Death by silica dust

The mesh of motorways and transport services is doing little to help those who till the fields and mine the quarries.

While legislators roar, thunder and beat their chests in freshly-renovated assembly buildings, the democratic citizen moans, cries, gasps, coughs up some silica dust and chokes to death on the tattered bed of a district hospital after a lifetime spent subsidising rich men’s lavish lives. Several times did the stone-crushing labourers of Gujranwala ask their employers for dust protection masks. Several times their requests were spurned. Several times were they reminded that their lives are worth much less than a few grams of crushed stone. Eventually, 18 died of silicosis, causing the Supreme Court to initiate suo-motu proceedings.

It is harrowing that these deaths have occurred under the noses of several labour commissions and associations which function in the province. It is all the more distressing to realise that there has been nearly zero implementation of pro-worker legislation despite the Baldia fire, recent demonstrations by brick kiln workers and the widely reported health hazards faced by workers in cotton processing and cement factories.

The political Left in the country, which is supposed to be the well-spring of the working class’s rights, has tossed its hallmark mandate out of the window. So consumed are the left-wingers with wronging their political opponents that their fundamental role, that of ensuring the well-being of the worker, is simply lost on them. Why boast of ideologies when you can’t live up to them? Moreover, the mesh of motorways, electricity projects and transport services is doing little to help those who till the fields and mine the quarries. On the legislative front, no labour-related laws have been drafted by the Punjab Assembly since 2007. No one cares. Elections are several years later.

Gladly, the deaths of workers have at least jolted some kind souls in the judiciary awake. Now, there will hopefully be some stricter checks and balances on factory owners. While civil society organisations should do more grassroots work, the responsibility of such disasters rests squarely on the shoulders of the government which needs to exhaustively rethink its priorities.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 16^th, 2014.

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