In the heart of Rajasthan’s Bundi district lies Budhpura, a remote village that bears a haunting title—“the village of widows.” Here, the sound of chisels striking sandstone is not just the pulse of the local economy, but a death knell echoing across generations. More than 70% of women in Budhpura are widowed in their youth, their husbands felled by a single, silent killer: silicosis.
Silicosis, a deadly occupational lung disease caused by inhaling fine particles of silica dust, has become endemic among the men who work in the region’s unregulated sandstone quarries. They often die before reaching 40. And as the men disappear, the women are left to pick up the pieces—not just as grieving widows, but as primary breadwinners in the very mines that once took their husbands’ lives.
“My husband was 35 when he died. The dust killed him. Now I work in the same quarry to feed our children,” said Reema Devi, one of the hundreds of widows in Budhpura. “There is no other work here.”
A Curse Carved in Stone
Rajasthan produces roughly 70% of India’s sandstone, and Budhpura is a key supplier. The labor is grueling and poorly paid. Most men in the village work with no protective gear, cutting stone for 10–12 hours a day in extreme heat, enveloped by the lethal, fine powder of silica.
Despite growing awareness and court rulings mandating compensation, enforcement remains patchy. Families often struggle for years to access government aid—₹2 lakh for a silicosis diagnosis, and ₹3 lakh if the patient dies. Even when the money comes, it’s too little, too late.
“The paperwork is endless. The doctors don’t come. The officials don’t care,” said Santosh, whose brother died of silicosis last year.
A Vicious Cycle
With few alternative livelihoods, the widows of Budhpura face an impossible choice: go hungry or take up the same hazardous work. Many now labor in the same quarries, breathing the same dust that orphaned their children.
“They are widows not because of war or accident, but because of economic necessity—and government indifference,” said a field officer from a local NGO working in Bundi.
A National Crisis, Ignored
Occupational silicosis is not confined to Budhpura. Across India’s unregulated mining belts, thousands are believed to suffer from the disease, though accurate data is scarce. Doctors often misdiagnose it as tuberculosis. The illness remains excluded from most rural health schemes.
In 2019, the National Human Rights Commission called for comprehensive intervention. Yet, five years later, the mines remain dusty, the widows voiceless, and the deaths routine.