Skip to main content

Silicosis a public health emergency: Health rights leader calls for urgent national action

By A Representative 
Jagdish Patel, Director of the health rights NGO Peoples Training and Research Centre, Vadodara, has called for urgent national action to address the deepening crisis of silicosis in India, terming it a public health emergency that has been continuously ignored. In an article published by the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics on June 21, 2025, Patel exposes the scale of state and institutional neglect toward occupational diseases, especially in India’s vast unorganised sector.
“Occupational health, in general and silicosis, specifically, is a public health emergency ignored for a long time as it is seen as a working-class issue not a public health problem,” writes Patel. He criticises the indifference of both the state and industry, stating, “Poor workers are a dispensable commodity, and their health is not of any importance to the state or to industry.”
Patel underscores how India, despite its ambitions to be a global economic leader, has failed to ensure basic health protections for millions of workers exposed to hazardous conditions. “We have no data on the burden of disease,” he notes. “Not only do we not have any credible data on occupational diseases, but we do not even have reliable estimates to compare with the actual data and the progress we have made, if any.”
He particularly draws attention to the fact that India has not ratified two key international labour conventions—the ILO Occupational Health and Safety Convention, 1981 (C.155) and the Promotional Framework for Occupational Safety and Health Convention (C.187). “If ratified, we will have to revise our laws accordingly,” Patel points out, adding that both conventions now form part of the fundamental set of ILO conventions which all member states are expected to adopt.
“Having legal protection is one thing and enforcement is another,” he remarks. He warns that without ratifying these conventions, India’s occupational health framework will remain fragmented, weak and largely unenforceable—especially as the new OSH Code, 2020 narrows legal coverage by raising the threshold of applicability to units employing 20 or more workers, thereby excluding millions of those most vulnerable.
Patel further notes that while a National Policy on Safety, Health and Environment at Workplace was announced in 2009, it remains largely on paper. “Prevention is an integral part of economic activities... but this has remained only on paper,” he says, calling for a renewed commitment to worker health as a pillar of national development.
Highlighting how widespread the problem of silicosis is, Patel points to various states and industrial zones—Khambhat, Morbi, Than, Godhra, and Kadi in Gujarat; sandstone mining in Rajasthan; glass factories in West Bengal; mining zones in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and Madhya Pradesh. He says the disease also affects family members of workers exposed to silica dust, especially when employers house them inside factory premises. “There is no law prohibiting them from providing accommodation for workers and their families inside the factory premises,” he writes, citing a case of a woman in Morbi who contracted silicosis simply by living on-site.
Despite Supreme Court directions in a 2006 PIL and multiple NHRC reports, most Indian states continue to ignore the silicosis crisis. “Only a handful of states — Gujarat, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh — have reported silicosis in their states. There are sporadic reports from Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Odisha, but no reports from states like Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala or Bihar.”
Patel concludes with a sobering observation: “These are not election issues, and no political party can be influenced to take them up.” His article is a powerful indictment of the systemic failure to protect the health of Indian workers and a call to align national laws with international labour standards India has so far chosen not to ratify.

Comments

TRENDING

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.

N-power plant at Mithi Virdi: CRZ nod is arbitrary, without jurisdiction

By Krishnakant* A case-appeal has been filed against the order of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) and others granting CRZ clearance for establishment of intake and outfall facility for proposed 6000 MWe Nuclear Power Plant at Mithi Virdi, District Bhavnagar, Gujarat by Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) vide order in F 11-23 /2014-IA- III dated March 3, 2015. The case-appeal in the National Green Tribunal at Western Bench at Pune is filed by Shaktisinh Gohil, Sarpanch of Jasapara; Hajabhai Dihora of Mithi Virdi; Jagrutiben Gohil of Jasapara; Krishnakant and Rohit Prajapati activist of the Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has issued a notice to the MoEF&CC, Gujarat Pollution Control Board, Gujarat Coastal Zone Management Authority, Atomic Energy Regulatory Board and Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) and case is kept for hearing on August 20, 2015. Appeal No. 23 of 2015 (WZ) is filed, a...

Two more "aadhaar-linked" Jharkhand deaths: 17 die of starvation since Sept 2017

Kaleshwar's sons Santosh and Mantosh Counterview Desk A fact-finding team of the Right to Feed Campaign, pointing towards the death of two more persons due to starvation in Jharkhand, has said that this has happened because of the absence of aadhaar, leading to “persistent lack of food at home and unavailability of any means of earning.” It has disputed the state government claims that these deaths are due to reasons other than starvation, adding, the authorities have “done nothing” to reduce the alarming state of food insecurity in the state.

