A friendly warning to anyone who continues reading this from here on: if you are looking for a lighthearted, chatty piece of fictional or real experience from the past garnished with self- deprecating humour, you wil be disappointed. This post is about the serious consequences of the mindless pursuit of technological and scientific first world fantasies of the third world. What you read here is absolutely true. If you do not believe me or suspect me of being a "traitor" (a name freely used by the Hindu fundamentalist groups against anyone who questions the wisdom of the euphoria surrounding India's newfound "nuclear" status or someone who says something like, "Wow! The Pakistanis gave us a real thrashing in the last match, didn't they?" ) you may contact Shriprakash, the Ranchi based journalist who has been working tirelessly to get the authorities do something about the Jaduguda question:
kritikashri@yahoo.com
Had anyone enquired about Jaduguda three years ago and posed questions like its geographical location and its contemporary significance, this writer would have had to confess to his total ignorance. By the time I completed my journey of discovery into Jaduguda’s blood, sweat, tears and her maimed children, I was at a loss for words. Even now, I am stupefied, numbed and ashamed when the graphic details of Jaduguda unravel themselves. I cannot ever claim to have seen, understood or experienced the soul- wrenching events through which this little village has stumbled and tottered her way. As we keep on boasting about our (colonial) education, information and knowledge, new and rude enlightenment falls on us like thunderbolts and humbles us. The harsh realisation that Jaduguda bestowed on me makes me shudder; it has made me humbler and more compassionate than I have ever been.
It was the enquiry about a documentary film titled "Buddha Weeps in Jaduguda" that led me into the middle of the inferno called Jaduguda. It does not matter how much we write our writings or how long we speak our speeches, to understand the sorrows of Jaduguda during the past two and a half decades is not easy. Jaduguda's journey into the twenty-first century has been dotted with pitfalls.
Jaduguda is in the newly formed Jharkhand State. In 1967, U.C.I.L (Uranium Corporation of India Limited) established a Uranium mine in Jaduguda. The population of Jaduguda comprises Dalits belonging to the Santahl, Ho tribes - people whom we, the urbanites call 'Adivasis', (with condescension, of course). This is the one and only Uranium processing plant in the whole of our mother India. (I mention this especially for the attention of educated Malayali parents who are keen about their children's general knowledge)! Irrespective of political affiliations and leanings, this institution serves as the cornerstone of the Government of India's ambitious nuclear programme. This one plant processes uranium required for all the Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors. There are three Uranium mines in this plant and three Copper mines nearby. These mines are the solid foundation (!) of India's nuclear programme. There is heavy military security and visible police presence adding to the aura of secrecy surrounding this complex.
The village of Jaduguda is in the Singhbhum district where mining has gone on since the days of the British Raj. Twenty- six minerals including Iron ore, copper, uranium, bauxite and manganese are mined here. Jaduguda is a fertile valley. It is the catchment area of the Subarnarekha River that flows through Bihar, Orissa and Bengal into the Indian Ocean. Jamshedpur, the steel city is only twenty kilometres away. According to environmental surveys conducted in Jamshedpur, there are high levels of Radon (a highly radioactive gas produced by mining) in the atmosphere of Jamshedpur.
TRUTHS OF JADUGUDA MINE
The mining takes place 1600-2000 feet underground. The majority of the workforce (read labourforce) in these mines is the actual landlords of the Jaduguda lands; the Dalits. These workers do not have any protective clothing. They wear cotton overalls and leather gloves. Ore is transported to the mill in Jaduguda in trucks. Tarpaulin, torn and worn out in many places, is used to cover the ore on the open truck. Atop this, workers are seen enjoying a free ride.
In the mill, the ore is ground to a fine powder. Then, through an acid leach process, it is chemically processed. The rock pieces from which uranium has been removed (99.94%) are thrown away as waste. Jaduguda produces 200 tons of uranium as U308. The plant is capable of processing 1000 tons of ore. In short, the staggering fact is that Gandhiji's pacifist India mines 3, 30000 - 3, 60000 tons of rock, powders it and 'throws away' waste through the mighty organisation called U.C.I.L.
This tailings, or waste in common man's tongue, is processed in lime to render the acid content in it harmless. After that, it is separated as coarse and fine. The fine part is dissolved (?) in water and is pumped through overhead pipes above Jaduguda and sent into the Tailings Dam, its final Resting-Place.
Uranium is not the only radioactive element in the ore. There is about a dozen other elements known as uranium decay products. Apart from that, poisonous elements like zinc, manganese, cadmium, arsenic etc., are not removed in processing. The most mobile element in the tailings is Radon222. In wind of 10km p/h, Radon travels a distance of up to 1000 km. Inhaling and ingesting Radon (it dissolves in water) are extremely hazardous.
