'Asbestos ban is a health imperative, not just a moral issue': Jayant Chaudhary

Interview/ Jayant Chaudhary, minister of state (independent charge) for skill development and entrepreneurship, and minister of state for education

 

Jayant Chaudhary, minister of state (independent charge) for skill development and entrepreneurship, and minister of state for education, has been at the forefront of the fight against the use of asbestos. He says that a complete phasing out will require cooperation between multiple ministries but a start has to be made somewhere. Excerpts from an interview:

 

Q/ Do you currently have a total figure of the number of schools that are still using asbestos roofing?

 

A/ There is a lack of data on this aspect. From my understanding, there have been studies on asbestos usage. The labour ministry back in 2022 looked at occupational standards across 50 industries. Mining is now banned in India but the sector remains the world’s largest importer of asbestos. So there are industries working with it. We need to look at occupational standards—they should be in place if we cannot stop the import. The second aspect is downstream: what are the usages, are there any leakages? A big aspect is also legacy constructions, especially in schools. A lot of school buildings are 20, 30, 40 years old. We need to have a safety audit to determine how many actually used asbestos.

 

Currently, there is no national database that I'm aware of, or that the education ministry has, that could verifiably say these are the number of schools that need to look at how they’re going to treat asbestos.

 

Q/ When you look at the entire pie chart of minerals we are importing, asbestos is a very small component. Why do you think the trade-off is so difficult to make?

 

A/ I think it needs buy-in from industry to really take leadership. Like I said, it’s a health imperative, it’s not just a moral issue. Enterprises in India must also understand that there can be no profit without societal gain. We are all invested in our country, so the welfare of our people is not just the responsibility of an authority, government agency, or (just) for rules to be made or laws to be passed. It is for industry to really adopt best practices. I think that's where a lot of sensitisation needs to happen. Of course, the commerce ministry, corporate affairs ministry, finance ministry, and industrial associations can take the lead in that.

 

Q/ Between demand push and financial incentives, what do you think will work better to steer enterprises away from asbestos?

 

A/ I think it needs to be a mix of both, especially when you’re looking at asbestos. There are different understandings across ministries—there may be different assessments of what the threat perception is, what the safety risk is, what are the best policies we can implement to mitigate those risks, and how we can ensure limited use of asbestos in our economy. Every ministry has its own stake, and stakeholders advise the ministries from time to time. I think currently, where we are, the scientific community also needs to come up with more studies to assess across sectors. I know that ICMR (Indian Council for Medical Research) has had a study, the labour ministry has done a study. There are court cases going on. Some authorities have stepped in. For instance, in Kerala, the state government, on the recommendations of the human rights body, came up with certain guidelines. So we’re still in a normative, formative phase in this aspect. A lot more work and inter-ministerial coordination needs to be done.

 

Q/ Do you think the education ministry can be a natural leader for this, since children are the ones who will be most impacted by its use?

 

A/ As a nation, we are all invested in the future. We are a young country, and I think children’s safety should be uppermost in everyone's mind. It is a national priority and therefore cannot be ignored. So in that sense, yes, the education ministry has taken a lead. We may be the first ministry to actually take a stand on this asbestos issue, and I’m also doing my best to sensitise different stakeholders. For instance, I’ve written to [Minister of Commerce and Industry] Piyush Goyal to take a calibrated stand and decision on disallowing or disincentivising the import of asbestos.

 

Q/ Do you think one of the reasons we do not understand the ill impacts of asbestos (a known carcinogen) is also because we have not made cancer a notified disease?

 

A/ Just 17 states have notified cancer as a disease. Therefore, the cancer registry really needs to be populated and made accessible so that more researchers and policymakers can use that data. I have also written to the Uttar Pradesh chief minister on the issue that data tracking is not possible because cancer is not a notifiable disease. In western UP villages, where there were perhaps never any cases, no awareness, you’re now seeing a multiplicity of cases coming up. So the fears [are] not unfounded. More in-depth research needs to be facilitated, and for that, it must be ensured that every case that goes to a hospital or clinic gets counted.

 

Q/ Kerala has banned the use of asbestos in schools. Do you think similar civil society pressure can be harnessed to tackle this issue?

 

A/ In a democracy, civil society is a very powerful medium for creating awareness, and policymakers are sensitive and always responding. There are enough examples of policies being framed, adopted, and changed because of feedback—you can call it pressure from our constituents. So I think that is definitely the road ahead. I would encourage and actively engage, in both my responsibilities in education and skilling, with some of these civil organisations who can help create that narrative.

 

Q/ In western UP, where you are from, there is huge out-migration, and people are going into industries that are not very labour-friendly. Within western UP, one experiment has been using stubble or sugarcane waste as an alternative building material. Have you come across any such initiatives?

 

A/ Yes, there are a few modern facilities that I’ve heard of. I still haven’t gone and seen them, but there are innovations happening from research to product. There are enough innovations available for early adopters. Biochar (black carbon produced from biomass sources and used, among other things, for water retention in soil) is being increasingly used as is CBG (compressed biogas) in which you’re seeing a lot of investment flowing in. These take care of a lot of the residue generated by agriculture. For me, sitting in Delhi as a policymaker, it only gets talked about in winters when you get smog over Delhi, which is unfair. So we have to look at the whole economy at 360 degrees. We have to incentivise at every step—right from when the farmer collects that material to how that material should become part of the feeder supply chain for a CBG plant or a packaging plant.

 

Q/ What are the next logical steps that the ministry is looking at specifically for asbestos and for the cancer registry?

 

A/ Firstly, to ensure that the guidelines are adopted comprehensively, then seeing what we can learn from that adoption, what impact it has had, and documenting that impact and the change. Then seeing how we can bring more scale to it. Even in the skill ministry, we work with training partners and many institutions. At a parallel level, we need to do an audit or assessment: what are the risks there? What is the usage? If there is usage, then how do we phase it out?

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