S. Paik
Activist of silicosis movement
A comprehensive report on silicosis victims of 24 parganas, West Bengal
The abovementioned report on incidents of Silicosis, a deadly occupational disease, and consequent deaths and crisis, creating havoc in a limited part of West Bengal was published in 2019. The report was prepared by an organization working on the malady, namely ‘Silicosis Akranto Sangrami Shramik Committee (SASSC)’, to spread awareness among the people and activists about Silicosis, which seems to be killing many workers of the State of West Bengal silently, for decades.
The report starts with a brief description of the disease itself with a well-known image1 of a horrific stone-like lung of a miner, preserved in a museum in Spain. Silicosis is a form of occupational lung disease caused by inhalation of crystalline silica dust. It is marked by inflammation and scarring in the form of nodular lesions in the upper lobes of the lungs. Silicosis, particularly the acute form, is characterized by shortness of breath, cough, fever, and severe weight loss. Using workplace controls, silicosis is almost always a preventable disease. It is stated in the report that the early mention of silicosis (not the name as the term silicosis was first coined by Achille Visconti, a prosecutor from Milan, Italy in 1870) can be found in ancient Egypt and Greece. In fact, researchers in 1970s, regularly found anthracosis (destruction of lung by carbon particles or coal) and silicosis (from silica dust) in mummified lungs2in Egypt. Also, the modern researchers and medical practitioners3 did mention that silicosis-like features were indeed observed by Hippocrates in the metal diggers in 5th Century BCE. It is interesting to note that in the ‘Condition of the Working Class in England’ (1845), Friedrich Engels writes4while discussing the situations of the workers in Sheffield, England – “By far the most unwholesome work is the grinding of knife-blades and forks, which, especially when done with a dry stone, entails certain early death. The unwholesomeness of this work lies in part in the bent posture, in which chest and stomach are cramped; but especially in the quantity of sharp-edged metal dust particles freed in the cutting, which fill the atmosphere, and are necessarily inhaled. The dry grinders’ average life is hardly thirty-five years, ‘the wet grinders’ rarely exceeds forty-five. Dr. Knight, in Sheffield, says:
I can convey some idea of the injuriousness of this occupation only by asserting that “the greatest drinkers among the grinders are sometimes the longest lived, owing to their more frequent absence from their work”. Altogether the grinders in Sheffield “amount to about two thousand five hundred, of this number about one hundred and fifty, viz. eighty men and seventy boys, are fork grinders – these die from twenty-eight to thirty-two years of age. The razor grinders, grind both wet, and dry, and they die from forty to forty-five years of age. The table-knife grinders work on wet stones, and they live to betwixt forty and fifty years of age.
The same physician gives the following description of the course of the disease called grinders’ asthma:
“Those who are to be brought up grinders, usually begin to work when they are about fourteen years old. Grinders, who have good constitutions seldom experience much inconvenience from their trade until they arrive at about twenty years of age: about that time the symptoms of their peculiar complaint begin to steal upon them, their breathing becomes more than usually embarrassed on slight exertions, particularly on going upstairs or ascending a hill; their shoulders are elevated in order to relieve their constant and increasing dyspnoea; they stoop forward, and appear to breathe the most comfortably in that posture in which they are accustomed to sit at their work. Their complexions assume a muddy, dirty appearance; their countenance indicates anxiety; they complain of a sense of tightness across the chest; their voice is rough, and hoarse; their cough loud, and as if the air were drawn through wooden tubes; they occasionally expectorate considerable quantities of dust, sometimes mixed up with mucus, at other times in globular or cylindrical masses enveloped in a thin film of mucus. Haemoptysis, inability to lie down, night sweats, colignative diarrhoea, extreme emaciation, together with all the usual symptoms of pulmonary consumption at length carry them off; but not until they have lingered through months, and even years of suffering, incapable of working so as to support either themselves or their families.” I must add that “all the attempts which have hitherto been made, to prevent or to cure the grinders’ asthma, have utterly failed.”
Clearly, Engels was talking about the same thing as Hippocrates, which is a form of pneumoconiosis (an umbrella name of all occupational lung diseases), of which anthracosis and silicosis are parts. And these curses continued to ruin lives of millions of workers and their families all over the world till now, as also the report shows. In fact, two important books (The Hawk’s Nest Incident: America’s Worst Industrial Disaster by Martian Cherniack (1986) and Steel Drivin’ Man: John Henry, The Untold Story of an American Legend by Scott Reynolds Nelson (2006)) detail the numerous deaths of thousands of black workers in America by silicosis, while cutting tunnels, putting up railway tracks, mining, and so on, during 100 years after the industrial revolution under classical capitalism. Undoubtedly, silicosis and other preventable occupational diseases could easily be considered as the biggest expression of exploitation in the lives of millions of manual workers and their families, and therefore, should have been taken up as a serious point of struggle for the rights of the working class.