There are three Tailings Dams in Jaduguda, all of which are uncovered. Although they may absorb solid materials, the gaseous emissions as well as microscopic particles from these dams creep into the life-breath of the villagers silently. In summer, when the water dries up in the dams, wind carries the waste products all over the village. During the monsoon rains the dams overflow into the river. The villagers have traditionally used these grounds for grazing and playing football. As the dams are constructed in the middle of the shortcut to the forest, the villagers use it as a thoroughfare in summer. The U.C.I.L complex has extended its talons to the farmlands of the Dalits. It has not reached their homesteads. Consequently, the villagers live as close as 30 metres to the Tailings Dam.
THE 'PROLETARIATE' IN JADUGUDA
There are Seven Thousand workers in the Jaduguda mine. Ninety per cent of these are
Dalits. As mentioned earlier, they work wearing cotton clothes and handle the highly radioactive material using ordinary leather gloves. These unfortunate workers are prone to radiation more than any other personnel in the nuclear 'industry' are. In line with the true secular tradition and constitution of our mother India, the U.C.I.L will swear by Bhagavat Gita, Holy Koran and Holy Bible that there never has been an iota of radiation seen or observed or reported among the labour force. However, the death toll among the workers from 1994 to 1998 shows another chilling picture:
YEAR | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 |
DEATHS | 17 | 14 | 19 | 21 |
(Courtesy: J.O.A.R)
The workers are aware of the anti- nuclear and anti- radiation campaign being conducted by J.O.A.R and other like- minded organisations. Consequently, there is widespread discontent and restlessness among the workforce. The reaction of U.C.I.L to the discontentment and restlessness of the workers is typical of any capitalist monopoly! They have ignored and refused to accept that there are very bad practices at work in the Jaduguda establishment. In order to "teach" the workers a lesson, the U.C.I.L has resorted to hiring workers through private labour providers. (Do you hear the echoes of John Gunther's 'Inside Asia'? Remember that Gunther wrote that book in the 1930’s! How much have things changed since then?)
Those who are permanently employed by U.C.I.L, if they fall ill, are admitted to the hospital in the complex. Their medical records, including history of ailment, diagnosis, treatment, etc., are a closely guarded secret. Following immense public pressure, the Bihar State Health Department conducted a study regarding the general conditions in Jaduguda. In its report after that study, the health department had to admit that there were several unhealthy practices going on about waste dumping, especially. It said that the Tailings Dam in Jaduguda was being used as waste disposal structure for all other nuclear plants in India. (I understand that this has been stopped. Is that right, Shri?) The report also mentioned that the river was being polluted and was highly hazardous as uranium was flowing into it from the Tailings Dam. Various extraneous factors forced the health department to stop there. They dared not question the presence of the mighty nuclear juggernaut in Jaduguda!
JADUGUDA'S CHILDREN
The number of genetically deformed children is on the increase in Jaduguda. One- eyed children, children with partially formed skulls, missing toes, deformed palms and so on and so forth. One look at the pictures of some of these unfortunate "Children of God" will make one hang one's head in shame knowing that this is a stark reality with which the people of Jaduguda have to live. Genetic deformities are the consequences of low-level radiation.
For your children, who sing "Johnny, Johnny Yes Papa" on their riotuous and joyous way to play-school in tie and jacket, carrying their tiffin boxes, Jaduguda may remain a question and an answer in a general knowledge lesson. They are unaware of the curse of Jaduguda and its long-term impacts. God bless them. They are the embodiments of (y)our hopes; in some cases, (y)our unfulfilled ambitions, (y)our in-satiated avarice. But remember that they are going to grow up into adults in an India where they will fear to breathe free because of the terrors the laws of our lands hold out to them. And remember this too: they are the children of the twenty first century. They grow up in a world where the mantra has changed from Gandhiji's "GramaSwaraj" to "GlobalSwaraj".
When the Dalits allowed U.C.I.L to acquire their lands for peanuts, they too probably had great hopes - jobs at the plant or in the mines, good schools and education for their children, modern amenities in their impoverished homes. Those were some of the fruits of temptation extended to them by our "progressive-minded" planners, weren't they? The responsibility for making such hollow offers and ultimately leading them to the valleys of death lie squarely upon the shoulders of those unlettered politicians and their henchmen, the so- called "scientists".
But, as we huddle around in the obscene comfort of our living rooms and go ecstatic watching a Tendulkar ton, Jaduguda is an aching truth, an open sore we strive to forget, or pretend as if it does not exist. It will be something more calamitous and apocalyptic than the 'successful detonation of peaceful nuclear devices' of 1974 and 1998 that will wake us up from this criminal silence, collective amnesia and neglect. Will you be there to "celebrate" such an event, distribute sweets and set off firecrackers as if India beat Australia in a World Cricket Cup final?
Who could be there?
Even Buddha appears to have fled.
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