Using hard labour and basic technology, workers at this factory on the outskirts of Kolkata transform scrap leather into fertiliser.
The labourers who carry out the crude process – involving cooking the leather offcuts in huge brick ovens – earn just under $5 a day.
. KOLKATA, India. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood
Smoke billows from the brick ovens where the leather offcuts are heated before the residue is spread out to dry in the sun – a common way of producing fertiliser in the area.
. KOLKATA, India. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood
Over 100 people work for several individuals who own the ovens at the factory.
The fertiliser they produce is sold on to wholesalers who then flog it to farmers, poultry keepers and fisheries.
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Slideshow
. KOLKATA, India. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood
A labourer walks over a heap of scrap leather.
. KOLKATA, India. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood
A worker pulls a piece of leather from a pile.
. KOLKATA, India. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood
He flings leather from the heap.
. KOLKATA, India. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood
Workers rest on a mound of leather.
. KOLKATA, India. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood
Men carry leather to be cooked in an oven.
. KOLKATA, India. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood
A labourer chops scrap leather with a cleaver.
. KOLKATA, India. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood
Workers prepare the material to be cooked.
. KOLKATA, India. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood
Smoke rises from an oven.
. KOLKATA, India. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood
A labourer pours water into a huge pan, in which the leather scraps are boiled with paddy waste.
. KOLKATA, India. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood
A labourer shovels fertiliser out of a pan at the end of the cooking process.