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Society
Desperately Seeking Escape in Jharkhand
by Aparna Pallavi
Manju Das,
30, lost her first born within a week of giving birth. Sadly, her second
child had succumbed within a week of being born too. Their third and
only surviving child is now five years old. The boy is thalassaemic and
requires weekly blood transfusions. Manju and her family live close to
one of the tailing ponds where the waste from the Jaduguda uranium mines
in Jharkhand is dumped. Manju's husband is a worker in those very mines.
Lakshmi Das is married and in her early thirties. She has had two
abortions and a still-born baby so far. "It had no face... nothing,"
Lakshmi struggles to explain, "It's head and face was not formed at
all." She too lives near the mines.
Sumitra Soren gave birth to four children, but none survived beyond
their first week. Sumitra, too, lives in the vicinity of the Jaduguda
mines.
Binneta Kui is getting close to 30 but all the marriage proposals made
by her family have been declined. "No one wants to marry girls from
villages close to the mines," she explains, "Even if a marriage does
occur, the young women are sent back home if they fail to conceive or
have repeated abortions."
Manju, Lakshmi, Sumitra and Binneta are very well aware that the
disasters in their lives have been caused by the radiation from uranium
mines. However, the Uranium Company of India Limited (UCIL), which has
been carrying out mining activities in Jaduguda, Bhatin and Navapahar in
the East Singhbhoom district of Jharkhand for the last 40 years, and the
government, insist there is no problem. They have repeatedly turned a
deaf ear to the questions posed by the local populace regarding the
impact of radiation on their health. They say that it's 'alcoholism,
malnutrition and bad sanitary conditions' that are responsible for their
health problems and certainly not mining.
A new study released earlier this year on the health status of the
indigenous Ho, Santhal, Munda and Mahali tribals living in the vicinity
of the Jaduguda mines confirms that there is an alarming rise in
radiation-related health disorders afflicting women. Among such
disorders are spontaneous abortions, stillbirths, child mortality and
congenital birth defects.
This study was conducted between May - August 2007 by a four-member team
from Indian Doctors for Peace and Development (IDPD), the Indian chapter
of the Nobel-prize awardee organization International Physicians for
Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), and by the Jharkhandi Organization
Against Radiation (JOAR)
The study covers a population of 9,116 (2,118 households) in five
villages (or study villages), located within a 2.5 kilometre radius of
three mines, one ore processing plant and three tailing ponds belonging
to UCIL; and a population of 8,567 (1,956 households) in control
villages (or reference villages), 30 kilometers away from the mines. The
study is based both on health surveys carried out by qualified medics as
well as testimonies by residents, obtained through questionnaires and
discussion.
According to IDPD's Dr Shakeel Ur Rahman, who led the study team, while
radiation has a hugely damaging effect on health in general, it is the
gonads that are most affected. And, "of all the reproductive parts in
humans, both male and female, the ovary is the most vulnerable to
radiation."
The first and most heart-rending impact of radiation on women is the
birth of children with congenital defects. In the study, the congenital
deformity prevalence was surprisingly high, at 4.49 per cent in the
study villages, as compared to just 2.49 per cent in the reference
villages. The percentage of infant death due to congenital deformities,
as reported by mothers, is several times higher - 9.25 in study
villages, as against just 1.70 in the reference villages.
These deformities come in many forms - heads that are too large or too
small, extra digits (fingers, toes) or missing ones, asymmetrical growth
resulting in one side of the body being bigger than the other, Downs
Syndrome, and so on. The untold misery brought on women by the birth -
or death - of such children cannot even be imagined.
Manju, for instance, has to bear the emotional, physical and financial
strain of hopelessly struggling to keep her only son alive through
weekly blood transfusions. "How long can I keep my son alive on
transfusions?" Her voice quivers as she speaks, "One day, he will die
like my other two children. I have told my husband many times that we
should leave this place and go, but we have no support apart from his
job in the mines."
The figures for primary sterility in couples - inability to conceive
even after three years of marriage - is 9.60 per cent in study villages,
as against 6.27 per cent in the reference villages. Spontaneous
abortions are also common among the women of Jaduguda, although the
difference in the prevalence rates between the study and control
villages is not statistically significant.
Ghanshyam Biruli, president of JOAR and a tribal resident of Jaduguda,
describes the societal and psychological pressures that are mounting on
the women due to radiation-related health problems. "Pregnancy and
child-birth are events of great joy among tribal people, but for the
last 30 years, pregnancy has become a time of tension for these
communities. We are always worrying about whether the child will be
normal," he reveals.
And the most heartless and shocking part of this sorry state of affairs
is that UCIL has refused to take any responsibility for this unbearable
situation. In fact, Ramendra Gupta, CMD, UCIL, dismisses the present
study and several others undertaken by JOAR in the past as 'not true.'
"The issue," he says, "has been magnified by just one NGO for its own
motives."
Gupta, however, has no answer as to why international safety standards
are being violated in the mines. Over the years, successive UCIL
chairmen have denied that the open dumping of mine tailing (waste) close
to the villages exposes villagers to radiation. The many safety
disasters in the last four decades have not been deemed serious enough
to merit any attention. Even today villagers are living in houses
constructed out of mine tailings that the UCIL has provided to them.
"Since the UCIL came into action here, we have been living with
illnesses that we had never even heard of or seen before," says elderly
Kalipodo Murmu, "Even the seeds in local fruits are deformed, so how can
we expect normal human children?"
No authority appears to be even close to addressing this heart-rending
question. And bereft of other options, mothers in this radiation belt
live in a state of hopelessness and helplessness.
August 17,
2008
By arrangement with
WFS
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