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Source: Linkedin

Context

India's industrial landscape, which includes oil refineries, chemical plants, factories, and building sites, drives the country's economic progress. However, underlying this improvement lies an underreported and ongoing human tragedy: the unnecessary deaths of thousands of workers as a result of preventable accidents.

Industrial Safety and Accident Statistics in India

• Fatalities in Last 5 Years: Approximately 6,500 workers have died, averaging around 3 deaths per day, highlighting serious industrial safety concerns.
  
  
• State-wise Data:
  
  
• Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu reported over 200 deaths each in the past decade, indicating regional hotspots for industrial accidents.
  
  
• Chemical Accidents (CSE Study, 2022):
  
  
• More than 130 major chemical accidents occurred post-2020.
  
  
• These accidents resulted in 218 deaths and over 300 injuries, showing the hazardous nature of chemical industries.
  
  
• Gujarat Industrial Incidents (2021):
  
  
• Recorded over 60 major fires and gas leaks in just one year, reflecting high risk in one of India’s industrial hubs.
  
  
• DGFASLI Data:
  
  
• The Directorate General Factory Advice Service & Labour Institutes (DGFASLI) reports one serious industrial accident every 2 days in registered factories, underscoring ongoing safety challenges.
  

Industrial Safety Crisis in India

• Alarming Scale of the Problem:
• Government data, Right to Information (RTI) findings, and independent studies reveal a serious industrial safety crisis across India.
  
  
• Worker Fatalities:
• In the past five years, at least 6,500 workers have died at factories, construction sites, and mines. This averages to nearly three deaths every day.
  
  
• State-wise Impact:
• States such as Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu report over 200 fatalities each from major industrial accidents in the last decade.
• These numbers mainly reflect registered industries; the unregistered and informal sectors likely add many more unreported deaths, indicating the real toll is far higher.
  
  
• Chemical Accidents:
• A 2022 Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) study recorded more than 130 major chemical accidents in just 30 months following 2020.
• These accidents caused 218 deaths and over 300 injuries.
  

Human Impact

• These statistics are not just numbers.
  
  
• Each death means a family shattered, a breadwinner lost, and communities suffering from grief and economic hardship.
  
  
• Industrial accidents deeply affect the social and economic fabric of affected areas.
  

Need for Action

• The data highlights the urgent need for better industrial safety regulations.
  
  
• There is a clear demand for effective enforcement of safety standards, especially in the informal sector.
  
  
• Increased transparency and reporting through RTI and independent monitoring can help identify gaps and prevent future tragedies.

Common and Preventable Causes of Fire-Related Fatalities

• Lack of Fire No-Objection Certificates (NOC):
  Many factories operate without clearance from the Fire Department, increasing the risk of uncontrolled fires.
  
  
• Faulty or Absent Firefighting Systems:
  Essential safety equipment like fire alarms, extinguishers, and sensors are often missing or non-functional, leading to delayed response during emergencies.
  
  
• Absence of Permit-to-Work Systems:
  Hazardous tasks are carried out without formal risk assessment or approval, raising the likelihood of accidents.
  
  
• No Worker Training:
  Especially among migrant and contract labourers, language barriers cause safety instructions to be unread or ignored, compromising their safety.
  
  
• Inaccessible Fire Exits:
  Fire exits are often locked, blocked, or hidden by stored materials, obstructing safe evacuation.
  
  
• Lack of Accountability:
  Safety audits often become mere box-ticking exercises; prosecutions are rare and penalties minimal, failing to enforce safety norms effectively.
  
  
• Widespread Issue Across Enterprises:
  These failures are common in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) but also exist in large corporations, where operational efficiency often takes precedence over a genuine safety culture.
  

Comparative Perspective on Industrial Safety

• In Germany and Japan, industrial safety is a core value deeply embedded in workplace design, training, and management.
  
  
• In India, safety culture is largely reactive, with measures strengthened only after disasters occur.
  
  
• This reactive approach leads to accidents becoming recurrent features of the industrial environment rather than isolated events.
  

Geographic Spread and Incident Repetition

• Gujarat reported over 60 major industrial fires and gas leaks in 2021 alone.
  
