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Supreme concern

  • 29/09/2000

There have been several cases filed against the asbestos industry with regard to the health of the workers. The most famous is the one between Consumer Education and Research Centre (CERC), Ahmedabad, and others and the Union of India in 1993. The writ petition dealt with the danger to the life of workers employed in the asbestos industry. The Supreme Court ruled, "Exposure to asbestos and the resultant long tragic chain of adverse medical, legal and societal consequences, reminds the legal and social responsibility of the employer or the producer not to endanger the workforce or the community or the society. He is not absolved of the inherent responsibility to the exposed worker or the society at large.'

The court ruled that the industrial units must maintain a health record of every worker up to a minimum period of 40 years; insure workers under the Employees State Insurance Act or Workmen's Compensation Act; or give health coverage to every worker. In the particular case, the appropriate inspector of factories in Gujarat was directed to send all workers for re-examination to the National Institute of Occupational Health (NIOH). In case of the positive finding that any of them were suffering from the occupational hazards, the person should be entitled to a compensation of Rs 1 lakh within a period of three months from the date of certification by the NIOH. "This case was decided after nearly eight years,' says Rani Advani of CERC and advocate at the Gujarat High Court.

However, says Ravi Agarwal of Srishti, a Delhi-based NGO, "There has not been much change at the ground level. Much of the problem comes from the fact that rules and regulations in the workplaces are poorly regulated.'

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