all donemanually. Further, where dipping is done with the help of machines, the splints (the small-size match sticks that come from Kerala) are transferred to or purchased by units where the processes are done manually.
The third category is fully mechanised manufacturing . However, there are not many units in this segment due to the high cost of importing the machinery from China, said Mr Devadoss.
Raw material
According to Mr S.S.D. Krishnamoorthy, Managing Director, Liberty Match Company (P) Ltd, a leading manufacturer of safety matches in Kovilpatti, the cost of raw material has gone up 50-60 per cent in the last one year. A kilogram of wooden splint has increased to Rs 35 from Rs 22 a year ago while a kilogram of outer card board to Rs 37 from Rs 24.
Government support
Mr Krishnamoorthy urged the State Government to provide incentives to this industry, which is one of the oldest in the State, dating back to 1920s. “It is only a matter of time the entire industry will be gone if the Government does not help us,” he said.
(To be concluded)