Firozabad glass

The 180-year-old Firozabad glass-bangle manufacturing tradition at Firozabad in Uttar Pradesh — the industrialised bangle-glass craft that worked in large coal-and-gas furnaces to produce 80% of India's bangle glass. Firozabad developed as a glass-making centre from the 1870s British colonial industrialisation; the earlier glass tradition in India dates to Mauryan times (3rd century BCE Taxila and Sanghol glass) but the industrial scale is distinct. The Firozabad bangle industry had 3,500+ factories and 200,000+ workers at its 2000s peak, producing 10 million bangles daily. The 1998 Supreme Court Mehta vs India ruling banned coal-fired furnaces at Firozabad to protect the Taj Mahal's marble from air pollution, forcing conversion to natural gas furnaces. The 2010 UN survey documented child labour in the Firozabad bangle industry. The tradition is a GI-tagged craft since 2015 with 'Firozabadi Glass' as the mark.