Skip to main content
Asia Monitor Resource Centre

Top Supplementary Menu 1

  • A
  • A
  • A
Get our E-newsletter

Top Supplementary Menu 2

  • Get Social

Top Slogon

Supporting a democratic &
independent labour movement
in Asia

Main menu

  • Who We Are
  • Topics & Concerns
  • Resources
  • Get Involved
  • Events
  • Galleries
  • Job Vacancies

You are here

Home » Topics & Concerns » Occupational Safety and Health

Topics & Concerns

  • Organising for Social Protection
  • Capital Mobility
  • Occupational Safety and Health
  • Labour and Gender
  • Asian Labour Update
    • - List of Contributors
    • - Submit Article
    • - Archives
    • - Echoes of Struggle
    • - Asian Labour Sessions

Action Alert

35 years – Still no Justice: Justice for Bhopal Victims

Act Now >

Latest Research

Profit Over People: Working Conditions in Sinar Mas Palm Oil Supply Chain
More +

India - The Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) plans way to keep silicosis in check

2014-11-25

The Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) has decided to set up a common cutting and polishing facility to combat the deadly silicosis disease afflicting most of the workers in agate industry in Khambhat town of Kheda district.

Agate, which is a silicate quartz, is shaped and polished into beads and other decorative items. This industry has been in operation for generations in Khambhat region of the State.

Grinding and polishing of agate stones generates large amount of dust containing particles of size 2-5 micron, mostly free silica, which, when inhaled, reaches alveoli of lungs, causing silicosis, a deadly disease.

The people who shape and polish the stones mostly work at home-based workshops that are unregulated and hence have no access to occupational health services or workers’ compensation when they fall ill.

“The agate works are mainly poor people working from their or their contractor’s home to polish and cut the stones.

This causes health problems like silicosis as the dust from stones enters their lungs,” regional chairman of GJEPC Gujarat, Chandrakant Sanghvi told PTI.

“It is for this reason that we have decided to build a common cutting and polishing facility for the workers. This facility would be well-ventilated, which would decrease the health risks for the workers,” he said.

“We are in talks with the Gujarat government for land to build the common facility, which will also have modern equipments,” Sanghavi said.

During the Annual Export Awards ceremony of the Council, held recently in Surat, its chairman Rajiv Jain had said that GJEPC would soon initiate work in Khambhat to combat silicosis disease that afflicts most of the workers, who cut and polish agate.

“The Council plans to adopt better technological methods of cutting and polishing to improve the working conditions there,” Jain had said.

Jagdish Patel of Peoples Training and Research Centre (PTRC), working on occupational safety and health, said that the exact number of workers suffering from silicosis could not be ascertained, as they hardly go for medical check-ups or get proper diagnosis.

According to a study conducted by Vadodara-based PTRC recently, child labour was also common in the agate industry of Khambhat.

The study found that 10 per cent out of the over 4,500 agate workers, who participated in the study, were in age group of 6-18 years.

Being an unorganised sector, the agate workers are exploited and paid less than the minimum wage fixed by the State government. They also do not get any benefits under the Factory’s Act or Workmen Compensation Act, as they are unable to establish employee-employer relationship, the study further claimed.

http://www.thehindu.com/health/policy-and-issues/article2865169.ece

Country:

  • India

Type:

  • Research

Tags:

  • silicosis
  • agate
Top

Support Us

Help AMRC protect labour rights in Asia!

Donate Now!

Donate Now

Action Alert

35 years – Still no Justice: Justice for Bhopal Victims

Act Now >

Our Work in Asia

  • India
  • Bangladesh
  • Cambodia
  • China
  • Hong Kong
  • Indonesia
  • Japan
  • Laos
  • Malaysia
  • Myanmar
  • Nepal
  • Pakistan
  • Philippines
  • Singapore
  • Sri Lanka
  • South Korea
  • Taiwan
  • Thailand
  • Vietnam
  • Asia
  • World
Click to see our work in Asia

AMRC Contact Information

AMRC Logo
Flat 7, 9th Floor, Block A
Fuk Keung Industrial Building
66-68 Tong Mi Road
Kowloon, Hong Kong
Tel: (852) 2332-1346  |  Fax: (852) 2385-5319

Footer Link

  • About Us
  • Our Work in Asia
  • Events
  • Action Alert
  • Resources
  • Support Us
  • Contact Us
  • Links
  • Feedback
  • Sitemap

Creative Common

Creative Common