Silicosis is among the list of occupational diseases, recognised by the Factory Act, 1948 and Employees Compensation Act, 2010. It is an incurable, deadly, and largely unnoticed and under-reported condition that develops over time when silica dust is ingested, coming from sand quartz, rocks, and other building materials. Rajasthan, which attracts about 45 million tourists every year, has as many as 42 major minerals and 23 miner ones, extracted in over 35,000 mines, employing roughly 2.5 million workers as per the Department of Mines and Geology, Rajasthan, 2015.
Impact of the Disease
Workers work in mines in very pathetic conditions, carving and processing stone manually, with hammers and chisels. Their villages keep shifting due to mining activity and so they have no proofs of identity. They cannot even make thumb impressions on government documents as their fingerprints have faded. They generally inhale hazardous levels of silica, which corrodes lung tissue and reduces immunity to respiratory ailments like asthma, tuberculosis and silicosis, commonly known as pathar ki bimaari. And thus, most of them die by the age of 40.
Diagnosis of Silicosis
Diagnosis is a challenge with mine workers. It is even not easy to find out whether they have tuberculosis or silicosis because the nodules that collect to form a mass can take up to 20 years to be identified in chest x-rays. And the symptoms are noticeable after many years of exposure to silica.
Government Efforts
The Ministry of Health identified priority groups in 2018 to check transmission of tuberculosis. State-run medical colleges set up Pneumoconiosis Board Centres to diagnose silicosis. However, these measures are not proving to be sufficient because mine owners are reluctant in adopting measures like wet drilling and use of protective masks. They offer lame excuses that wet drilling slows down production and increases cost. Mine owners also cite the case of open-cast quarries where send disperses and does not collect as an excuse for not adopting wet-drilling or providing protective masks to mine workers. However, when questioned by local NGOs, there has been complete denial among officials and mine owners.
Legislation and Transparency
Silicosis was first made noticeable under the Factories Act and later the Worker’s Compensation Act, 1923, and Rajasthan Silicosis Rules, 1955.
In 2012, a Rajasthan States Human Rights Commission scheme announced a compensation of ` 1 lakh to workers certified with silicosis by government hospital boards and ` 3 lakh to families of those who died post-diagnosis. However, the majority are unaware of regulations, and even those who are aware, the procedure of filing compensation petition is complicated. Doctors too deliberately treat patients for TB, avoiding talking about silicosis so as to avoid testifying it in court, which is time-consuming. Most of the male population is being wiped out and their widows are left victims to the disease, liquor trafficking, sexual abuse, domestic violence, and unscrupulous money-lenders.
Therefore, stricter enforcement is needed to ensure that standard operating procedures are followed. Mine workers have a right to know risks involved in their work. Protective equipment must be made compulsory and companies should be made liable to penalty in case of default.
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