Silicosis, the silent killer

Kailash, a 20-year-old factory worker who lives to the Undli village of the Alirajpur district in Madhya Pradesh (central India), looks as frail as an old man.

Ason, son of Amar Singh, is also inexorably heading towards his death. He can neither eat well nor perform his daily chores properly. Lying on an old bed in a ramshackle hut, life has become intolerable for him. An unknown disease has engulfed all the villagers, who can only curse the day they came to this village and inadvertently became victims of the deadly disease.

Such is the misfortune of these people that, instead of money, their hard labour is rewarded with this life-threatening and debilitating malady. Hundreds have already been affected; many don't even know what has happened to them. They are clueless about why they have become so weak all of a sudden, why they are suddenly unable to cover a distance of even a single kilometre on foot and why even a load of just 50 kilograms seems as heavy a weight of 500.

The disease that has hit the village and many others in western Madhya Pradesh is silicosis, caused by silica stone. This stone, used mainly for making glasses and the quartz of watches, and its powder used to make soap, abounds in mines in the Kheda and the Godhara districts of Gujarat.

Naturally, most of the factories where this stone is made usable are also located in these areas.

Unaware of danger

Hundreds of workers belonging to the unorganised sector work in more than 200 such factories in the Godhara and the Balasinor districts. But not many of them are from Gujarat.

Rather, most of the workers come from the Jhabua, Alirajpur and Dhar districts of Madhya Pradesh, completely unaware of how dangerous these factories are. Factory owners now increasingly look towards the tribal-dominated villages of Jhabua and Alirajpur for manpower.

Journalist and activist Rakesh Malviya, who has conducted a lot of research on the issue, said: "Deprived of traditional rights and without a means of livelihood, the poor people of these villages desperately need some work to sustain themselves and their families. They are forced to migrate to survive. This migration has been continuing unabated for the past five or six years — and one of the terrible outcomes of this large-scale migration is silicosis."

In 2005, these three districts of Madhya Pradesh were hit by a severe drought. There was no means of sustenance at the local level. Most of the people chose to migrate to other places, as it wasn't possible to survive in the villages any more.

Some of them went to Surat and Vadodara to work in textile companies. But many of them unknowingly came to work at the silica factories in Godhara and Kheda, desperate for employment and a means of survival. But little did they know that they had stepped on the road to death. The procedure with which silica stone is converted into powder in these factories is dangerous for workers. Owners claim that the factories are fully mechanised and that they operate without human labour. They even say that only two workers are employed in each factory. However, according to the labourers working in these factories, the reality is quite different. Here, the workers are kept in a state of bondage and whenever inspection takes place, they are driven out through a back door. The workers are allowed to go out only once during the week and permission for this is granted on the precondition that someone from the factory will accompany them.

On the face of it, there are warnings on the notice boards of the factories that the workers have to compulsorily wear masks during work. However, many workers were found working with only ordinary handkerchiefs for protection.

One example is Godhara's Kumar Minerals Company, where the workers don't wear the protective masks. At many others they aren't even aware of the serious threat their work poses to their health.

Diwan Singh, 20, working at the Kumar Minerals Company, said: "I joined the company only six days back. I was forced to come here as I have no work in the village."

Singh's case is not an isolated one. About four years back, hundreds of workers from the districts of Alirajpur, Jhabua and Dhar had come to Godhara with their families in search of employment.

About a year back, when they returned to their homes, most of them were afflicted with a mysterious disease. Several of them fell ill simultaneously and soon began to grow weak. Doctors thought they were suffering from tuberculosis and tried to treat them for a long time. But there was no improvement in their condition.

The disease led to untimely deaths of several workers.

After many such deaths in the village, the mystery of the disease was finally solved — but in a heartbreaking way.

When people were performing the last rites of Mohan, the son of a villager called Ram Singh, they found that a particular part of the body was not burning during the cremation. When the people examined that particular body part they found that there was some kind of powder deposited on the lungs. When the powder was spread out and closely examined, it didn't take them long to realise that it was the same powder they worked with in the factories of Godhara and Balasinor.

Alarming statistics

Until now, 488 people have been affected by silicosis in 22 villages.

Social worker G.D. Verma, who investigated silicosis cases in this area, said: "In a community-based survey conducted in 22 villages in 2004-05, a total of 488 people were found to be either dead or suffering from the disease. The situation was alarming. After this, other cases came to light one after the other. Today a total of nine blocks of these three districts are affected by silicosis. This is not the report of any voluntary organisation but of the government itself, and is based on the camps organised in the affected areas."

