MAKRANA (India): Mughal emperor Shah Jahan famously used it to entomb his beloved wife Mumtaz in Taj Mahal, bathrooms around the world are lined with it and business executives brush up against it in hotel lobbies: Makrana’s much-admired marble is everywhere.

But for all the elegance it brings, the Indian miners who carve it from huge pits pay a hefty price, activists and union leaders say.

“The working conditions for the people in these quarries are extremely dangerous,” said Rana Sengupta of the Mine Labour Protection Campaign in Rajasthan, where Makrana is located.

Each month an average of three men die and 30 are injured. Bansi Lal Binjana of the 12,000-strong Rajasthan Mine Workers Union says falling rock crushes miners.

Safety laws are followed, mine owners and officials insist.

“If there is any mine that is found to be putting its workers at an unnecessary risk, then we close that mine down immediately and the owners are prosecuted,” Laxmi Narayan Dave, the state’s Minister for Mines and the Environment, told Reuters.

Nonsense, say campaigners: rules are flouted without fear of prosecution. Miners fix dynamite in rock faces with just minutes to haul themselves out of the mine using a rope.

It’s all a long way from the serenity of the Taj Mahal.

The industry produces nearly 260,000 tons of marble a year, according to the latest figures from the federal mines ministry.

While Makrana’s output is just a fraction of that, industry experts say it represents India’s finest quality marble.

“Welcome to Marble City -- The place for the world’s best quality marble” shouts a billboard on an approach road.

Centuries of mining marble believed to be more than 90 per cent calcium has rendered the landscape here almost lunar.

About 800 mines blasted into marble deposits estimated at 56 million tons dust a town of 90,000 people with a fine white powder. Rocky debris stretches off into the distance. Factories and tiny workshops are crammed with artisans deftly carving jewellery boxes and statues of Hindu gods.

A temple hangs tenuously to a cliff-top, undermined by the determined but poorly-rewarded efforts of 40,000 workers who toil away for around $2 a day.

Labourers roam around with no safety hats, gloves, or shoes. Hanging on to ropes, rather than proper ladders, they descend up to 400 feet into the bowels of a mine. Many are from Bihar or Nepali villages.

“We know the work is dangerous but we don’t have a choice,” said 50-year-old Chotu Ram, a veteran of 28 years in the mines. “We are poor and need the money.”

While no health studies have been carried out in the town, activists say marble dust is easily absorbed by the body and causes respiratory diseases like silicosis, and skin infections.

“The workers as well as the residents complain of chest problems and skin diseases as these tiny particles of marble powder stick to the skin and are easily inhaled,” said Chandra Bhushan of the Centre for Science and Environment.

Mine owners are reluctant to talk. They admit that accidents occur but insist that generous compensation is awarded to victims and their families, something which workers deny.—Reuters