[Answered] “India’s record in promoting occupational and industrial safety remains weak even with years of robust economic growth.” Discuss.

Around 2.3 lakh workers were affected and 2,500 died in more than 81 industrial accidents in the past three-and-a-half decades. Laws for safety and health at work in India have provisions to report the accidents and occupational diseases, but enforcement is so weak that there is a huge gap between the estimated fatal and non-fatal accidents reported by ILO for India, and the figures reported to ILO by the Indian Government.

Poor occupational and industrial safety:

1. Based on occupational injury rates estimated by the World Bank, the risk of fatal and non-fatal occupational injury in India is about two and a half times higher than in the Europe and North America.
2. Diagnosis of occupational disease is still a rare event and is majorly ignored. Medical professionals in public and private sectors are not reporting cases of occupational diseases for several reasons.  Between 2014-16, 132 cases of occupational diseases were notified by only 5 states of India.
3. In India, there are still thousands of people who do not know where they were born and when. The literacy rate in India stands at 74% (2011) which may be an indicator, though it does not assure that people know their legal rights.
4. Society is riddled with divisions on the lines of religion, caste, colour, region and language. Social and economic inequality, poor governance, rule of the mighty, legacy of feudal thought, and huge economical gaps are hindrances in achieving labour rights. And now under the “ease of doing business,” labour laws are further liberalised to push more workers out of the purview of the law.
5. State governments are curbing powers of enforcement agencies by amending policies for inspection of workplaces. Overall, it does not provide a conducive social environment for reporting of accidents and occupational diseases.
6. Dissonance prevails between the labour department and the health department about their duties. Setting up a separate cell on occupational health within the health department and making them responsible to monitor the health of workers in all economic sectors may be a solution.

What should be done?

1. The state has a major role to play. It should invest in propagating legal provisions.
2. Workers, trade unions and non-profits may be educated on notifiable occupational diseases.
3. The government should provide assistance to industry to improve the work environment.
4. The central government should name one single competent authority for all cases notified from mines, manufacturing, services and other sectors. Amend the law to empower any citizen to notify a case.
5. The notifications should be online and should be accessible to the public so that possibility of changing the record by the authority can be minimised or diminished.
6. Multiple approaches are needed – surveillance, data collated from research, data from social security and compensation claims are important.
7. Out-patient departments may be opened in all public hospitals for diagnosis of occupational diseases. Private hospitals also may be encouraged.
8. Society, in general, should invest more in occupational safety and health rights including diagnosis and notifications of occupational diseases and accidents.

As countries get economically stronger, governance must improve, reflected by better data on occupational injuries and diseases. People with more political power may lead to develop technology and a social atmosphere where reporting of occupational diseases will be easier. With technological advancement, working conditions may improve which would reduce occupational diseases.