Skip to main content

Gujarat govt "admits" 27 deaths due to deadly silicosis in Khambhat taluka, NHRC sends report, awaits reply

The Gujarat government's official records, quoted by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), have admitted that, in Khambhat taluka of Anand district alone, during the six years, from 2010 to 2015, as many as 27 workers suffering from the deadly silicosis or silico tuberculosis (TB) died because of their work in agate units.
Quoting official records, the NHRC – whose team visited Khambhat taluka last year in order to detect a complaint from Jagdish Patel of the People's Research and Training Centre (PTRC), Vadodara, about the failure of the state government to recognize intensity of the disease – said, in all 2,371 workers were “medically examined” during the period in question, and of these 43 silico TB and 22 silicosis cases were detected. Of these “27 workers died”.
PTRC's Patel told Counterview, “The NHRC has already sent the report to the Gujarat government, which is sitting on it for the last eight months. I have written to the NHRC to expedite our demand that the minimum compensation to be paid should be Rs 4 lakh per death, apart from Rs 1 lakh to each silicosis/ silico TB patient.” 
Giving a breakup the spread of the disease, the NHRC said in its report based on the visit of the team, that, in 2010, 778 workers were medically examined, of which 11 silico TB and 8 silicosis cases were detected. In 2011, 83 workers were medically examined, out of which 4 silico TB and 4 silicosis cases were detected. In 2012, 26 workers were medically examined, out of which 1 silico TB and 1 silicosis cases were detected.”
Further: “In 2013, 240 workers were medically examined out of which 4 silico TB and 1 silicosis cases were detected. In 2014, 466 workers were medically examined in which 18 silico TB and 7 silicosis cases were detected. And in 2015, 778 workers were medically examined out of which 5 silico TB and 1 silicosis cases were detected.”
The NHRC team, which took testimony of next of kin (NoK) of about a dozen workers who died due to the deadly disease, said, as per the data provided by the district TB officer, district Anand, out of 59 applications which were processed for compensation of Rs 1 lakh each against the death of each silicosis or silico TB patient, only in 20 cases the compensation has been paid.
On the other hand, it says, 39 applications for financial assistance were “rejected”, five because of “incomplete record where names of candidates were not included” and the rest “on the ground of non-silicosis lung disease”.
The report comes amidst the state government's loud claiming that there are “no silicosis cases in Khambhat” because there are “registered units” working in the town. “The state government said this during a recent presentation before the Government of India on the deadly occupational disease”, said Patel.
The NHRC took a total of 34 testimonies of patients suffering from silicosis or silico TB who contracted the disease working in agate industry in Khambhat town and the rural areas of Khambhat taluka.
During the testimonies, one of the NoK said that “there is no other opportunity for employment in Khambhat”, hence they were “forced to work in agate processing units”. A patient told the NHRC team that though the government doctors “briefed” him and his relatives of silicosis and its causes, he continued working in an agate unit for livelihood.
Others variously complained that they were “never been cautioned about the risk of grinding agate”, that no one from labour or factory department “ever visited him” despite suffering from the deadly disease, that there was no medical examination to rule out silicosis, and that there are many home-based agate processing units in the residential areas.

Comments

TRENDING

Trump’s research cuts 'may mean' advantage China: But will India leverage global brain drain to its advantage?

When I heard from a couple of NRI professionals—currently on work visas and engaged in research projects at American universities—that one of President Donald Trump's major policy thrusts was to cut federal funding to the country's top educational institutions, I was instantly reminded of what Prof. Kaushik Basu had said while delivering a lecture in Ahmedabad.

How the middle classes are returning to the BJP fold, be it Delhi or Gujarat: Mahakumbh, Sitharaman's budget

Whatever reasons may be offered for the Aam Aadmi Party's defeat in Delhi—whether it was the BJP's promises of more freebies than AAP, the shedding of ultra-nationalist slogans, or the successful demolition of Arvind Kejriwal's "Mr. Clean" image—my recent interaction with a group of middle-class individuals highlighted a notable trend. Those who had just begun to sit on the fence were now once again returning to the BJP fold.

Google powered AI refuses to correct grammar of a 'balanced' piece on Trump sending chained immigrants to India!

This is a continuation of my blog on how, while the start-up-developed AI app DeepSeek is being criticized for consistently rejecting content related to China or Maoism, there appears to be no mention in Western media about why another app, developed by the powerful Google, Gemini, remains silent on Indian political issues.  

World Hijab Day? Ex-Muslim women observe Feb 1 as No Hijab Day, insist: 'Put it on a Man'

I didn't know that there could ever be a thing as World Hijab Day until I received an email alert from Maryam Namazie of the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain (CEMB), stating that several ex-Muslim women's groups had observed the same day—February 1—as No Hijab Day! According to Namazie, the day "was created on February 1 as a direct response to World Hijab Day" to "illuminate the coercive and oppressive realities of the hijab as a pillar of sex apartheid and a war on women."

How to turn India's e-waste problem, third largest, into opportunity? Simple: Offer industry incentives!

How should one interpret a major problem that may be bogging down a private consultant while preparing an industry-friendly report on a situation that adversely impacts society—especially when the consultant sees little possibility of progress in the supposed desired direction?

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

  The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual.  I don't know who owns this site, for there is nothing on it in the About Us link. It merely says, the Nashik Corporation  site   "is an educational and news website of the municipal corporation. Today, education and payment of tax are completely online." It goes on to add, "So we provide some of the latest information about Property Tax, Water Tax, Marriage Certificate, Caste Certificate, etc. So all taxpayer can get all information of their municipal in a single place.some facts about legal and financial issues that different city corporations face, but I was least interested in them."  Surely, this didn't intere...

Gujarat a police state? How top High Court advocate stunned a senior-most journalist

Rajdeep Sardesai, Anand Yagnik This is a continuation of my earlier blog on well-known journalist Rajdeep Sardesai's lecture in memory of the late Achyut Yagnik at the Ahmedabad Management Association (AMA). I was a little surprised when I received the intimation about the venue for the lecture.

5% poor in India? Union govt claim debunked, '26.4% of population below poverty line'

A recent paper, referring to the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) 2022-23 of the Government of India (GoI), has debunked the official claim that poverty has substantially declined. Titled "Poverty in India: The Rangarajan Method and the 2022–23 Household Consumption Expenditure Survey", the paper —authored by scholars CA Sethu, LT Abhinav Surya, and CA Ruthu—states that "more than a quarter of India’s population falls below the poverty line."

Why burn Manusmriti? Why not preserve it to demonstrate, display historicity of casteism?

In a significant Facebook post, Rana Singh, former associate professor of English at Patna University, has revealed something that few seem to know. Titled "The Shudras in Manusmriti", Singh says,  because Manusmriti is discussed so often, he thought of reading it himself. “This book likely dates back to the 2nd or 3rd century BCE, and the presence of contradictory statements suggests that it is not the work of a single author,” he says in his Facebook post in Hindi, written in 2022 and recently reshared.