Source: The post India’s Industrial Accidents Show Neglect of Worker Safety has been created, based on the article “Industrial accidents, the human cost of indifference” published in “The Hindu” on 9th August 2025
UPSC Syllabus Topic: GS Paper 3- Disaster management
Context: Industrial accidents in India continue to claim thousands of lives every year, with recent disasters in Telangana and Tamil Nadu exposing systemic neglect. These tragedies, largely preventable, highlight regulatory gaps, corporate apathy, and a national indifference towards worker safety.
For detailed information on Issues with safety inspections in industrial areas in India read this article here
Scale and Nature of the Crisis
- Alarming Fatality Rates: Government and RTI data reveal at least 6,500 worker deaths in five years, averaging nearly three daily fatalities. Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have recorded over 200 major accident deaths in a decade, with unregistered sector fatalities likely much higher.
- Hidden Toll of Informal Sector: Many small and informal units operate unnoticed, with deaths often unreported. Behind each statistic lies human suffering—families devastated, breadwinners lost, and communities pushed into hardship.
- Frequent Chemical Accidents: A 2022 CSE study found over 130 major chemical accidents between 2020–22, killing 218 and injuring over 300, mostly in small and medium enterprises operating below regulatory scrutiny.
Common Causes and Negligence
- Lack of Basic Fire Safety: Many factories lack No-Objection Certificates, firefighting systems, alarms, or functional extinguishers. Safety measures are often absent or ignored.
- Unsafe Work Practices: High-risk jobs proceed without permit-to-work systems, hazard identification, or job safety analysis. Migrant and contract workers, often unaware of safety signage, are left untrained.
- Blocked Exits and Poor Infrastructure: Fire exits are locked, blocked, or hidden under storage materials, turning accidents into mass-casualty events.
- Weak Enforcement: Audits often become box-ticking exercises. Convictions for lapses are rare and penalties negligible, allowing unsafe practices to persist.
Failure to Prioritise Safety
- Corporate Attitudes: Even large firms prioritise operational efficiency over safety culture. Unlike Germany or Japan, India treats safety as a compliance burden rather than a value.
- State-Level Trends: Gujarat reported over 60 major industrial fires and gas leaks in 2021 alone. DGFASLI data shows a serious industrial accident in registered factories every two days.
- Cycle of Inaction: After each tragedy comes outrage, compensation, and committees—followed by silence. Root causes remain unaddressed, ensuring repetition.
Social and Structural Bias
- Disposability of Workers: Contract and migrant labourers are treated as expendable. Their deaths draw little attention compared to high-profile corporate accidents.
- Class Inequality in Safety Response: Accidents in poorer workplaces receive minimal scrutiny compared to those in elite offices or IT parks, reflecting a troubling class bias.
Need for Systemic Reform
- Rejecting ‘Act of God’ Excuse: Accidents are not divine acts but man-made failures. Countries like South Korea and Singapore have corporate manslaughter laws holding executives criminally accountable—India needs similar measures.
- Call for Action: Reforms must include stronger labour safety boards, digitised risk reporting, and whistle-blower protection. Safety should be recognised as a right, not a privilege.
- The Central Question: India has the means to prevent such tragedies. What remains in doubt is whether there is enough public, corporate, and political will to act.
Question for practice:
Examine the factors responsible for recurring industrial accidents in India.