  
• Other states with grim records include Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, and Uttar Pradesh.
  
  
• According to the Directorate General Factory Advice Service and Labour Institutes (DGFASLI), India witnesses one serious industrial accident every two days in registered factories.
  
  
• The situation in unregistered units remains largely unknown, potentially much worse.
  
  
• The typical sequence after accidents is: tragedy → public outrage → token compensation → committee inquiry → silence → next catastrophe.
  

Underlying Causes: Indifference and Class Bias

• The cycle of repeated industrial accidents is rooted in national indifference.
  
  
• Regulators are often under-resourced or sometimes complicit.
  
  
• Companies treat safety costs as overheads to cut rather than mandatory obligations.
  
  
• Society remains largely apathetic, especially when victims are economically marginalised migrant or contract workers.
  
  
• There exists a class bias: safety failures in corporate offices or technology parks provoke outrage, but similar lapses in factories employing low-income workers receive little public attention.
  

Rejecting the “Act of God” Narrative

• Labeling industrial accidents as “acts of God” shifts accountability from human actors to chance or fate.
  
  
• Such incidents are not natural disasters; they result from human failures, weak systems, and neglected responsibilities.
  
  
• Countries like South Korea and Singapore have corporate manslaughter laws holding senior executives legally responsible for gross negligence in workplace safety.
  
  
• India has not yet enacted similar legal provisions to hold executives accountable.
  

Solutions: Charting a Path Forward

To improve workplace safety and prevent industrial accidents, India must take the following measures:

1. Empower Labour Safety Boards
   
   
• Provide greater autonomy to safety boards.
  
  
• Equip them with better training and adequate resources for effective functioning.
  
  
2. Digitise Safety Reporting
   
   
• Develop transparent and accessible databases for real-time risk assessment.
  
  
• Ensure data helps in early identification and mitigation of hazards.
  
  
3. Protect Whistle-Blowers
   
   
• Establish mechanisms to safeguard workers who report safety violations.
  
  
• Prevent retaliation or harassment against those raising concerns.
  
  
4. Embed Safety Culture
   
   
• Make rigorous safety training mandatory for employees.
  
  
• Enforce design standards for safety in both Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and large corporations.
  
  
5. Hold Executives Accountable
   
   
• Introduce legal provisions to assign responsibility for avoidable workplace deaths to company leadership.
  
  
• This includes holding senior management liable for gross negligence.

Policy and Governance Gaps in India

• Industrial safety boards are under-resourced, limiting their effectiveness.
  
  
• Weak whistle-blower protections discourage workers from reporting hazards.
  
  
• Digital risk-reporting systems are minimal or absent, causing delays in hazard detection.
  
  
• There is limited integration between labour inspection, pollution control boards, and disaster management authorities, resulting in poor coordination.
  

India-Specific Legal and Policy Framework

• Factories Act, 1948: Ensures workplace safety, health, and welfare, mandates fencing of machinery, appointment of safety officers, and periodic medical exams.
  
  
• Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020: Consolidates 13 labour laws, introduces free annual health check-ups, safety committees, and hazard communication.
  
  
• Environment (Protection) Act, 1986: Framework for environmental safety, includes hazardous process management and emergency planning under Hazardous Chemical Rules, 1989.
  
  
• Explosives Act, 1884 & Petroleum Act, 1934: Regulate storage and handling of explosives and flammable substances.
  
  
• Bhopal Gas Leak (Processing of Claims) Act, 1985: First legislation for industrial disaster victim compensation.
  
  
• National Disaster Management Act, 2005: Guides protocols for chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear safety via NDMA.
  

Way Forward

• Strengthen Enforcement: Make industrial safety audits independent and transparent, link non-compliance to criminal liability.
  
  
• Digitisation: Employ real-time IoT monitoring for hazard detection and compliance.
  
  
• Worker Empowerment: Mandate safety training in local languages, especially for contract labour.
  
  
• Corporate Accountability: Introduce Corporate Manslaughter Legislation for gross negligence causing deaths.
  
  
• Social Responsibility: Shift focus from post-accident compensation to pre-accident prevention culture.