n. krishnamurthyinaugurated by padma vibushan n.r. narayana murthy at mysuru on 6/12/2019 learn more...
TRANSCRIPT
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
My thanks to:
For inviting me to make this webinar presentation, and for accepting the Centre for Workplace Safety
and Health as a Supporting Organisation
Proud to be on the same platform as L&T and IITMand other important speakers
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Congratulations and best wishes on the Diamond Jubilee of the Association
Inaugurated by Padma Vibushan
N.R. Narayana Murthy
at Mysuru on 6/12/2019
Learn more from:
www.cewosh.com
Contact us at:
91410 76124
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Status and Future of
Workplace Safety in India
I will interpret 'Workplace' broadly, to include travelling to and from work, and cover the
after-effects of negligent work on the public.I may also include contractors with engineers.
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I have no magic wand, no 'silver bullet', to solve our safety problems in India. Much of our current behaviour is ingrained into our psyche, and we will have to work very hard to change our attitudes and start solving them. All I can
do is to share my opinions, hopes, and dreams!
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Status and Future of …
▪ Engineering education
▪ Safety education and training
▪Workplace safety
▪ Safety awareness
▪ Engineering responsibility
▪ Interference by …
▪ Safety regulations
▪ Safety data
▪ Safety technology5
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Status of Engineering Education
▪ Engineering education has fallen on hard times.
✓We expanded too fast … now we are forced to cut back
✓Has not kept with the times … has become irrelevant
▪ AICTE will be closing down 800 engineering colleges this year.
✓Nearly 8-lakh BE/BTech students graduated last year, but less than half of them got jobs through campus placement.
▪ Higher-order thinking skills of Indian engineering students are found to be substantially lower than Chinese and Russians
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✓Our curriculum is generally too theoretical with little exposure to industry.
▪ We are isolated into old silos like 'chemical', 'mechanical', etc., with limited opportu-nities for multi-disciplinary learning or real-world problem solving. (Wearing blinders!)
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Future of Engineering Education
▪ Need to focus more on cognitive and behavioural skills in areas like:
✓Critical thinking – problem solving – self-assessment –integrative thinking – self-learning – interpersonal skills –communication – change management
✓ Industry increasingly looking for Higher Order Thinking (HOT), needing skills like analysing, evaluating and creating.
▪ Easier said than done … but that is the only way to survive!
▪ Some new areas:
✓Workplace safety first … ✓ Risk management
✓Renewable energy ✓ Water resources
✓Maintenance ✓ BIM and Virtual Reality
✓Productivity ✓ Sustainability
✓ Infrastructure ✓ Workplace safety last …7
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Status of Safety Education and Training
▪ Private firms and 'Universities' (?), many with links to foreign universities, train for international certifications such as IOSH.
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DGFASLI has a Central Labour Institute at Mumbai and five Regional Labour Institutes, giving advice & training on safety.
Dept. of Industrial Engineering and Management of IIT- Kharagpur ran a Short Term Course on Industrial Safety Engineering, Aug. 11-13, 2011.
I entered "safety courses at IIT and RIT +India" into Google, got
only IIT-Kharagpur's short course. I need to be educated more!
NSC, set up by Ministry of Labour, Govt. of India in 1966
for a voluntary movement on SHE at national level,
offers training courses, does audits and consultancy.
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Future of Safety Education and Training
▪ India needs occupational safety and training badly, although many industries may now not know it, feel it, or even like it.✓We need global acceptance and recognition for work safety
▪ This will not only give us international visibility and respect, but also bring us great dividends commercially and socially.
▪ For this, currently strong academic institutions must:✓Urge the government to announce and enforce mandatory
regulations for education and training; and, ✓Forge links with industry organisations and key-players,
• To develop fresh (or expand existing) schemes and implement, at affordable or subsidised levels:1. Short-term Certificate and Training courses 2. Post-graduate Diplomas and Degrees 3. Audit and certification schemes
9We at CWSH (and I personally) will be happy to do what-ever we can to get schemes off the ground & participate.
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Where do engineers fail our profession, society?
By our ignoring safety, we fail our customers, clients and society most, when our mistakes cost many people their life or limb, and /or damage much property, or badly pollute the environ-ment, at any stage of our activities.
