It is a fact that while industrial accidents occur often, only major accidents — say in construction or in a hazardous industry — are reported. Recently, the CRUSHED Report 2021 released by Safe in India (SII), reported in this daily, portrays a dismal picture concerning occupational safety and health in the auto sector. 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 labour right. There are two primary requirements to ensure safe workplaces, viz. a strong monitoring (inspections) and comprehensive database to frame corrective actions and policies. It becomes important then to understand the statistical profile relating to industrial accidents in India and the quality of inspections.
Many shortcomings
Statistics concerning industrial accidents are produced by the Labour Bureau. It compiles and publishes data on industrial injuries relating only to a few sectors, viz. factories, mines, railways, docks and ports. But the data suffer from several shortcomings. It is inexplicable why the Labour Bureau has not considered expanding the scope of statistics on injuries by adding sectors such as plantations, construction, the service sector, etc.
