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Saturday 20, November, 2004 17:45 - 19:30, No.2 Conference Room Workshop F Victims and Support Organizations Chairs: Kazunori Uekusa and Kyla Sentes Raghunath Manavar1, Mangabhai Patel2 1Occupational Health and Safety Association, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India 2 Asbestosis victim, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, India ABSTRACT This paper presents the struggle of the asbestos victims in India with special reference to the western state of Gujarat. It also highlights the story of the victim Mangabahi, who is also participating in this conference. The report provides insights how the poor and the unemployed persons are trapped into working in the hazardous industries in India. This report will also provide the insights of the struggle to get recognition for the asbestos related sickness and the fight for the compensation of the victims. The report will also highlight the problems of workers not getting the proper diagnosis and thus not getting any compensation. The report will also focus on the efforts of our organisation Occupational Health and Safety Association (OSHA) to carry out the studies on the prevalence of asbestos related diseases in other parts of India and our efforts to campaign for its complete ban in India. Mangabahi, who is suffering from the asbestosis, worked in the boiler department of the Ahemdabad power plant since 1965. He was working as a casual worker in the plant and was absorbed as a permanent worker only in 1980. Mangabahi started to experience breathing problems in early 1990s and soon it became very difficult for him to work. The company used to carry the medical check-ups for workers every 2-3 years, yet they found nothing wrong with him. At this juncture he came to me and explained his problems to me. I sought the advice of Dr S. H Clarke a retired OSH expert from the Industrial Toxicology Research Centre, India and was working with the Consumer Education and Research Center (CERC). We identified 8 workers with the same problems and the CERC lawyer Late Rani Advani filed a petition in the Gujarat High Court. The court instructed the National Institute of Occupational Health, based in Ahemdabad to examine the workers. Two of the workers died before they could be examined and two of them were diagnosed as suffering from asbestosis (including Mangabhai). Mangabhai has received only an interim compensation of 10000 Rupees (218 US$) and is still waiting for the final judgement. |