The Hindu Business Line : Occupational health and safety

Globalisation is characterised by a problematic co-existence of blessings and curses: Integration with global economy versus dispersal of manufacturing and production processes; disproportionate benefits for some versus want of basic amenities for many; job-led growth versus jobless growth; ‘sought’ money in the form of capital inflows versus ‘hot’ money causing capital outflows; digital haves versus digital have-nots; technological vistas versus da mage to environment; and so on.

To the pairs of opposites should now be added the phenomena of frenzied establishment of ever-increasing number of industrial, manufacturing, pharmaceutical and business enterprises on the one side and, on the other, the inadequate safeguards against the dangers they pose to health and safety to the personnel they employ. For starters, take the simple instance of proliferating call centres or round-the-clock business processing units. Nowadays, they provide the ready-at-hand avenues of employment for persons with basic education and communicating ability in English. Most of them spend a considerable part of their working lives in night shifts to the detriment of their physical health and mental acuity.

Even executives, especially in the fields of information technology and financial analysis, are forced to devote inordinately long hours in office to the completion of tasks which cannot wait. Many of them have also to be constantly on travel or are sent on out-of-town or foreign assignments resulting in separation from families for varying durations. The stress and tension all this entails spill over into life at home as well. There are certain industrial and manufacturing activities which have harmful effects on health. Many workplaces suffer from poor hygienic conditions and inadequate toilet facilities, and are deficient in arrangements for safe drinking water or emergency medical attention. The wide prevalence of child labour and entry of women in large numbers in public and private sectors complicate the situation in all these respects.

Blurring of responsibilities

India, to its credit, has enacted a number of laws covering various aspects of health and safety at workplaces. It has also got the operational mechanisms for inspections and enforcement. Besides, it has formulated a National Policy on Safety, Health and Environment at work-places. The Bureau of Indian Standards has drawn up a detailed manual for adopting and administering effective management systems for avoidance of hazards, risks and disabilities.

All these measures and efforts are in danger of being thrown out of gear by the sheer volume, diversity and number of business establishments being set up by investors and entrepreneurs in far-flung locations in every State. There is also a blurring of the responsibilities of Central and State Governments since welfare of labour (including conditions of work), workmen’s compensation, trade unions, and industrial and labour disputes, are included in the Concurrent List of the Constitution. For this reason, even reliable statistics of the cases dealt with are hard to come by.

Companies which have a social conscience and commitment are trying to make-do with self-regulation and in-house expertise, or seeking the help of consulting firms. In regard to the latter, those specialising in this line are very few and they cannot be judged against any specified criteria, other than what they apply to themselves. To my best knowledge, there has as yet been no attempt by the Government, the federations of chambers of industries and commerce and transnational corporations to sit together and make a joint study of the multifarious problems relating to the enforcement of occupational health and safety standards, and evolution of benchmarks for private consulting services, taking account of present realties and future challenges. It is time such an exercise was undertaken and occupational health and safety given the importance it deserves.

B. S. RAGHAVAN

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