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Women Who Make A Livingcrushing Stones For N100 A Day by memud001(m): 10:06am On Dec 07, 2014 |
Alirat Osunbayo is 54 years old. But under the blazing tropical sun at Quarry Road, Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, she looks much older. Her sweat-drenched slim and seemingly fragile frame, however, belies the physical strength she displays as she steadily chips away at the huge stump of rock before her, reducing it to small pebbles. Osunbayo has been breaking huge rocks for almost 20 years. She is not alone in this rather strenuous way to eke out a living. She is one of the several women who struggle to earn their livelihood from cutting rocks into small stones at the quarry site located at the Abeokuta North Local Government area of the state. No man was seen breaking rocks in the different quarry sites our correspondent visited for three days. As she spoke with our correspondent in a soft tone while massaging her chirped and blister covered palms, Osunbayo smiled ruefully and declared that that was the only thing she knew how to do to keep hunger away. She said, “What else do you want me to do? With this job, at least, I’m sure of putting food on my table.” Almost oblivious of the hot sun from which she took shelter under a small mat hung on a tripod; Osunbayo continued hitting her crude hammer on rocks cutting them into smaller pieces. The ding-dong and hollow sounds of iron connecting with rocks emanating from the hordes of women bent laboriously over their tasks filled the dust infused air of the work site. As the women constantly hemmed at the huge pieces of rocks, one could see pain and despair etched on their strong faces. These are common sights at the no fewer than three quarry sites scattered round the Rock City of Abeokuta. At the end of a day’s work which lasts for not less than 10 excruciating hours under the elements, the rocks which have been reduced to pebbles are filled into head pans and sold. Each head pan, according to Sobayo and her colleagues vary in size and quality. They sell as low as N100 (less than $1) and as high as N400 (about $2) Sobayo said, “I work from morning to dusk; I stop work around 6:30 or 7pm when it’s dark and I can no longer see very well. I do this every day, except on days I go to the Lafenwa market to sell salt.” [/media-credit] Women who make a living crushing stones for N100 a day The Lafenwa market is an old market in the bowel of the Abeokuta North Local Government Area of the state. It is opened for business every other five days. “My three children and I used to work at the quarry when my husband died. We were sure of taking home a substantial amount of money. Now things are a bit difficult, my children had to move to Lagos to make ends meet. Luckily, I was able to get this job. I’m sure of putting food on my table. ” One of the sites where the women work had not always been in its present state. Until two and a half years ago, it was a site of a booming stone business patronised by dust merchants all over the southwest geo-political zone of the country. But suddenly, according to Mrs. Yemisi Fowowe who is a rock cutter and dealer, the quarry was put up for sale. The rock merchants shifted base and the place became desolate. But a few stragglers stayed behind. The Commissioner for Information,Ogun State, Yusuph Olaniyonu, told SUNDAY PUNCH that he wasn’t aware of any existing issue between the government and rock dealers over the closure of the quarry. Hard work, small pay “In a day, I try to break as many rocks into smaller pebbles to fill four head pans. But on days when I don’t feel strong enough, I fill only two head pans. One head pan fetches me N20. If I break four head pans, I get paid N80 (50 US cents),” said Sobayo. Just a short walk from Sobayo, Madam Muyibatu Rasaki hit harder at her rock with full concentration. For 65- year-old Rasaki, breaking four head pans of stones is a ride in the park. With sweat dripping down her face, Rasaki said sometimes she would not eat until she filled 40 head pans which would fetch her N2,500 (about $14). “I am so used to this job that whenever I’m not at work, my body feels funny. I can’t sit idle. I’ve been doing this job for more than 20 years. I started when I got married. This is the only skill I know and my husband is dead. With the money I made over time; I was able to buy myself a commercial grinding machine,” she told our correspondent. For two hours in a stretch, Rasaki kept breaking the mould of rocks before her; she was so engrossed with the work that she did not notice when one of her fingers started bleeding until her attention was called to it by our correspondent. “Don’t worry my daughter, it’s just blood, I didn’t even know I had a wound. I can’t stop; I have to complete my target. I’ve lost count of the number of times I broke a finger or had a deep cut, it’s part of the job,” she said. For 65-year-old Madam Fowowe and her 45-year-old daughter, Modinatu Salami, the stone breaking trade has become a generational thing. Both mother and child work on the site. Just like Fowowe and Bola Mustapha, Mama Salau is 60 years old and she breaks 20 big rocks which would fetch her N1,000. Breaking the bigger stones requires more strength, so why did Salau opt for this? “I