Workers’ woes: Govt must address occupational safety issues urgently

“Mourn for the dead and fight for the living” has been a popular slogan since April 28, 1985. The Canadian Public Service Union organised a programme on that day to mourn workers who died in accidents at work, a tradition that has been maintained since. They presented data on workers who died in accidents or due to occupational diseases. Activists demanded to know who was responsible for the accident, wanted culprits to be booked, sought compensation for the victims and actions to prevent a recurrence.

In over 100 countries, it is known as International Workers’ Memorial Day (IWMD). In 2003, ILO declared April 28 as ‘World Day for Safety and Health at Work’, which the industry followed, but workers’ groups have continued to observe it as IWMD.

The theme of the April 28 campaign this year was ‘Health and Safety is a Fundamental Right at Work’. Whether it is Covid or occupational cancers, or workplace injuries and industrial diseases, every worker should have the right to a voice and right to protection. No one should have to die to make a living.

In 2009, India declared a ‘National Policy on Safety, Health and Environment at Work’, but the government has since forgotten to take any action in line with the policy. Now, in the name of simplification of labour laws, several laws have been collated into four labour codes, but there is no discussion on this.

The British Safety Council reported that 48,000 workers die in fatal accidents at work each year in India. This is 20 times more than in Britain. WHO estimates 10 crore workers are injured globally in accidents at work – one lakh, fatally. In India, 1.7 crore workers are injured in accidents at work, which is 17% of the global tally. But in fatalities, India’s share rises to 45%!

Globally, 11 crore workers are victims of different occupational diseases, out of which 19 lakh are from India. World over, 7 lakh workers die of occupational diseases, India accounts for 1.19 lakh of them. These are estimates. It is difficult to get credible data on accidents at work.

Despite browsing through different sources -- the National Crime Records Bureau, Labour Bureau, DGFASLI, DGMS, ESIC, state labour departments -- you may not get the full picture. ESIC reported 2.41 crore workers injured in 2016-17 and 3.02 crore in 2017-18.

The ILO estimates that daily 6,400 workers die in fatal accidents at work and 8.6 lakh are injured. Annually, 3.5 lakh workers die in accidents at work and more than 20 lakh die of occupational diseases. As many as 31.3 crore workers are injured in accidents at work which prevent them from attending duty. Annually, 16 crore workers get injured in occupational diseases.

Thus, it can be seen that occupational diseases kill six times more workers than do accidents at work, albeit slowly. Occupational cancers, kidney and liver diseases following exposure to chemicals, diseases caused due to exposure to heavy metals like cadmium, chromium, lead and mercury kill workers slowly, so remain beneath the carpet.

WHO/ILO published in September 2021 joint estimates of work-related burden of diseases and injuries for the period 2000-16. According to this report, globally, in 2016, a total of 1.88 million deaths were attributable to the 41 pairs of occupational risk factors and health outcomes. Diseases accounted for 80.7% of the deaths and injuries for 19.3% of deaths. All covered diseases are non-communicable diseases.

The occupational risk factor with the largest number of attributable deaths to it was exposure to long working hours, followed by occupational particulate matter, gases and fumes, and occupational injuries. The health outcome with the largest work-related burden of deaths was chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, followed by stroke and ischaemic heart disease.

Occupational injuries and diseases are preventable. Strategy may include monitoring the work environment to keep the workplace air as clean as possible and maintain it as per the standards laid out in the law, better practices of handling chemicals at work, biological monitoring, pre-employment and periodical medical examination and so on.

India wants to compete with the US and China to be the world leader. But do you think that millions of disabled, sick, weak workers can help that dream come true? We cannot compete so long as we ignore the workers, who are the foundation of our economy. India will be only as strong as its workers are.

The world witnessed what happened following the sudden declaration of lockdown and when workers remained at home. Since 2020, the world is under the thrall of Covid. The International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH) has estimated that 60,000 workers world over died in 2020 due to Covid-19 and 20% of those infected got the infection at work.

Under the UN sustainable development goals, SDG 3 is ‘Good health and well-being’ while SDG 8 is ‘Decent work and economic growth’. The 2020 country report on SDG performance by NITI Aayog notes: SDG India Index and Dashboard, for SDG 8 and its disaggregated seven national indicators, the overall Index Score for the country is 64. Some 80% of India’s workers are employed in the unorganised sector, and more than 90% in informal jobs. Such a huge part of the workforce is not covered by a majority of the labour laws. These workers lack access to benefits like safety standards and minimum wage. Then how are we going to achieve the goal by 2030? We appeal to all trade unions and organisations working on occupational health and safety rights to raise their voice and present their demands before the government, industry and society at large.

(Patel is Director, Peoples Training & Research Centre, Vadodara; Antony is a Paediatrician and Public Health Consultant in Kochi)