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Journalism of Courage
MUMBAI, March 29: Agonising headaches after a graveyard shift, painful varicose veins after long hours on your feet, faulty eyesight after half one8217;s waking time spent on a computer terminal. All for the feel of a wad of notes at the month-end.
Unless these occupational health-related illnesses get too serious, they have generally been ignored by employees more worried about putting together a living. But seven mill workers, whose hearing was severely affected due to excessive levels of noise pollution at their work-places, are being compensated for it. In a significant turn of events, they have been awarded life-long compensation for professionally incurred hearing loss by the Employees State Insurance Corporation ESIC Medical board in the last few months.
Cases of compensation of this nature are not new; a hotel employee who suffered from hearing loss after years of working next to an air-conditioning plant was granted compensation two years ago. These recent cases, however, assume significance given the prevalent noise levels cutting across all mills.
Kumbhar8217;s hearing problems first began in 1992. After four long years of hospital-hopping, he approached the training centre at Lower Parel. This centre is run by the Occupationl Health and Safety Centre and Participatory Research in Asia PRIYA, a New Delhi-based non-governmental organisation. After being examined by the medical board, it was declared that he hadsuffered permanent damage and thus should get compensation.
According to Dr V Murlidhar, an honorary employee with the centre, 8220;Some doctors had presented data on occupational-related diseases at international conferences, but very few bother to inform the poor worker or give him a medical certificate.8221;
The first compensation case to be handled by the centre was that of Sampat Piraji Thapre, who suffered from byssinosis as a result of years of working in a textile mill. Byssinosis is a chronic condition which occurs when cotton fibres get into a person8217;s lungs. The symptoms are similar to asthma, but unlike the latter, it cannot be treated. Thapre was awarded compensation in 1994, following which 50 more byssinosis cases, including 25 women workers, have been handled by the centre.
In order to make workers aware of their rights, Thapre and another mill worker, Suryakant Amberkar, carry out poster campaigns and distribute hand-bills outside the mill compounds. Social workers Dnyanesh Patil and PralhadMalvalkar operate the lung-function machine which charts the extent of damage to the chest. The centre has also acquired an audio-meter to determine hearing loss.
Despite the sucess of the recent cases, getting compensation still remains a tough proposition. Rues Patil, 8220;Sometimes, labour officers or company managers refuse to sign on occupational disease forms. The medical board, comprising ESI doctors from different parts of the country, meet just once in six months.8221; The centre can only help, he adds. Ultimately, it is the worker8217;s grit that will see him through.
