Skip to main content

US supply chain told to be wary of fatal impact of Indian agate industry on workers

A high level conference in Chicago has seen a strong appeal to the Government of India to promote safer technology among stone cutters in India and better occupational health standards in India’s jewellery business by developing better inspection standards. The appeal came after a senior Gujarat-based health rights activist, Jagdish Patel, made a presentation on the state of agate stone cutting industry in Khambhat in Gujarat and Jaipur in Rajasthan.
Patel, who sought support for efforts from non-profits for the welfare of India’s stone cutters, told Jo Becker of the Human Rights Watch during a one-to-one interaction session that though a large number of agate stone cutting workers were involved, which led to fatal disease silicosis, that “it is not possible to tell the numbers of workers involved in the industry who are at risk.”
“Silica dust at Khambhat is an environmental hazard and there are cases of silicosis reported among non-workers, too. Of late, the country’s pollution control board has started putting pressure on employers, and some factories have started taking some actions to turn their operations from dry to wet, which has improved the situation somewhat, but more needs to be done”, Patel said.
Answering questions from Becker, who, among other issues, specifically wanted to know what could the jewellery industry in the US should do alleviate the situation in India, Patel said, the wet method and local exhaust ventilation system can reduce the dust levels of silica.
“The buyers, who export their products, should ask the suppliers to provide them the report of dust monitoring at their shop and list of workers and also those who have had silicosis”, he insisted.
One of the 40-odd experts who addressed the Responsible Jewellery conference in Chicago, held on October 25-26, Patel, who is also a chemical engineer, said, his organization, People’s Training and Research Centre (PTRC), in collaboration with the Sri Krishna Hospital, Karamsad, and the Cardiac Care Hospital, Khambhat, runs out patient departments for the 10 years, where more than 1,400 plus cases were screened, and of these 450 were found to be suffering from deadly silicosis.
This data, Patel told the Chicago conference, was sent to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), which in turn sent its investigation team to Khambhat. Based on the report submitted by the team, NHRC recommended some relief measures to silicosis victims, many of which “are yet to be enforced.”
An international conference, it was organized against the backdrop of realization among American health rights activists that the jewellery industry doesn't have a stellar record of getting out in front of social criticism, with some suggesting the need to replace "dirty" jewellery production processes with clean ones, while others using responsible approaches in marketing jewellery.
Becker, who spoke to Patel on his experience in helping gem cutters who live in poverty and suffer from silicosis, has been researching on gold and diamond mining. She has come up the report, “The Hidden Cost of Jewelry”, which focuses on child labour in mining and other industries in different countries.

Comments

TRENDING

When Pakistanis whispered: ‘end military rule’ — A Moscow memoir

During the recent anti-terror operation inside Pakistan by the Government of India, called Operation Sindoor — a name some feminists consider patently patriarchal, even though it’s officially described as a tribute to the wives of the 26 husbands killed in the terrorist strike — I was reminded of my Moscow stint, which lasted for seven long years, from 1986 to 1993.

Ahmedabad's civic chaos: Drainage woes, waterlogging, and the illusion of Olympic dreams

In response to my blog on overflowing gutter lines at several spots in Ahmedabad's Vejalpur, a heavily populated area, a close acquaintance informed me that it's not just the middle-class housing societies that are affected by the nuisance. Preeti Das, who lives in a posh locality in what is fashionably called the SoBo area, tells me, "Things are worse in our society, Applewood."

Tracking a lost link: Soviet-era legacy of Gujarati translator Atul Sawani

The other day, I received a message from a well-known activist, Raju Dipti, who runs an NGO called Jeevan Teerth in Koba village, near Gujarat’s capital, Gandhinagar. He was seeking the contact information of Atul Sawani, a translator of Russian books—mainly political and economic—into Gujarati for Progress Publishers during the Soviet era. He wanted to collect and hand over scanned soft copies, or if possible, hard copies, of Soviet books translated into Gujarati to Arvind Gupta, who currently lives in Pune and is undertaking the herculean task of collecting and making public soft copies of Soviet books that are no longer available in the market, both in English and Indian languages.

RP Gupta a scapegoat to help Govt of India manage fallout of Adani case in US court?

RP Gupta, a retired 1987-batch IAS officer from the Gujarat cadre, has found himself at the center of a growing controversy. During my tenure as the Times of India correspondent in Gandhinagar (1997–2012), I often interacted with him. He struck me as a straightforward officer, though I never quite understood why he was never appointed to what are supposed to be top-tier departments like industries, energy and petrochemicals, finance, or revenue.

Environmental report raises alarm: Sabarmati one of four rivers with nonylphenol contamination

A new report by Toxics Link , an Indian environmental research and advocacy organisation based in New Delhi, in collaboration with the Environmental Defense Fund , a global non-profit headquartered in New York, has raised the alarm that Sabarmati is one of five rivers across India found to contain unacceptable levels of nonylphenol (NP), a chemical linked to "exposure to carcinogenic outcomes, including prostate cancer in men and breast cancer in women."

PharmEasy: The only online medical store which revises prices upwards after confirming the order

For senior citizens — especially those without a family support system — ordering medicines online can be a great relief. Shruti and I have been doing this for the last couple of years, and with considerable success. We upload a prescription, receive a verification call from a doctor, and within two or three days, the medicines are delivered to our doorstep.

A conman, a demolition man: How 'prominent' scribes are defending Pritish Nandy

How to defend Pritish Nandy? That’s the big question some of his so-called fans seem to ponder, especially amidst sharp criticism of his alleged insensitivity during his journalistic career. One such incident involved the theft and publication of the birth certificate of Masaba Gupta, daughter of actor Neena Gupta, in the Illustrated Weekly of India, which Nandy was editing at the time. He reportedly did this to uncover the identity of Masaba’s father.

Revisiting Gijubhai: Pioneer of child-centric education and the caste debate

It was Krishna Kumar, the well-known educationist, who I believe first introduced me to the name — Gijubhai Badheka (1885–1939). Hailing from Bhavnagar, known as the cultural capital of the Saurashtra region of Gujarat, Gijubhai, Kumar told me during my student days, made significant contributions to the field of pedagogy — something that hasn't received much attention from India's education mandarins. At that time, Kumar was my tutorial teacher at Kirorimal College, Delhi University.

A sector under siege? War and real estate: Navigating uncertainty in India's expanding market

I was a little surprised when I received an email alert from a top real estate consultant, Anarock Group , titled "Exploring War’s Effects on Indian Real Estate—When Conflict Meets Concrete," authored by its regional director and head of research, Dr. Prashant Thakur. I had thought that the business would wholeheartedly support what is considered a strong response to the dastardly terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Operation Sindoor.