Why India's Famous Handcrafted Scissors Are So Risky To Make | Risky Business | Business Insider

It may be impressive what they can do with so little but its insane that people somehow find this acceptable. These people are being completely taken advantage, that one guy literally worked through severe burns he got because a lack of any safety concerns.... this is just depressing,

I read in a Victorian book "...no boy should never go into occupations which put metals in the air, for such a livelihood is the ruin of the lungs". How is it that modern India hasn't realised this or the importance of masks yet?

I'm sorry, but artisan scissors or not, it's not worth $3 and 80% chance of lung disease, especially when there's safer modern methods of making scissors today.

Pouring molten metal barefoot inches from where they are standing is one of the hardest jobs I have ever seen. They should at least wear their safety sandals.

no industry lasts the test of time. at one point the whole world ran off whale oil, and then the arrival of petroleum erased entire industries over night

The odd part is , if yiu vidit an Italian gunmaker’ s factory floor, everything is bright , aired , excellent settings. One can only wonder what these Indian dudes would do if given the same setup. They are gold.

As horrendeus the conditions people work in are, it's fascinating what they are able to make with old, worn out equipment

Put tariffs on the Chinese scissors, win for the government and the manufacturers.

what a joke. they have found the most complicated, expensive and dangerous way to produce a simple product .... theses people are working with no PPE for $3 a day and they have to spend money/time transporting the different parts all over the city to different factories where other people work with no PPE to finish the final product. they don't even bother to streamline and cut down on production time/cost by using one factory to build the product because "this is the way we have alwase done it"......

Most of the countries outside Europe and North America are like this, dangerous conditions and make next to nothing.

As someone who does blacksmithing and uses a pair of scissors that's least 50 years old, i watch this and know there product is likely quite high quality compared to china's one but the workers are getting screwed especially if there is 18% tax which means the government is making a large cut + the owner and not to mention there is ways to remove smoke etc that don't cost money (have been around for centuries) - this is exploitation but the problem is if they don't work they don't get feed but could possibly create a union of workers to stop getting screwed (life isn't simple but its always hard to see people getting screwed when it doesn't need to be this way)

I feel for people likes these. I wish I can go and do something. No one cares about health there. There is nothing controlled. Please give them all the happiness in life…

It’s what Sheffield in England is known for since the 1500s. Cutlery and associated products, including scissors. That industry still exists today, albeit to a much safer standard due to the UK laws. Even sand casting (my job) is still risky but the best safety measures are taken otherwise you get shutdown. The industry in Meerut/India will survive. It will dwindle like in Sheffield but it will still survive.

Wow. I have great, great respect for these hard-working men, toiling away for long hours just to feed their families. Knowing that this occupation will shorten their lives........Around here, I can't even find someone to mow my lawns.

It sucks how terrible the conditions are and the danger they work with. But I respect them for making things with quality

It literally looks like hell on earth

this so impressive!.. I am feeling so grateful for having my life so lucky and full of care

Our family owns a pair of Meerut Scissors, nothing has compared to the sharpness and quality of these scissors. These things stay sharp for long, and you can make some really precise cuts with them, despite their large size.

Huge respect to these people.

No hearing protection. No protective eyewear. No respirator. That’s a terrible employer