India’s falling graph in occupational safety and health

It is a fact that where industrial accidents occur frequently, only Major accidents – such as in construction or in hazardous industry – are reported, recently, Crushed Report 2021 released by Safe in India (SII), reported in this daily, The auto sector paints a gloomy picture regarding occupational safety and health. However, Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) has not received due attention from law makers and even trade unions in India. OSH is an existential human and labor right. There are two primary requirements to ensure a safe workplace, In other words A robust oversight and comprehensive database for formulation of corrective actions and policies. It then becomes important to understand the statistical framework related to industrial accidents in India and the quality of inspections.

many drawbacks

The statistics related to industrial accidents are prepared by the Labor Bureau. It compiles and publishes data on industrial injuries related only to certain sectors, In other words factories, mines, railways, docks and ports. But the data suffers from several shortcomings. It is incomprehensible why the Labor Bureau did not consider expanding the scope of statistics on injuries by adding sectors such as plantation, construction, service sector, etc.

Even the data produced by it does not represent India’s position as several major states lapse in the provision of data to labor bureaus. For example, during 2013-14, several major states such as Delhi, Gujarat, Kerala, Odisha, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal defaulted; Then the all-India statistics were reduced to that extent. It is not surprising that the number of non-fatal injuries declined from an average of 21,370 during 2010-2015 to 5,811 during 2016-2019. Therefore, we get a Ridiculous statistic of average total injuries per factory during 2017-2019 at 0.02 (5,562/353,226). However, it may be added here that the fall is much higher in the case of non-fatal injuries than in fatal injuries.

data on states

Since reporting data is volatile, we can make some assumptions by looking at the shares of these states over a few years. This article uses data on industrial injuries published in the Indian Labor Statistics by the Bureau of Labor (Various Issues). Gujarat’s share for 2006 was 14.98% of total fatalities and 25.70% of total non-fatal injuries; Kerala’s shares for 2005 were 2.94% and 6.73%, respectively; Tamil Nadu’s 2005 shares were up 8.16% and 11.11%, respectively; Maharashtra’s shares were 25.65% and 36.78% for 2004 and, for 2014, 12.62% and 57%, respectively; The shares of Odisha were 37.73% and 21.99% for 2006. Thus, considering the fact of fluctuating incidence of injuries, we can make a safe statement that the reported figures for fatal injuries for all India are around 40%-50% and for non-fatal injuries. At least 50% will be less.

is under reporting

Even if states send their data to the Bureau of Labor, states are more likely to suffer from under-reporting of data. As is well known, non-fatal injuries are more likely to be under-reporting than fatal injuries from obvious causes. The SSI report, among others, reflects the massive under-reporting of industrial injuries occurring in Haryana. Its report, covering a segment of the auto sector in Gurugram and Faridabad, showed that an average of 500 workers have received non-fatal injuries since 2017. Under-reporting of industrial injuries, in contrast to strikes and lockouts, is a far more serious issue and a cause for serious concern.

As per Directorate General, Factory Advice and Labor Institute (DGFASLI) standard reference note in 2019 for 2020, Work Ratio for Factory Inspectors (Employment Rate) on Sanctioned Positions for India was 70.60%. But the employment rate of inspectors was poor in major states such as Maharashtra (38.93%), Gujarat (57.52%), Tamil Nadu (58.33%), and Bihar (47.62%). In 2019, there was one inspector for every 487 registered factories: this shows the heavy workload of inspectors. Inspectors are only 0.04 per 1,000 workers employed in factories; In other words, there is one inspector for every 25,415 workers. The Inspectorate is telling the sheer inadequacy of the system.

Factory Inspection, Conviction

The proportion of registered factories (inspection rate) inspected for all India declined from 36.23 per cent during 2008-11 to 34.65 per cent during 2012-2015. standard reference notes; For different years) and a further 24.76%. Kerala and Tamil Nadu had the highest inspection rates of 63%-66%, Gujarat and Kerala at 26%-30% and Haryana the lowest at 11.09% during 2008-2019. However, inspection rates have declined in all five states. The decline in the above mentioned three sub-periods for Maharashtra (31% to 12%) and Haryana (14% to 7%) was much higher (50% and above) than the others. Therefore, factory inspectorates were inadequately equipped and, worse, inspection rates had declined in almost all states over the past 12 years.

While the derogatory term ‘inspector-raj’ is an unsophisticated exaggeration, the criticisms against the inspection system have some merit. Inspectors could not inspect practically every factory, so they used their “discretion” to target “easy” factories to demand settlement payment. Many of them belong to powerful industry groups that have successfully lobbied against the inspection system. Otherwise, inspector-raj is a cultured myth.

For all India, the conviction rate (percentage of convictions in total cases) for 2015-2019 was 61.39% and the average fine per conviction was ₹12,231 (not enough to be a deterrent). However, the efficiency of the penal system is low as the percentage of cases settled out of the total cases (cases pending at the beginning of the year and cases raised during the year) is poor at 15.74% during 2015-19. The findings of SII are similar. Contrary to popular (even academic) opinion, during four of the five years of 2015-19, some of the imprisonment was mainly in Tamil Nadu (an astonishing figure of 11,215 in 2017 and an astonishing 45 in the other three years). figure; a still high rate), Chhattisgarh (17 in two years), Telangana (3 in 2016) and one each in Kerala and Punjab. But there was no imprisonment in Haryana or other states.

Given the above statistical facts, two major issues relate to the legal and labor policy aspects. First, mindless liberalization of the inspection system, as has been done during the last 20 years, will not promote sound labor market governance. 2 Thank you. India has ratified the International Labor Organization (ILO) conventions, the Labor Inspection Convention, 1947 (C081) and the Labor Statistics Convention, 1985 (C160); And thus these defects violate conventions. Therefore, against these principles, the Labor Codes, especially the OSH Code, Inspection and Labor Statistical Systems should be reviewed as the Government is in the process of preparing the Vision@2047 document for the Ministry of Labour.

KR Shyam Sundar is Professor, HRM Area, XLRI, Xavier School of Management, Jamshedpur, Jharkhand.