Gujarat govt refuses compensation for serious occupational diseases causing permanent disability, death

By A Representative
The labour and employment department, Government of Gujarat, in a letter to Vadodara-based NGO People’s Training and Research Centre (PTRC), has refused to give in the demand that musculoskeletal diseases (MSD) and the diseases caused due to exposure to polyacrylate should be considered occupational diseases. Gujarat’s premier occupation health NGO, PTRC had demanded that the schedule III of the Employees’ Compensation Act, should be amended to include these diseases in the list for which workers can demand compensation.
In its two-sentence letter to PTRC, the state government has stated that the director, industrial safety and health, had taken the opinion of the National Institute of Occupational Health (NIOH), Ahmedabad, which has refused to recommend these as occupational diseases.
Polyacrylate is found several of applications of Gujarat’s pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry, leading to serious lung diseases are caused on exposure to polyacrylate”. As for MSD, it is caused by to different types of workers, ranging from computer operators in printing industry, to construction workers, agriculture workers, workers in manufacturing, drivers, mine workers and others, who become prey to spondylitis and other disabilities.
In January 2012, PTRC represented to the Government of Gujarat to amend schedule III of the Act, which empowers the state government to make necessary changes in the list of occupational disease in schedule III, which lists diseases for which compensation may be claimed.
In a letter to the state labour minister, Jagdish Patel of the PTRC had said, since Gujarat is one of the most industrialized states, “safer and healthier workplace” should be one of the important prerequisites for its working population. It suggested that the state has so far failed to provide “legal protection for protection of health and safety at work for millions of workers in organized and unorganized sectors.”
“Millions of workers either die or get disabled in accidents or occupational disease each year even as they contribute to the gross domestic product (GDP) of our country. We badly need to review labour laws”, Patel said, adding, “Chemicals are important part of modern industry. Thousands of chemicals are handled by workers at work”.
He said, “Chemicals pollute the workplace exposing the workers to the hazards. Over a period time, depending up on the toxicity, concentration and period of exposure, exposed workers get affected. Schedule III of the Employees’ Compensation Act lists the diseases for which compensation can be claimed. The Act empowers the state governments to amend the list.”
Asking him to move to urgently “amend the list by adding two diseases to Part B of the list -- diseases occurring due to exposure to the dust in manufacturing polyacrylate and MSD”, the letter says, “polyacrylate is manufactured in Gujarat and finds wide application in pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry.”
It points out, “Serious lung diseases are caused on exposure to polyacrylate”. It adds, “Several workers have fallen prey to it and have died within a short duration after exposure. The Gujarat High Court has filed a suo-moto PIL in this regard.(PIL 86 of 2011).”
Referring to the strike in General Motors plant in Halol in Gujarat in 2010, the letter says, as far as MSD are concerned, these have been “debated for since long and is a major cause of debilitating injury to millions of workers in a wide cross-section of occupations. Some time back, workers of an automobile unit in Gujarat went on strike and they represented before the National Human Rights Commission and the Gujarat High Court.”
Patel said, “Large numbers of workers cutting across wide variety of occupations suffer from musculoskeletal diseases due to work conditions. Computer operators in printing industry, construction workers, agriculture workers, workers in manufacturing, drivers, mine workers and others are exposed to vibrations or repetitive movements or awkward work positions or poor ergonomic situation at work can lead to diseases of fingers and wrist, back, shoulders, spinal cord, etc.”
He adds, “These diseases are known as spondilitis, tenocynovitis, lumbago etc. and are all musculoskeletal diseases. As a result of the diseases, workers need to go for expensive treatment, leave from job, decreased income. If the damage leads to permanent disability one has to leave the job and may not get alternate opportunity to earn livelihood. This is a serious issue which now need to be resolved when India claim to be a developed and strong country and Gujarat claim to be vibrant.”

Comments

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

India's health workers have no legal right for their protection, regrets NGO network

Counterview Desk In a letter to Union labour and employment minister Santosh Gangwar, the civil rights group Occupational and Environmental Health Network of India (OEHNI), writing against the backdrop of strike by Bhabha hospital heath care workers, has insisted that they should be given “clear legal right for their protection”.

Uttarakhand tunnel disaster: 'Question mark' on rescue plan, appraisal, construction

By Bhim Singh Rawat* As many as 40 workers were trapped inside Barkot-Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi after a portion of the 4.5 km long, supposedly completed portion of the tunnel, collapsed early morning on Sunday, Nov 12, 2023. The incident has once again raised several questions over negligence in planning, appraisal and construction, absence of emergency rescue plan, violations of labour laws and environmental norms resulting in this avoidable accident.

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu. He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

Job opportunities decreasing, wages remain low: Delhi construction workers' plight

By Bharat Dogra* It was about 32 years back that a hut colony in posh Prashant Vihar area of Delhi was demolished. It was after a great struggle that the people evicted from here could get alternative plots that were not too far away from their earlier colony. Nirmana, an organization of construction workers, played an important role in helping the evicted people to get this alternative land. At that time it was a big relief to get this alternative land, even though the plots given to them were very small ones of 10X8 feet size. The people worked hard to construct new houses, often constructing two floors so that the family could be accommodated in the small plots. However a recent visit revealed that people are rather disheartened now by a number of adverse factors. They have not been given the proper allotment papers yet. There is still no sewer system here. They have to use public toilets constructed some distance away which can sometimes be quite messy. There is still no...

Women's rights leaders told to negotiate with Muslimness, as India's donor agencies shun the word Muslim

By A Representative Former vice-president Hamid Ansari has sharply criticized donor agencies engaged in nongovernmental development work, saying that they seek to "help out" marginalizes communities with their funds, but shy away from naming Muslims as the target group, something, he insisted, needs to change. Speaking at a book release function in Delhi, he said, since large sections of Muslims are poor, they need political as also social outreach.

Warning bells for India: Tribal exploitation by powerful corporate interests may turn into international issue

By Ashok Shrimali* Warning bells are ringing for India. Even as news drops in from Odisha that Adivasi villages, one after another, are rejecting the top UK-based MNC Vedanta's plea for mining, a recent move by two senior scholars Felix Padel and Samarendra Das suggests the way tribals are being exploited in India by powerful international and national business interests may become an international issue. In fact, one has only to count days when things may be taken up at the United Nations level, with India being pushed to the corner. Padel, it may be recalled, is a major British authority on indigenous peoples across the world, with several scholarly books to his credit.

Gujarat Bitcoin scam worth Rs 5,000 crore "linked" with BJP leaders: Need for Supreme Court monitored probe

By Shaktisinh Gohil* BJP hit a jackpot in the form of demonetisation, which it used as an alibi to convert black money into white in Gujarat. Even as party scrambles for answers of how the Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank (ADCB), whose director is BJP president Amit Shah, received old currency worth Rs 745.58 crore in just five days, and how Rs 3118.51 crore was deposited in 11 district cooperative banks linked with Gujarat BJP leaders, a new mega Bitcoin scam, worth more than Rs 5,000 crore has been unraveled.

Counterview

Search This Blog