Safety Gaps Threaten India’s Manufacturing Growth

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Safety Gaps Threaten India’s Manufacturing Growth

Safety Gaps Threaten India’s Manufacturing Growth

Articles
May 13,26

India’s manufacturing ambitions depend on stronger workplace health and safety systems, as accidents, fatalities and poor worker protection continue to challenge sustainable industrial growth, says Suresh Tanwar, Senior Head of Audit and Consultancy, British Safety Council, India.

Safety Gaps Threaten India’s Manufacturing Growth

Manufacturing is central to the balanced, sustained growth of any economy. It creates jobs and has a multiplier effect across industries. With growing focus on the manufacturing sector, it is important to scrutinise existing occupational health and safety practices. Deficiencies in worker health and safety could prove costly in the long run, and any growth in manufacturing must include a clear and practical system to protect workers.

India is aiming to become a global manufacturing powerhouse, with government schemes and reforms designed to encourage investment and innovation. However, fatalities and injuries remain common, with desperate and vulnerable workers often paying the price. In India, around 80 per cent of the estimated 465 million-strong workforce is not protected by the existing health and safety legal framework. Overall, workplace deaths in India are 20 times higher than in the UK. It is estimated that there are 48,000 work-related deaths in India each year, while there were 144 workplace fatalities in absolute numbers in Britain. In the UK, employers have a legal duty to carry out a suitable assessment of risks to workers’ health and safety.

In India, by contrast, many employers do not show enough care for worker health and safety. Daily wage workers are often poorly trained because employers know they are easily replaced. They are not given adequate training by contractors who, recognising the temporary status of their workers, do not invest in their training or wellbeing.

Alongside the risk of being killed or seriously injured in site accidents, factory workers in India also face the danger of developing serious and often fatal health conditions due to exposure to workplace hazards. These include musculoskeletal disorders, such as serious back injuries caused by unsafe manual handling of loads; injuries and fatalities from falls from height; disabling electrical shocks and burns; and often fatal respiratory diseases such as silicosis caused by dust exposure.

Workplace accidents can have major consequences for businesses through lost time and effort spent dealing with the aftermath. This includes lost management time, reduced productivity, and a negative impact on organisational culture and morale. It also affects the family of the injured employee, as the financial burden can push households into poverty.

Good health and safety management is also good business. If an organisation looks after the health, safety and welfare of its workers, it will be more productive. This helps the business become more successful and sustainable.

India needs a significant culture change in workplace health, safety and wellbeing. Legislation plays an important role in supporting this change, but safety culture requires dedicated leaders who champion it every day and at every level. Leadership should regularly remind workers, through forums such as team meetings, that the health, safety and welfare of employees, contractors, suppliers and customers are critically important to the business.

Frontline workers, supervisors and managers best understand whether health and safety procedures are effective. Leaders therefore need to create an open environment where workers feel able to voice concerns, challenges, issues and ideas. Senior management should foster a culture of psychological safety where employees can speak freely. This is an important factor in building trust. Workers should also be given access to senior leaders to make suggestions for improving health and safety.

There are Indian business leaders willing to stand out and show that safety and health are crucial parts of their operations. Industrial safety is an enduring mission and top priority for India as a manufacturing powerhouse. India needs more safety leaders to emerge and make a difference if it wants to be recognised as a truly global manufacturing hub.

About the author:

Suresh Tanwar is the Senior Head of Audit and Consultancy at British Safety Council, India. He is a seasoned safety professional and strategist with decades of experience in Safety, Health, and Environment (SH&E). He has held senior management roles in leading multinationals and large Indian conglomerates and has been a member of the Executive Committees of several organisations.