Kailash, 20, from Undli village, has grown so weak that his eyes appear sunken. His father has died and his sister is sick. He cannot pick up heavy objects and his movement is painful; he also frequently suffers from shortness of breath.

There are many other youths in the village who look like they have grown old before their time. Undli village's Gama and her father Buddha both suffer from silicosis. "I have already spent Rs80,000 [Dh5,569] on our treatment, but to no avail," Buddha said.

"Doctors thought we were suffering from TB and treated us accordingly. But it was a different disease. All our savings have been spent in treatment. This disease has ruined us," Buddha added.

However, the villagers have now understood the reality and have vowed not to work in these factories in Godhara. Undli village's sarpanch, Sharmila, and her husband Kesar Singh have decided that they will not let anyone from their village work in these factories. Towards this end, they have initiated many projects in the village under an employment guarantee scheme to ensure local availability of jobs.

But danger is not restricted to only these three districts. People displaced by the Sardar Sarovar Dam project are also compelled to work in these factories.

Khadgodhara, located about 40 kilometres from Godhara, is special in the sense that about 40 families, who were displaced as they came under Sardar Sarovar Dam's submergence area, were rehabilitated here. All of them lived in Madhya Pradesh's Kakrana village. The Gujarat government rehabilitated them at Khadgodhara, but there was no source of livelihood for them there.

Devsingh, among those who were rehabilitated at Khadgodhara, said: "Here we get work for only five or six days. Others who were rehabilitated here were forced to work in the killer factories, although they were aware that working there would make them ill. But they had no option."

Jaber Khan, another Khadgodhara resident, said local workers know the reality of these factories but the tribals of Alirajpur and Jhabua are still unaware of the consequences of employment there.

Workers suffering from silicosis say that whenever officials, probe teams or the media come for inspection, workers are either hidden or secretly driven out of the factory. The factory management has even declined to accept these people as their staff. In such a scenario it can easily be imagined what kind of health check-ups and other facilities these workers might be getting.

 Shuriah Niazi is a freelance journalist based in central India.

The ugly truth

Despite orders issued by the Supreme Court and the National Human Rights Commission, those affected by silicosis still await compensation by state governments

The National Human Rights Commission passed an order on November 12 last year, directing the Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat governments to provide compensation to the people who have been affected by silicosis and ensure their rehabilitation. The commission also ordered that the kin or dependents of those who had died of the disease should be suitably compensated. The Gujarat government was ordered to provide compensation to dependents of 248 people who died from this disease at the rate of Rs300,000 (Dh20,802) per family. The Madhya Pradesh government was also asked to submit a rehabilitation plan for 309 affected families. The orders were to be complied with in eight weeks. The commission passed the order after a complaint was filed by Juwansingh, and on the basis of a report named Destined to Die published by Shilpi Kendra.

Juwansingh filed the complaint with the help of various bodies and organisations, and stressed that a total of 489 people were found affected by silicosis in 22 villages of Alirajpur, out of whom 158 had died. The National Human Rights Commission formed a probe team to investigate the matter and found the facts presented in the complaint were true. The state government also acted on the complaint and submitted a list of 238 dead and 304 affected people to the National Human Rights Commission. After an investigation that lasted for four years, the Gujarat government filed criminal cases against factory owners under Section 176 of the Indian penal code.

The report was submitted to the National Human Rights Commission and various government officials, ministers and public representatives, and the commission sought a reply from the concerned governments and departments. Many personal and institutional complaints were also submitted to the commission during the proceedings. In the public interest litigation (PIL) filed in the Supreme Court, senior advocate Prashant Bhushan pleaded on behalf of the petitioner. The Supreme Court also ordered to provide compensation to the affected people and to the kin of the deceased. National Human Rights Commission member P.C. Sharma, officer C.K. Tyagi and senior advocate Sanjay Parikh played a crucial role in this matter. But the challenge before the local organisations fighting for the victims and the affected people was that many of them had no record of the work done by them.

So far compensation has been provided to workers of the organised sector (by State Insurance Corporation). For the first time the people affected were medically examined through a community-based survey, in which the Central Labour Institute confirmed the disease. Although the state government has been apprised of the ground reality, no action has been taken except surveys, a sum of Rs500 given to a select few for medical examination and Rs10,000 to a few others under the National Health membership Scheme. The lives of the silicosis-affected people have been derailed. The future of their children is dark. They require substantial assistance for their own survival and the survival of their families. But sadly, both the Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat governments are yet to follow the Supreme Court orders regarding compensation and rehabilitation.