need more money,” she simply said. Clad in a light blue iro and buba, Salau tucked her wrapper in between her thighs and began hitting the piece of rock into shape with a hammer and akoro (sickle). Salau’s inclination is different from most of the women. She makes local grinding stones which she sells for N500 while the hand-made moulded grinding stone goes for N1,000. Salu said with a smile, “N1, 000 is a lot of money for me. In the mornings I sell cooked beans, but I don’t make much money from it. I’ve been a quarry worker for 10 years. This is where I get the money I really live on.” Asked how she fared in the trade, Salau was reluctant to talk. She hesitated before answering, “My body has become used to pain. There are days when I get home and my whole body is aching, but I can’t stop this job, I need the money.” Explaining the process of producing small pebbles used for construction, the Chairman Ifedodun Foundation Association Quarry, Mr. Taiwo Mustapha said rocks are blasted in the local way. “A hole is drilled under the rock and timber or tyres are used to ignite a fire in it. The fire is left to burn in the rock. This helps to soften it. This process could take two or three days. Once the rock is soft enough, it explodes.” He explained that the process of the rock blasting could be very dangerous and that people and workers must stay away from the site when it is being carried out. “After the blast, the pieces of rocks are then broken with a sledge hammer. The parts are broken into sizes we call lump; the lumps weigh between 100-1000kg. These will then be broken into block sizes.” Mustapha said after this stage, the block size rocks are broken into smaller sizes called hard core. “The last size of rock is granite. However, hard core could be used for various things. They are used for constructing the floor of filling stations, storey buildings and German floors. They could also be used for walls,” he said. Mustapha explained further that granite stones are usually used at construction sites and that they come in three quarter or half-inch size. “These granites when sieved produce what we call ‘rice’ and quarry dust. They are used in the construction of pillars, bore holes and road tarring,” he added. Mustapha noted that through these processes, workers use their hands. He said, “There is nothing a machine can do that our hands can’t do, the only difference is that the machine would be faster.” He continued, “Approximately 120 head pans would fill a five-ton lorry. To fill a truck, one would need 90 head pans. Each head pan costs between N400 and N500. Those who sell granites to construction companies make about N20,000 on a truck and N40,000 on lorries.” Health challenges With the strenuous nature, its hazards and the absence of health insurance, they constantly take pain killers to dull the pain of the job. “I take Paracetamol to ease the pains and aches I have after each day’s work. It is the cheapest drug we can afford. Whenever I wake in the morning, my prayer is that nothing terrible should happen to me at work because I don’t have the money to pay for hospital bills,” Salau told our correspondent looking down at her hands and feet which were covered with old and fresh scars. “Getting wounds on this job is normal, one just has to make sure it isn’t a deep cut, if not, one is in trouble,” she added. Madam Fowowe who has been a quarry worker for more than 10 years, said they had no health insurance cover or policy. “Who will cover us? We don’t have money to waste on health insurance. It is those who have eaten enough that do health insurance. There is Paracetamol in the market; I would rather buy N20 Paracetamol than pay thousands of Naira to somebody.” Her daughter, Salami, who had also put in10 years in the job, was ignorant of what health insurance meant. And even after listening to the benefits of health insurance, she concluded: “It is a waste of time.” Speaking on the health challenges associated with inhaling dust, a respiratory chest physician, Dr. Cajetan Onyedum, said the women were at risk of respiratory diseases or even losing their sight should the pebbles enter their eyes. He said, “They are often prone to chronic, obstructive airway diseases, occupational asthma and the actual deposition of dust in the substance of the lungs leading to interstitial occupational lung diseases. Some of these diseases could become very serious attaining life threatening. Even after they leave the job, their health may not return become normal, however, It depends on the duration of exposure and the degree of the injury to lungs before leaving the job. “It’s advised that these women quit such jobs early, it’s known that quitting early will help in slowing the progression of the damage to the lungs in these women.” Why we employ women — Quarry owners But why have these women chosen to do a job that is energy sapping? Mrs. Oriyomi Shittu who runs a quarry business and also works as a stone cutter explained: “Women are more committed and focused. If they want to break rocks to fill 50 head pans, they would do it, but men get distracted. I don’t have any man working for me. I don’t employ men, I employ only women.” Fowowe also added that woman have proved to work harder at her quarry then men. She added that hand- made gravels are bigger and