DUST TO DUST

Millions of Indians work in dusty mines, factories and construction sites, facing a deadly yet underreported lung disease called silicosis. National-level data on the illness caused by dust inhalation is virtually absent.

- BHAGIRATH

Negligence of employers, lack of awareness among workers and absence of a dedicated national programme to control silicosis have made it difficult to assess the disease's spread or the number of affected workers, especially in the unorganised sector. With research showing that curbing silicosis could help reduce India's tuberculosis burden, there is an urgent need for a policy intervention to deal with the ailment, reports BHAGIRATH from Panna in Madhya Pradesh, Mahoba in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi

LACHHU LAL Gond has spent past eight years visiting hospitals. The frail 45-year-old often vomits blood while eating or coughing and requires frequent hospitalisation. Between September and December 2024, he was admitted thrice to the government hospital in Panna district of Madhya Pradesh. Gond has already spent more than *25 lakh on his treatment, including a loan of *2.5 lakh that remains unpaid. "I do not have money now. I am trying to sell my land to arrange money for treatment," he says.

Gond is a resident of Bador village that lies just outside the Panna Tiger Reserve, in the buffer zone between the forest and the city. He worked in sandstone mines near the reserve for 17 years before quitting in 2016. He used to carry out drilling operations to extract slabs of stones, unwittingly inhaling the dust spewed in the process. In 2016, when he started facing difficulty in breathing and walking, along with cough and fatigue, he went to a tuberculosis hospital in the neighbouring district Chhatarpur and started receiving treatment. From 2016 to 2022, he took tuberculosis medicines given by hospitals in Chhatarpur, Rewa and Panna, but his health kept deteriorating. In 2022, he went to a private hospital in Jhansi, where he was diagnosed with silicosis. Another test at a hospital in Jabalpur in 2024 said his ailment was silicotuberculosis-silicosis and tuberculosis.