IJMRR/ Feb 2014/ Volume 4/Issue 2/Article No-7/231-240 ISSN: 2249-7196 *Corresponding Author www.ijmrr.com 231 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT RESEARCH AND REVIEW PERCEPTION OF LABOUR ABOUT THE WORKING ENVIRONMENT IN SAFETY MATCH INDUSTRY IN VIRUDHUNAGAR DISTRICT M Arockia G. Ruban* 1 , Dr.Lourdes Poobala Rayen 2 1 Assistant Professor, Corporate Sectaryship and Research Scholar, St.Xavier’s College (Autonomous), Palayamkottai, Tamil Nadu, India. 2 Associate Professor, Commerce and Dean of Arts, St.Xavier’s College (Autonomous), Palayamkottai, Tamil Nadu, India. ABSTRACT In and around, Virudhunagar district, there are 2700 Safety Match factories and 200 fireworks factories which have been employing 1, 56,273 workers. The major processes are frame filling, wax dipping, head filling, drying, box framing and filling, side painting, band rolling, dozen packing and chemical grinding. The labourers are exposed to physical, chemical and ergonomic hazards. They are exposed to various chemical hazards mainly potassium chlorate, commercial sulphur, glue, black and red manganese, red phosphorus, antimony glass powder etc. In this article the researcher take the Labour Problem in Safety Match Industry in Virudhunagar district. The researcher himself prepared an interview Schedule, through that the researcher would come to know the problems faced by the labourers those who are working in the Safety Match Industry in Virudhunagar district, and what are their family backgrounds. INTRODUCTION The origin of the safety match industry in India goes back to the beginning of this century. Around 1910 immigrant Japanese families who settled in Calcutta began making matches with simple hand–made and power-operated machines. Local people soon learned the necessary skills and a number of small match factories sprang up in and around Calcutta. The factories in Calcutta were unable to compete with imports, and handmade match production shifted to Southern India, especially in the Ramanathapuram and Tirunelveli districts of Tamil Nadu State. This shift was due to the pioneering efforts of P.Iya Nadar and A.Shanmuga Nadar who went to Calcutta to learn the process from Purna Chandra Ray, a local businessman, who had learned the trade in Germany. The Nadars set up a number of manual match production units in extremely poor regions of Tamil Nadu, where a combination of the dry climate, cheap labour and availability of raw materials from nearby Kerala created ideal conditions for match production. Mechanization came to the Indian match industry in 1924 when M/s Wimco, Ltd. started operations in 1924 as a unit of the multinational Swedish Match Company. Wimco is still the only representative of the large scale sector in wooden match manufacturing and is the only fully mechanized match factory in the country.