The man in this image provides a human story illustrating the damage caused by industrial production of steel, ‘grounding’ the shadowy machinery in the background.
WHAT IT SHOWS: A man stands in the village of Jujsai Saloud. Tata's Jamshedpur Steel mill (in the background) towers over the Santal Adivasi village which is now a slum but was formerly the centre of an agricultural community. The Santal's farmland was taken over by Tata for the location of the steel mill. Jamshedpur is now known as the 'Pittsburgh of India' and is a purpose built city designed by Tata to house its employees. Unfortunately almost none of the Santals who were displaced by the steel mill received employment or any compensation for their land. They now live in this slum on the edge of the mill and scrape a living from the mill's slag heap by separating lime and bits of coal from the slag which they resell to earn less than one USD per day.