Asbestos ban is a health imperative, not just a moral issue

Jayant Chaudhary, minister of state (independent charge) for skill development and entrepreneurship, and minister of state for education, has been at the forefront of the fight against the use of asbestos. He says that a complete phasing out will require cooperation between multiple ministries but a start has to be made somewhere. Excerpts from an interview:

- BY PUJA AWASTHI

Q/ Do you currently have a total figure of the number of schools that are still using asbestos roofing?

A/ There is a lack of data on this aspect. From my understanding, there have been studies on asbestos usage. The labour ministry back in 2022 looked at occupational standards across 50 industries. Mining is now banned in India but the sector remains the world's largest importer of asbestos. So there are industries working with it. We need to look at occupational standards—they should be in place if we cannot stop the import. The second aspect is downstream: what are the usages, are there any leakages? A big aspect is also legacy constructions, especially in schools. A lot of school buildings are 20, 30, 40 years old. We need to have a safety audit to determine how many actually used asbestos.

Currently, there is no national database that I'm aware of, or that the education ministry has, that could verifiably say these are the number of schools that need to look at how they're going to treat asbestos.

Q/ When you look at the entire pie chart of minerals we are importing, asbestos is a very small component. Why do you think the trade-off is so difficult to make?

A/ I think it needs buy-in from industry to really take leadership. Like I said, it's a health imperative, it's not just a moral issue. Enterprises in India must also understand that there can be no profit without societal gain. We are all invested in our country, so the welfare of our people is not just the responsibility of an authority, government agency, or (just) for rules to be made or laws to be passed. It is for industry to really adopt best practices. I think that's where a lot of sensitisation needs to happen. Of course, the commerce ministry, corporate affairs ministry, finance ministry, and industrial associations can take the lead in that.