Silicosis deaths: Rejecting plea for higher compensation, Gujarat govt distributes 13 Rs 1 lakh cheques to victims' kin

By A Representative
After a long wait of nine years, the Gujarat government finally began distributing Rs 1 lakh as compensation against the death of agate workers who died of the deadly occupational disease, silicosis. Rejecting the demand to raise the compensation to Rs 3 lakh, the government labour officer (rural) went to Khambhat to distribute cheques to 13 families of those who had died of the disease after working in agate factories.
The People’s Training and Research Centre (PTRC), which has been advocating the cause of the silicosis victims in Gujarat, especially in Khambhat region, has said that, after a long period of discussions, in 2014 the state labour and employment department “passed and published resolution to pay Rs 1 lakh towards relief to the families of Agate workers dying of Silicosis. The resolution is applicable from 2006.”
“One of the beneficiaries Jashiben rushed from Ahmedabad to Khambhat to receive the cheque. She lost her husband Purshottambhai Vankar. Expressing her satisfaction she said that she passed through tremendous difficulties and this amount is a great help to her”, the PTRC said, adding, “She thanked PTRC for working for the welfare of agate workers.”
Speaking at the function organized for the agate worker,s Jagdish Patel, PTRC director, called it a “historical moment in the long history of struggle for social justice for these workers.” However, he added, this is only “the first step and lot more needs to be done.”
There is a strong demand by the silicosis affected workers to pay them relief when they are still alive as they pass through great difficulties. And if states like Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh can do this, why not Gujarat?”, Patel wondered. Even as he said this, government labour officer MK Sayed was extending his wishes to the beneficiaries, the PTRC said.

“For the last more than 50 years, agate workers keep dying of silicosis. Consistent struggle by PTRC has helped recognize the problem by the state”, PTRC said, adding, “In 2007 PTRC initiated weekly clinic to screen the exposed agate workers. The Karamsad Medical College offered free service for diagnosis, while cardiac care center, Khamabhat, provide free X-rays to the workers.”
“This helped test more than 1,200 workers tested for silicosis. Of thise, more than 300 workers have been found tested positive, out of which over 100 have succumbed to their lung injury”, PTRC said, adding, “Now, the state health department has set up infrastructure for diagnosis of silicosis at local level, which needs to be strengthened further.”
Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s talk of development, PTRC said, this was the “right time” for the state government to show up and give “serious thought” to develop and modernize the agate industry.
“The industry need to be helped for its transformation from unorganized to organized form, so that workers can be taken better care of their safety and health at work, as well as their social security”, PTRC said.

Comments

Plastic burning in homes threatens food, water and air across Global South: Study

By Jag Jivan In a groundbreaking study spanning 26 countries across the Global South , researchers have uncovered the widespread and concerning practice of households burning plastic waste as a fuel for cooking, heating, and other domestic needs. The research, published in Nature Communications , reveals that this hazardous method of managing both waste and energy poverty is driven by systemic failures in municipal services and the unaffordability of clean alternatives, posing severe risks to human health and the environment.

From protest to proof: Why civil society must rethink environmental resistance

By Shankar Sharma* As concerned environmentalists and informed citizens, many of us share deep unease about the way environmental governance in our country is being managed—or mismanaged. Our complaints range across sectors and regions, and most of them are legitimate. Yet a hard question confronts us: are complaints, by themselves, effective? Experience suggests they are not.

Economic superpower’s social failure? Inequality, malnutrition and crisis of India's democracy

By Vikas Meshram India may be celebrated as one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, but a closer look at who benefits from that growth tells a starkly different story. The recently released World Inequality Report 2026 lays bare a country sharply divided by wealth, privilege and power. According to the report, nearly 65 percent of India’s total wealth is owned by the richest 10 percent of its population, while the bottom half of the country controls barely 6.4 percent. The top one percent—around 14 million people—holds more than 40 percent, the highest concentration since 1961. Meanwhile, the female labour force participation rate is a dismal 15.7 percent.

Kolkata event marks 100 years since first Communist conference in India

By Harsh Thakor* A public assembly was held in Kolkata on December 24, 2025, to mark the centenary of the First Communist Conference in India , originally convened in Kanpur from December 26 to 28, 1925. The programme was organised by CPI (ML) New Democracy at Subodh Mallik Square on Lenin Sarani. According to the organisers, around 2,000 people attended the assembly.

From colonial mercantilism to Hindutva: New book on the making of power in Gujarat

By Rajiv Shah Professor Ghanshyam Shah ’s latest book, “ Caste-Class Hegemony and State Power: A Study of Gujarat Politics ”, published by Routledge , is penned by one of Gujarat ’s most respected chroniclers, drawing on decades of fieldwork in the state. It seeks to dissect how caste and class factors overlap to perpetuate the hegemony of upper strata in an ostensibly democratic polity. The book probes the dominance of two main political parties in Gujarat—the Indian National Congress and the BJP—arguing that both have sustained capitalist growth while reinforcing Brahmanic hierarchies.

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 ...

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

The greatest threat to our food system: The aggressive push for GM crops

By Bharat Dogra Thanks to the courageous resistance of several leading scientists who continue to speak the truth despite increasing pressures from the powerful GM crop and GM food lobby , the many-sided and in some contexts irreversible environmental and health impacts of GM foods and crops, as well as the highly disruptive effects of this technology on farmers, are widely known today.

Transgender Bill testimony of Govt of India's ‘contempt’ for marginalized community

Counterview Desk India’s civil society network, National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM)* has said that the controversial transgender Bill, passed in the Rajya Sabha on November 26, which happened to be the 70th anniversary of the Indian Constitution, is a reflection on the way the Government of India looks at the marginalized community with utter contempt.

Search This Blog