Need to reduce worker occupational hazards, says Ficci meet

Indian companies are not treating their workers too well, going by some estimates of occupational hazards. Though data on the subject is scarce and most of the numbers publicly available have not been updated for long, they do indicate a worrying trend and the need for sectors such as manufacturing to fix it.

The International Labour Organization lists 2,140 cases of fatal occupational injury in the country in 2007. There is no data yet for the subsequent years. Even these numbers may not have factored in the unorganised sector in the country.

The National Institute of Health and Family Welfare, an autonomous organization under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, quotes World Health Organization to say that there are 100 million occupational injuries causing 100,000 deaths globally. India, it says, has 17 million occupational non-fatal injuries (that's 17 per cent of the global total) and 45,000 fatal injuries each year. Out of 11 million cases of occupational diseases in the world, 1.9 million cases are contributed by India.

A report of the working group on Occupational Safety and Health for The Twelfth Five Year Plan, submitted in August 2011, however, had some good news.

It noted that the average number of fatal accidents in coal mines, which was 162 during 1981-90 and 140 during 1991-2000, has reduced to 86 during 2001-2010. But the report added that the occurrence of disasters at regular intervals in coal mines was serious. "The frequency of occurrence of disasters due to explosion has alarmingly increased in the recent past," it noted.

Not only mines, India has done a poor job of ensuring worker safety even in the petroleum sector. In August this year, a fire at the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) refinery at Visakhapatnam killed 28 workers.

Indian industry bodies appear to be aware of the problem - besides endangering worker safety, persisting occupational hazard can have huge implications for the India brand and the country's position in the global supply-chain, particularly at a time when it is aspiring to be a manufacturing hub.

At a Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (Ficci) conference in New Delhi on Tuesday, speakers had many suggestions to improve the state of affairs. Many referred to the Rana Plaza collapse in Bangladesh that killed more than 1,100 people. The building had six garment factories.

"Safety and health needs to move up in the hierarchy of challenges in manufacturing," Ajay Shankar, Member Secretary of the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council, said.

"We need a change in mindset. We look at workers as a low-cost resource and not as partners. They need to be treated with dignity and respect." Naina Lal Kidwai, President of Ficci, said there was need for more research and development into occupational related diseases as well as women's safety.

Larger manufacturers in India have safety processes in place but the smaller companies need help to achieve the same, the speakers said.

To spread awareness on safety, larger companies have started adopting innovative approaches.

Maruti Suzuki, for instance, uses bhajans, popular songs and mimicry to impart safety education among workers in its plants. L&T Hydrocarbon, in some of its plants, has made a family portrait mandatory on the back of identity cards used by workers. It serves as a steady reminder - someone is waiting at home.

All these can be easily replicated by smaller firms.