HEALTH-INDIA: Women Hit Harder By Arsenic Poisoning of Groundwater

By Sujoy Dhar Reprint | | Print |

Sujoy Dhar

CALCUTTA, Oct 27 1999 (IPS) - Villagers shun 36-year-old Kamala Mandal who lives in penury under a crumbling straw roof that doubles as a shed for an odd cow and goat in a far flung village of West Bengal state, in eastern India.

She is stricken with arsenicosis, a slow killer which is caused by arsenic contamination of ground water, causing the skin to darken and harden into disfiguring nodules and the liver, spleen and kidneys to enlarge.

Kamala was driven out of their home by her husband, Dhiren, who mistakenly feared he would contract the disease if she continued to cook and care for him. Arsenicosis can be treated, but poor villagers cannot afford the expensive treatment.

“He used to curse me for my disease. Even my other relatives, neighbours and acquaintances avoid me. To them I am an untouchable, as they say I have leprosy,” says the woman, weeping at her plight.

Kamala is a so-called “arsenic widow” — victim of the social affects of large-scale arsenic contamination of aquifers in the Gangetic plains of the state and in adjoining Bangladesh which has affected some four million people in West Bengal.

The slow suffering of arsenic victims is the biggest cause of broken marriages in the villages where the poor are scarred by inflamed skins, lesions and skin growths.

Drinking water is contaminated with naturally occurring arsenic that has seeped through millions of handpumps sunk to meet the increased demand for water. Some 70 million people in neighbouring Bangladesh are believed to be at risk.

The only solution is drinking uncontaminated water, and more nutritious foods which could reverse the disease in the early stages.

According to World Health Organisation (WHO) specifications, 0.01 mg of arsenic per litre of water is permissible whereas in the worst affected eight south Bengal districts the level of arsenic is as high as 4 mg per litre.

Like Kamala, 20-year-old Mita Biswas of Doulatpur Village, in 24 North Pargana district, was driven out by her husband for the same reasons.

“He suspected that the scars and wounds are symptoms of leprosy. My in-laws started torturing me … I had lodged a complaint in the local police station too but it was no use. One day they threw me out,” says Mita, daughter of a policeman. Her brother and parents are also sick with arsenicosis.

The young woman began showing signs of arsenic poisoning at the age of eight. Melanosis or the darkening of skin observed on the palm, is the most common symptom which untreated develops into keratosis or hardening of the skin, a more serious symptom.

“Women of all ages are being abandoned by their families, especially husbands,” says noted environmentalist Subhas Dutta who has filed a public interest petition for their social and economic rehabilitation in the Green Bench of the Calcutta High Court.

They are more vulnerable to arsenicosis because they are more malnourished than their men, he adds. Better levels of nutrition act as a shield against the poison to some extent. Women “suffer from malnutrition as in most households they eat last after feeding the entire family,” he explains.

And while affected men are taken care of by their wives and families, as soon as a woman starts showing signs of arsenic poisoning, “she starts feeling the estrangement and isolation in the family, and finally she is shunned,” says Dutta.

In Doulatpur Village where Mita Biswas lives, 28-year-old Madanlal Tarafdar who was diagnosed with chronic “arsenical dermatosis” 17 years ago, has taken a young bride.

“I have accepted him despite his disease,” the young girl, shyly insists. But she did not have a choice. Her parents arranged her marriage, knowing Tarafdar is disfigured by arsenic poisoning.

“Such gender discrimination is common in rural Bengal and there is no awareness programme either, like in the case of AIDS or other diseases,” says Dutta. “AIDS often comes from avoidable reasons but arsenic poisoning is unavoidable.”

Government response to the human disaster has been far less urgent than required in both India and Bangladesh. Big-budget programmes to check the arsenic contamination are being planned by the West Bengal government, says Dutta.

The authorities are still ignoring the simple strategies that can help lower the levels of poison in water like using a modified clay tube which absorbs the arsenic or letting the water stand overnight.

Funds from the World Bank, United Nations Development Programme, U.N children’s agency UNICEF and western countries have been used to paint the contaminated handpumps red to warn users.

Says the pioneering Dr Dipankar Chakrabarti of the School of Environmental Studies in Jadavpur University, Calcutta, who was among the first to ring alarm bells: “The government thinks even less about the social effects of such contamination.”