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In Badour, a village located in the buffer zone of Madhya Pradesh’s Panna Tiger Reserve, silicosis patients like Lachu Lal Gond are enduring prolonged suffering due to years of incorrect treatment. Diagnosed with silicosis in 2022, Gond had previously been treated for tuberculosis (TB) since 2016 — a misdiagnosis that led to years of ineffective treatment. Now, at 45, he faces the final stages of the incurable disease, with little support from the government while he is still alive.
“I have been suffering from silicosis for several years and I am ill most of the time,” Gond wrote in a letter to the district collector of Panna, dated September 24, 2024. A member of the tribal community, he explained that he can no longer work and has been forced to stop his daughter’s education due to financial hardship. The disease has taken a heavy toll on him — he struggles to walk, breathe and eat, often vomiting blood when he tries to eat.
Gond has requested permission to sell his land, despite tribal restrictions, in order to survive. All of his documents are with the Tehsildar’s office, which has asked him to provide a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the bank. However, the bank has declined to issue the NOC due to an outstanding loan of Rs 1 lakh. Living in extreme poverty, Lachu has appealed to the collector for assistance.
Gond’s plight is not unique. Many in Badour village, where mining was once the primary source of livelihood, are battling the same fate. The dusty mines have long been closed, but their legacy lives on in the form of silicosis, a fatal lung disease caused by prolonged exposure to silica dust. Workers who inhaled this dust for years now suffer in silence, their health deteriorating while their pleas for help remain largely unanswered.
For close to seven years, Gond’s illness was mistaken for TB, a common misdiagnosis among silicosis patients in the region. From 2016 to 2022, he received TB treatment from hospitals in Chhatarpur, Rewa, Jhansi and Panna. However, his condition worsened with every course of medication. It was not until he visited a hospital in Jhansi that he was finally diagnosed with silicosis.
Silicosis is a disease that scars the lungs, causing difficulty in breathing, chronic cough and in severe cases, the coughing up of blood. Gond struggles with all these symptoms, unable to walk, breathe, or eat without extreme difficulty. His pile of medical bills reflects the burden of his treatment — Rs 5 lakh to Rs 6 lakh in the last eight years. He no longer has enough money to travel for further medical care, yet he continues to fight for a little more time.
Despite the severity of the disease, the Madhya Pradesh government does not provide any financial assistance to silicosis patients while they are alive. A one-time payment of Rs 3 lakh is given to their families after their death, but this offers little solace to those currently suffering. “Many of us are just waiting to die,” Gond said, referring to his fellow village residents who are also grappling with the disease.
Gond’s situation is echoed across Badour, where the mining industry has left behind a devastating human toll. In 2018, 60-year-old Kastura lost her husband, Shyamaliya, to silicosis. Like Gond, Shyamaliya had been misdiagnosed with TB. After his death, Kastura received the Rs 3 lakh compensation from the government, but this only came once her husband was gone.
The same story repeats itself in the lives of many village residents. Maniram, a 40-year-old resident, worked in the mines for 20 years and now suffers from the same symptoms as those diagnosed with silicosis. Although he is still being treated for TB, the medicines have done little to improve his health. Maniram said there are at least 15 other village residents in similar circumstances, all receiving ineffective TB treatment.
In Badour, the number of officially diagnosed silicosis cases remains low — only four people have been certified with the disease. This included 55-year-old Pyarelal Sahu, who coughed frequently while speaking to Down To Earth (DTE). Like Gond, he worked in the mines for 20 years and he was treated for tuberculosis from 2004 to 2009.
Social workers believe many more in the district may have lost their lives to the disease as numerous others are exhibiting similar symptoms and not responding to TB treatment.
The health infrastructure in rural Madhya Pradesh is not equipped to handle the unique needs of silicosis patients. The nearest TB hospital, located in Naugaon, Chhatarpur district, only treats TB patients and does not offer silicosis testing. This has led to a widespread misdiagnosis problem, where silicosis patients are incorrectly treated for TB, a disease that requires different medication.
Maniram said there are about 15 others in his village undergoing TB treatment with little benefit from the medicines. Jibbu and Bala Adivasi are among those who have been receiving TB treatment at Naugaon’s hospital for years but with no results.
Doctors at the Naugaon TB hospital admitted that they often see patients whose TB medication has no effect, a potential indicator of drug-resistant TB. However, when DTE informed them that many of these patients had been diagnosed with silicosis elsewhere, the doctors expressed ignorance. They acknowledged that a patient’s work history is a crucial factor in diagnosing silicosis, particularly for those who have worked in dusty environments for extended periods.
While the government’s compensation scheme provides a small measure of support for families after a silicosis victim’s death, the absence of help during their lifetime leaves them in extreme poverty and distress. Organisations like the Prithvi Trust have been trying to fill this gap by organising health camps and raising awareness about silicosis in the region. In 2011, a health camp held by the Prithvi Trust in Panna district identified 39 silicosis patients out of 43 people tested, which included Sahu.
However, such initiatives remain few and far between and the lack of systemic government support continues to plague the region. The village residents of Badour have no access to regular testing or specialised treatment for silicosis. Most of them must rely on their own meagre savings to cover medical expenses, while they wait for a death that will bring financial relief to their families.
In Badour, the connection between the long-closed stone mines and the current health crisis is clear. Hundreds of village residents once worked in these mines and now they are paying the price with their lives. According to Dr SP Shakyavar, in charge of the Community Health Centre in Lavkushnagar, Chhatarpur, anyone who works in dusty mines for more than 15 years has a 50 per cent chance of developing silicosis.
As Gond’s letter to the district collector remains unanswered, he and many others like him are left to wonder how long they will have to endure this slow, painful decline.