Next, the report quickly described the state of affairs of silicosis in India. Expectedly, the situation is extremely grim here, especially due to the indifferent attitude of all the State Governments and also the Government of India towards the workers. In a recent paper, titled “Challenges and opportunities for silicosis prevention and control: need for a national health program on silicosis in India”5 Professor Mihir P. Rupani stated that – “In 2015-16, an estimated 11.5 million workers in India were employed in occupations associated with silica dust, a number expected to surge to 52 million by the year 2025-26”, which only points towards the scale of the problem. In any case, the report goes on to mention about the ‘Global Program for the Elimination of Silicosis (GPES)’ jointly proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and International Labour Organization (ILO) in 1995, and also the fact that India installedher own National Program for the Elimination of Silicosis (NPES) in 2007, butthe program never took off and has no real implication on the lives of the millions of Indian workers even today.Surprisingly the central trade unions also remained largely silent during these years and consequently the whole issue had been traditionally attended only by a few Nongovernmental Organization (NGOs). One such NGO, PRASAR filed a case in the Supreme Court in 2006, citing 238 silicosis deaths among the tribal workers of Madhya Pradesh who went to work in Gujarat at least two decades ago. With time, all the states were made party to the case, the idea of compensating the families of the deceased was introduced and finally the state of Haryana announced the very first silicosis rehabilitation in the country in 2017. Additionally, a similar policy has been adapted by the State of Rajasthan in 2019 and the State of West Bengal in 2023. It maybe important to note that the Supreme court case has finally given the judgement only months ago (August 6, 2024), where the top court asked the National Human Rights Commission and the National Green Tribunal to attend to all the necessary issues of compensation-rehabilitation and environmental pollution, respectively.
The report under discussion however missed one important fact that the very first silicosis compensation (not by the Government but by the private owner) was disbursed in favour of 11 deceased worker’s families in Jhargam, West Bengal, nearly two decades ago. The late scientist Bijan Sarangi of the science magazine ‘Top Quark’ did all the work on the silicosis-afflicted workers of Chichurgeriya village near Jhargram of West Bengal. Later ‘Nagarik Mancha’ took part in this initiative and helped Bijan to move to the court. One factory was closed down due to the High Court order and the court also ordered for compensation of silicosis-affected workers.
Recently, Caravan magazine has published a cover story – ‘Choking to Death: Silica dust from India’s industries is killing its workers’(September 3, 2024) which offers an extremely touchy and comprehensive account of Silicosis in the country. Writer of the article, journalist Akhilesh Pandey presented a story of silicosis and Ram temple.
“A few days before the inauguration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, I met Prakash Meghwal, a silicosis victim, in Pindwara. The 44-year-old had played a role in the grand event: he had worked on the carved sandstone being used in the temple…………On the eve of the Ram temple inauguration, Pindwara was decorated in saffron in celebration. But Meghwal was consumed with anger and sadness. “My situation is critical and, for the last one year, I am on oxygen support,” he told me. “At this stage of life, breathing is the most difficult work for me. Sometimes, I don’t sleep the whole night because of breathing issues.” Meghwal was upset because, whenever he and other stone-carvers raised their voices against the impact of their work on their health, they were called “anti-Hindu” for opposing temple work.”Akhilesh goes on to present the story of many silicosis villages of India, populated by women who are referred to as “silicosis widows”—women whose husbands had worked in mines or stone-work industries and lost their lives to the disease.
Next comes a very important component of the report. A very detailed account of more than 600 workers from the two districts (North and South 24 Parganas) of West Bengal has been presented. Pictures of the victims, copies of death certificates and prescriptions and a comprehensive list of names have been attached as annexures. The account proves that SASSC as an organization made a grassroot level connection and directly worked with the workers and their families. Cases have been filed in the High Court of Calcutta as well as to the National Human Rights Commission to find some help under the ambit of the legal provisions of India. However, most importantly, the people did not only stop here but also organized themselves and took to the streets. The report presents the event of a massive rally in the remote roads of North 24 Parganas on October 25, 2018, demanding rights for workers. This is not so common in the other parts of the country and definitely adds an important element to the anti-silicosis movement in India. Noting this, Akhilesh also commented while describing the condition of a silicosis patient in Jhargram, West Bengal – ““…Chinu would soon require oxygen support to live. This was out of the question—unlike Minakhan, their village was remote and did not have any active civil-society organisations to help him.” So, it is probably no surprise that West Bengal Government had to create a silicosis policy so early, much before other states (excepting Rajasthan and Haryana, which were known for silicosis related issues for a long time anyway), and as the media reports of present times show, many tests and diagnosis are being carried out regularly at different parts of the state according to the policy.
Lastly, the report attached a few scientific research papers which are extremely important in order to deal with this problem. The conventional wisdom says that the symptoms of silicosis is short-of-breath, weight loss, etc. However, a case of Giyasuddin Gazi has been presented who had silicosis but the expression was largely an autoimmune disease called SLE (systemic lupus erythematosus) for him and he expired due to that. Similarly, one patient died due to liver ailments. The annexed research paper prove that all of these can be manifestation of silicosis. It is very important to note that even the qualified doctors have very limited idea about occupational diseases as such topics are categorically and understandably ignored in their curriculum and so pushing the system to acknowledge the different manifestations of the same disease as well as to accept the many different industries (for example, brick kiln workers) that might give rise to silicosis would be really important.
Overall, ‘Story of Silicosis and Deaths in West Bengal – A comprehensive report on silicosis victims of 24 parganas, West Bengal’ is a timely, important and well-worked report. It would be beneficial if the report reaches and read by more and more people, especially the activists, trade unionists, and even medical practitioners.
1https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicosis
2https://dangerdust.wordpress.com/2015/12/20/dangerous-dust-in-history/
3Silicosis and its Relation to Tuberculosis, T. F. O’leary, CHEST Journal, Volume 5, Issue 9, Pages 18–20 (1939).
4Condition of the Working Class in England, Friedrich Engels, page 144 (1845), marxists.org
5Challenges and opportunities for silicosis prevention and control: need for a national health program on silicosis in India, Mihir P. Rupani, Journal of Occupational Medicine and Toxicology, Volume 18, Article 11 (2023).
Absolutely true and graphic description of Silicosis in India, where the migrant workers are paying the price for “development”.