Epic war against caste system is constitutional responsibility of elected government

Edited by well-known Gujarat Dalit rights leader Martin Macwan, the book, “Bhed-Bharat: An Account of Injustice and Atrocities on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-18)” (available in English and Gujarati*) is a selection of news articles on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-2018) published by Dalit Shakti Prakashan, Ahmedabad. Preface to the book, in which Macwan seeks to answer key questions on why the book is needed today: *** The thought of compiling a book on atrocities on Dalits and thus present an overall Indian picture had occurred to me a long time ago. Absence of such a comprehensive picture is a major reason for a weak social and political consciousness among Dalits as well as non-Dalits. But gradually the idea took a different form. I found that lay readers don’t understand numbers and don’t like to read well-researched articles. The best way to reach out to them was storytelling. As I started writing in Gujarati and sharing the idea of the book with my friends, it occurred to me that while...

New RTI draft rules inspired by citizen-unfriendly, overtly bureaucratic approach

By Venkatesh Nayak* The Department of Personnel and Training , Government of India has invited comments on a new set of Draft Rules (available in English only) to implement The Right to Information Act, 2005 . The RTI Rules were last amended in 2012 after a long period of consultation with various stakeholders. The Government’s move to put the draft RTI Rules out for people’s comments and suggestions for change is a welcome continuation of the tradition of public consultation. Positive aspects of the Draft RTI Rules While 60-65% of the Draft RTI Rules repeat the content of the 2012 RTI Rules, some new aspects deserve appreciation as they clarify the manner of implementation of key provisions of the RTI Act. These are: Provisions for dealing with non-compliance of the orders and directives of the Central Information Commission (CIC) by public authorities- this was missing in the 2012 RTI Rules. Non-compliance is increasingly becoming a major problem- two of my non-compliance cases are...

1857 War of Independence... when Hindu-Muslim separatism, hatred wasn't an issue

"The Sepoy Revolt at Meerut", Illustrated London News, 1857  By Shamsul Islam* Large sections of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs unitedly challenged the greatest imperialist power, Britain, during India’s First War of Independence which began on May 10, 1857; the day being Sunday. This extraordinary unity, naturally, unnerved the firangees and made them realize that if their rule was to continue in India, it could happen only when Hindus and Muslims, the largest two religious communities were divided on communal lines.

Ground reality: Israel would a remain Jewish state, attempt to overthrow it will be futile

By NS Venkataraman*  Now that truce has been arrived at between Israel and Hamas for a period of four days and with release of a few hostages from both sides, there is hope that truce would be further extended and the intensity of war would become significantly less. This likely “truce period” gives an opportunity for the sworn supporters and bitter opponents of Hamas as well as Israel and the observers around the world to introspect on the happenings and whether this war could have been avoided. There is prolonged debate for the last several decades as to whom the present region that has been provided to Jews after the World War II belong. View of some people is that Jews have been occupants earlier and therefore, the region should belong to Jews only. However, Christians and those belonging to Islam have also lived in this regions for long period. While Christians make no claim, the dispute is between Jews and those who claim themselves to be Palestinians. In any case...

Fate of Yamuna floodplain still hangs in "balance" despite National Green Tribunal rap on Sri Sri event

By Ashok Shrimali* While the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Thursday reportedly pulled up the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) for granting permission to hold spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's World Culture Festival on the banks of Yamuna, the chief petitioners against the high-profile event Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan has declared, the “fate of the floodplain still hangs in balance.”

What's behind Donald Trump's 'narco-state' accusation against Venezuela

By Manolo De Los Santos  The US government has revived its campaign to label Venezuela a "narco-state", accusing its top leadership of drug trafficking and slapping hefty bounties on their heads for capture. This campaign, which only momentarily took a backseat, is a strategic fabrication, not a factual assessment. This accusation, particularly amplified under the Trump Administration, is a calculated smokescreen to justify a long-standing agenda: the overthrow of the Venezuelan government and the seizure of its vast oil and mineral resources. A closer examination of the facts reveals a country that has actively fought drug trafficking on its own terms and a US government with a clear and consistent history of destabilizing independent countries in Latin America.