In Lalkuan, near Badarpur-Mehrauli area in Delhi, three people supposedly suffering from Silicosis are in a very serious condition and one of them is about to die. The three villagers are Narayanai, Chanda and Ghashi require immediate and urgent medical care and People’s Right’s and Social Research (PRASAR) has taken upon itself to take them to hospital. There is no cure for silicosis. All forms of silicosis lead to complete respiratory failure and death. A heart-lung transplant may save some patients.

Silicosis is one of the oldest known occupational diseases caused by the inhalation of particles of silica, mostly from quartz in rocks, sand and similar substances. It affects the lungs. It is a progressive disease that belongs to a group of lung disorders called pneumoconiosis. It is identified by the formation of lumps (nodules) and fibrous scar tissues in the lungs, according to World Health Organisation.

These are workers got affected by this deadly disease due to exposure and there were others who have already succumbed to this disease. Since these workers were not covered under the Employees State Insurance (ESI) scheme and being casual and contract workers they have been denied compensation under the Workmen’s Compensation Act, 1923 which is meant for the unorganised sector workers.

National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has taken cognisance of the Complaint lodged by People’s Right’s and Social Research (PRASAR) on 13th June 2003, which was placed before the NHRC on 14/8/2003.

The NHRC has directed that a copy of the complaint be sent to the Secretaries of Health, Labour and Industry, Ministries of Government of India, the Labour Commissioner, Government of National Capital Region of Delhi and Director, Pollution Control Department, Delhi to look into the allegations contained in the complaint and submit their comments and an Action Taken Report within four weeks from the receipt of NHRC’s letter dated 19th August, 2003. None of the departments mentioned have responded till date.

Stone cutting went on in Lalkuan for more than 35 years till the Supreme Court of India ordered for the removal or dislocation of the crushers in early 1990s. “When hundreds of stone-crushers were causing serious cough and respiratory diseases including Tuberculosis among several thousands of people in the Tughlakabad area of New Delhi I have visited the site along with M.C.Mehta and prepared a technical report on the problem and the same was presented to the Supreme Court through a public interest litigation filed by Mehta. As a result several hundreds of stone quarries were order by the Supreme Court to be shifted to other safer places outside New Delhi, ” said Professor T.Shivaji Rao, Director, Centre for Environmental Studies, GITAM Engineering college, Visakhapatnam. It defies understanding how can shift of stone crushers to ‘safer places’ make it safe. These crushers have been shifted in Haryana where it is in the process of creating a similar situation sooner or later.

The Supreme Court bench in the M C Mehta v Union of India has said, “We are of the view that an enterprise which is engaged in a hazardous or inherently dangerous industry which poses a potential threat to the health and safety of the persons working in the factory and residing in the surrounding areas owes an absolute and non-delegable duty to the community to ensure that no harm results to anyone on account of hazardous or inherently dangerous nature of the activity which it has undertaken.

It further said, the enterprise must be held to be under an obligation to provide that the hazardous or inherently dangerous activity in which it is engaged must be conducted with the highest standards of safety and if any harm results on account of such activity, the enterprise must be absolutely liable to compensate for such harm and it should be no answer to the enterprise to say that it had taken all reasonable care and that the harm occurred without any negligence on its part.

Since the persons harmed on account of the hazardous or inherently dangerous activity carried on by the enterprise would not be in a position to isolate the process of operation from the hazardous preparation of substance or any other related element that caused the harm the enterprise must be held strictly liable for causing such harm as a part of the social cost for carrying on the hazardous or inherently dangerous activity, the bench observed.

If the enterprise is permitted to carry on a hazardous or inherently dangerous activity for its profit, the law must presume that such permission is conditional on the enterprise absorbing the cost of any accident arising on account of such hazardous or inherently dangerous activity as an appropriate item of its overheads.

Such hazardous or inherently dangerous activity for private profit can be tolerated only on condition that the enterprise engaged in such hazardous or inherently dangerous activity indemnifies all those who suffer on account of the carrying on of such hazardous or inherently dangerous activity regardless of whether it is carried on carefully or not.

This principle is also sustainable on the ground that the enterprise alone has the resource to discover and guard against hazards or dangers and to provide warning against potential hazards.

We would therefore hold that where an enterprise is engaged in a hazardous or inherently dangerous activity and harm results to anyone on account of an accident in the operation of such hazardous or inherently dangerous activity resulting for example, in escape of toxic gas the enterprise is strictly and absolutely liable to compensate all those who are affected by the accident and such liability is not subject to any of the exceptions which operate vis-a-vis the tortious principle of strict liability under the rule in Rylands v. Fletcher, ” the bench concluded

Earlier there was a meeting held on Occupational Health and Environmental Health at Toxics Link conference room on 6th August where S A Azad of PRASAR made a presentation on the plight of victims of the occupational and environmental hazards from stone crushing industry. He sought the support of the civil society groups to launch a campaign to seek remedy for the silicosis victim.

The lung disease caused by long term inhalation of invisible dust containing silica particles is called silicosis. Hundreds of stone crushers in Lalkuan were involved in stone cutting to cater the need of infrastructure development of the city, till the early 90’s suffer from this disease. PRIA and PRASAR had done a study in 2001 to gauge the extent of affected workers based on the interviews from 155 respondents and 58 oral autoposy.

Prior to that according to a paper by SK Sharma, J. N. Pande and K Verma, Assistant Professors, Department of Medicine of All India Institute of Medical Sciences published in Indian Journal of Chest Diseases and Allied Sciences, October-December 1988, Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) analysis found silicosis in six patients.

Participants at the August meeting included Dr T K Joshi, Dr Sanjay Chaturvedi, Mr A T Dudani, Mr Ravi Agarwal, Mr Nasir Atiq, Mr Sunita Dubey, Mr Ravinder Roy, Mr Praveen Mote, Ms Alpana, Mr S A Azad and Gopal Krishna.

The current situation on silicosis in relation to government, trade unions’ efforts was also discussed. It took stock of the emerging state level, national and international occupational hazards scenario with regard to silicosis. The need for public hearing on the issue has been stressed.