Alleging negligence, Morbi silicosis victims seek Gujarat govt intervention

By A Representative 

The Silicosis Victims Association in Morbi has filed a formal complaint with the District Collector accusing Gujarat authorities, particularly the Director Industrial Safety and Health (DISH) office, of failing impoverished workers who have contracted silicosis after years of exposure to silica dust in Gujarat's ceramic manufacturing hub. The association alleges that even as factory owners continue to profit, workers are left to cope with a debilitating and incurable lung disease with little institutional support, despite protections available under the Factories Act and the Gujarat Workers' Welfare Rules.

Central to the complaint is the charge that the DISH office has not ensured affected workers receive free treatment at government hospitals, as required under a Health Commissioner directive. The association also points to serious gaps at Morbi Civil Hospital, including the absence of a specialist chest physician and inadequate equipment to treat severe respiratory illness, and alleges that hospital staff behaved inappropriately toward workers who visited to register grievances, prompting a demand for CCTV footage to verify what occurred. 

The complaint further criticises the DISH office for directing sick workers to the labour court instead of compelling factory owners to meet their statutory obligations, naming three workers -- Rameshbhai Babubhai Rathod, Merubhai Devshibhai Kanjariya, and Meethabhai Pujabhai Solanki -- who have reportedly not received compensation despite completing the required paperwork.

According to the association, more than fifty-five workers in the region have been clinically diagnosed with silicosis but remain outside the ambit of state assistance because factory operators routinely fail to issue identity cards, appointment letters, or salary slips, leaving no documented link between workers and the units where they were exposed to crystalline silica. 

This gap has pushed the matter to the district administration to determine accountability. The association's demands include permanent chest physician services and free medicines at the Civil Hospital, action against hospital staff involved in misconduct, prompt legal proceedings against non-compliant factory owners, timely employment certificates for unorganised workers so they can access government schemes, and an urgent meeting of the District Silicosis Committee that includes worker representatives. 

These allegations echo findings from independent research on Morbi's ceramic sector. A study by the Ahmedabad-based occupational health group People's Training and Research Centre (PTRC), based on a survey of 2,000 workers, found that 92.65 percent of surveyed workers reported no Employees' State Insurance deductions, despite Morbi's industrial areas having been under ESI coverage since 1967. The study estimates the ceramic cluster employs over four lakh workers, a large share of them migrants, many left without provident fund or health insurance coverage. 

PTRC's Jagdish Patel, who has tracked occupational health and safety issues in Gujarat for decades, has argued that silicosis is entirely preventable through proper dust extraction systems, regular air quality monitoring, and periodic medical screening, measures that remain patchy across the region's roughly 1,500 ceramic units despite the industry's scale and profitability. Workers who do fall ill are often quietly pushed into early retirement, with silicosis also raising their vulnerability to tuberculosis and other complications. 

The crux of the issue lies in the pervasive non-compliance with the Factories Act across the region's expansive industrial cluster, say health rights activists. Factory operators routinely avoid issuing mandatory employee identity cards, appointment letters, or standard salary slips to their workforce. Because there are no official records linking these individuals to the manufacturing units where they spent years breathing in toxic crystalline silica, the state's regulatory framework treats them as though they were never affected by industrial operations.

The complaint has been forwarded to the Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendrabhai Patel, Health Minister Prafullbhai Panseria, and Labour Minister Kunvarjibhai Bavaliya, who is also a Gandhinagar MLA, demanding legal action. The victims await a decisive response from the district administration to address their long-standing grievances and provide much-needed relief.