IN NOVEMBER last year, the Supreme Court directed the Gujarat government to pay Rs 3 lakh each as compensation to the families of 238 tribal migrant workers from Madhya Pradesh who died of silicosis, a fatal respiratory disease caused by inhaling silica dust, while working in the state’s factories. The state government has refused to comply with the apex court’s order and made no effort to survey or acknowledge the deaths of tribals in villages of Gujarat from the same disease.

AS VILLAGE pramukh Madhuben Shiayal finished addressing the meeting, a dozen koli men and a handful of women who had taken off time from weeding the bajri fields got up to go. The hot April sun blazed over Khared, a village in Mahuva taluka in Bhavnagar district of southern Gujarat. Unlike others, Natha Shiayal, an elder with a quiet demeanour, walked barefoot.

RAJASTHAN