In 2001, the National Institute of Occupational Health (NIOH) had submitted an affidavit in the Gujarat High Court, confirming that 92 quartz grinding workers at Chhota Udaipur were suffering from silicosis. Seven years down the line, 50 of them have died and two are critically ill. The rest are waiting for the inevitable, painful death.

Indira Pathak of Vikalp, the organisation that had filed the PIL in response to which the NIOH had submitted the affidavit, said, “The final hearing in the case is scheduled for December 4. We hope that the honourable high court will lay down strict guidelines for the silicosis-prone industries.”

According to the People’s Training and Research Centre (PTRC), Vadodara, a voluntary organisation working for occupational safety and health, almost nine districts in Gujarat have been affected by silicosis. The biggest culprits have been the glass manufacturing units, stone crushing units, ceramics, foundry and agate industries.

PTRC Director Jagdish Patel said, “The magnitude of the problem can be judged from the fact that cases of silicosis have been reported from the districts of Vadodara, Anand, Ahmedabad, Surendranagar, Junagadh, Sabarkantha, Bharuch, Panchmahals and Dahod.”

Patel further said the situation is all the more precarious in the agate industry in the Khambhat region, affecting nearly 30,000 workers. Of the 1,500 workers directly exposed to the respirable crystalline silica (RCS), there have been 121 confirmed deaths due to silicosis. Over 300 suspected silicosis patients have been identified in 23 villages of Jhalod taluka, two villages of Fatehpura taluka and one village of Dahod taluka.

The PTRC, in its investigation, has also found that the agate industry is a death trap for all the workers, as most of them work as bonded labourers for life. Even compensation after death is not forthcoming, as a majority of the workers are not covered under the Employee’s State Insurance Act.

What is silicosis?
According to the World Health Organisation, silicosis is one of the oldest occupational diseases, and still kills thousands of people every year across the globe. It is an incurable lung disease caused by inhalation of dust containing free crystalline silica. The disease causes irreversible lung damage before any symptom develops. The illness it causes may continue to worsen even after exposure stops. Silicosis also reduces a patient’s immunity to tuberculosis, lung cancer, renal diseases, arthritis and the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.