better than those made with a crusher. A crusher is a machine designed to reduce large rocks into smaller rocks, gravel, or rock dust. “Women don’t disappoint on the job. Also, contractors prefer to buy hand-made gravels,” she added. Mrs. Olu Okuribido, a quarry business owner corroborated this. She said, “I employ women because they are faster and more committed.” Abandoned gold mine SUNDAY PUNCH learnt that the quarry business in the area started in the 1980s. However, about two and a half years ago, the major quarry site in Ogun State was reportedly locked up by the Federal Ministry of Works and sold to an estate developer. Okuribido said, “The place is now an estate, but it has been left undeveloped for two and a half years. The company that bought the site hasn’t even cleared the land. I think it is really unfair that the government should displace poor families to please a company. We didn’t do anything wrong, we had been paying our dues. The place used to be a beehive of activities in the past. “The last time we met with the Federal Ministry of Works, I made the officials know that there were so many families feeding from the site and that teenagers might resort to robbery if the jobs they did here were taken away from them. The government officials promised not to lock up the place. But to my surprise, they still went ahead to effect the closure. “But I laugh at the government; they are shooting themselves in the foot. So much money is buried in that land,” she laughed. The quarry industry is vital to the economic and social well-being of every nation, and should not be treated lightly, experts say. Professor Sheriffdeen Tella of the Department of Economics, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, pointed out that women still work in quarry sites because they have no alternatives. He said, “Quarry is a strenuous job and women who work there won’t add much value to the economy. Their role, if captured in the statistics of the economy would be little. This is because they won’t be able to crush as many rocks like men. The bottom line is our economy is still battling with unemployment and until this is sorted out; we would still find women doing such jobs.” Tella, however, noted that there are other jobs dominantly for men that women opt for. These according to him include engineering. He attributed this to the way our economy has been structured. He continued, “The majority of the women working in quarry sites are breadwinners, which isn’t something new though. When men lose their jobs, the responsibility of the home indirectly rests on women. I wouldn’t expect them to be engaged in such type of job except they are financially pressed. “On the other hand, government can’t make this job illegal for women except it wants to starve them to death. The way forward is for government to provide alternatives. Secondly, government must care for the welfare of its citizens and most especially the elderly.” Similarly, a former Head, Department of Economics, Prof. Abayomi Adebayo, said the women might remain in a vicious cycle of poverty because the money they make would not take them far. “There is a law that when one’s income is low, one’s expenditure would be low. This is applicable to these women. Except if they receive some form of intervention from the government, they may continue doing this job for years.” Adebayo, however, noted that some women have resorted to such strenuous jobs because that is what is readily available for them. “People commit themselves to activities that are readily available in the area where they are located to make ends meet. Some of them are trying to survive even though the job is uncomfortable and rigorous. The condition is definitely pitiable. But for somebody who doesn’t want to steal, they have no choice. And for many of them who are from lowly background, they are used to hard labour and all kinds of difficult condition,” he said. Speaking in the importance of their trade, Osunbayo said the job they do is critical to the economy and needs government intervention. She said, “We are very important to building, roads, etc. The next time gravels are used to tile roads, people should take a minute to appreciate the women that made it possible.” |
Re: Women Who Make A Livingcrushing Stones For N100 A Day by html14java(f): 10:08am On Dec 07, 2014 |
This one na novel o #myCharityComment. |
Re: Women Who Make A Livingcrushing Stones For N100 A Day by doroboss(m): 10:11am On Dec 07, 2014 |
Pics or it never happened....... |
Re: Women Who Make A Livingcrushing Stones For N100 A Day by memud001(m): 10:20am On Dec 07, 2014 |
c pixs below
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Re: Women Who Make A Livingcrushing Stones For N100 A Day by RotrEmmanuel: 11:20am On Dec 07, 2014 |
This must be somewhere in Abakiliki But I didn't read your Novel. |
Re: Women Who Make A Livingcrushing Stones For N100 A Day by doroboss(m): 11:23am On Dec 07, 2014 |
Your story is untrue, they make over 1,000 naira a day, and they are found in most area that have rocks, especially where construction work just finished, so there are lots of smaller rocks to break down. Kaduna, plateau have a lot of them. Life is hard but not as hard as you want us to believe. 2 Likes |
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