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SAFETY
Planning and
Design
Fabrica-tion or
Construc-tion
Super-vision & Inspec-
tion
Repairs and
Mainte-nance
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Which engineering needs safety most?
SAFETY
Civil Engi-
neering
Mecha-nical Engg.
Electri-cal
Engg.
Chemi-cal
Engg.
Electro-nic and Compu-
ter Engg.
Indus-trial
Engg.
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▪ CIVIL ENGINEERING needs safety most, because, it …✓ Involves many
trades; ✓Faces many
hazards; ✓Uses different,
large crews;✓Struggles in the
open; and, ✓Affects everybody.
▪ Safety should be bedrock for ALL branches of engineering.✓Because engineers provide the facilities, products and
services for all other professionals to carry out their duties and for society itself to function.
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Status of Workplace Safety
▪ Concept almost unknown … even when known, ignored!
✓Practised only by a very few top companies.
✓Only about 10% of the total workforce organised.
▪ Due to high rate of unemployment, the abundant workforce available becomes susceptible to exploitation.
✓Getting work is more important than the hazards involved
✓Constant migration from project to project, state to state
✓Employers not motivated to worry about workplace safety
▪ Many good legislations exist on occupational health & safety
✓Not known, not been disseminated or adopted widely
▪ Lack of data on occupational safety and health
✓Statistics not even seen in most global or regional lists
✓ In most cases, statistics just not available – nobody cares
▪ CONSEQUENCES: Accidents – Injuries – Deaths – Property loss – Environmental damage – Social and moral degradation
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Building Failures in various cities
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https://www.foxnews.com/world/45-dead-50-injured-in-india-building-collapse
2013
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Mechanical and Chemical Safety Lapse
▪ In the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy which killed 15,000 – 25,000 people and affected more than 600,000 workers and nearby inhabitants, the culprit was at least 30 tons of methyl isocya-nate gas being accidentally released from the pesticide plant.
▪ Toxic material remained, and thousands of survivors and their descendants suffered (and still suffer) from respiratory diseases & from damage to internal organs & immune systems
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https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bhopal_Sambhavna_Trust_05_(14037592191).jpg`
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Fire accidents and losses
▪ December 2019▪ Fire broke out in the early morning on Sunday, in a Delhi
factory manufacturing school bags and other garments. About 100 workers, mostly homeless migrants and some minors, were sleeping at the factory when the fire started.
▪ About 40 could not be saved, and died in the fire.✓One of the two staircases in the building was reportedly
blocked by stored products, ✓Windows were barred, and ✓The one accessible exit was locked.
▪ According to officials, the factory lacked any safety licenses and the factory as a whole was operating illegally.
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Status of Safety Awareness
▪ Most of our people are so much used to the dark side and the low side of professional life, that we cannot even imagine how the bright side and the high side would look, any more!
✓This is called 'Normalisation of Deviance'.
✓Those who point out 'wrong' things become the bad guys!
▪ That is why and how, with one lakh Indians found infected with the virus & one thousand dying every day, some do this!
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Big-wigs' Parties
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NORMALIZATION OF DEVIANCE – a
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▪ CONSEQUENCES
✓ Accidents
✓ Injuries and deaths
✓ Heavy cost
✓ Inefficiency
✓ Bad workmanship
✓ Delay, damage
✓ Wastage
✓ Continuance of illegal and unethical practices
✓ Loss of business
✓ Loss of prestige in the world
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NORMALIZATION OF DEVIANCE – b
▪ I sent this picture (from a TV serial) and a warning to the Channel and newspaper but heard back nothing in response!
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NORMALIZATION OF DEVIANCE – c
▪ Mumbai Doctor Deepak Amarapurkar
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fell into an uncovered manhole, and died, on 29 August. 2017.
▪ Problem where engineers may be directly blamed is if manhole cover:✓Removed to avoid flooding, why
flooding problem was not solved;✓Raised or left lowered during
realignment, road laying etc.
https://www.thebetterindia.com/170328/mumbai-manholes-repair-complaint-inspirational/
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▪ Engineers and/or contractors may leave potholes, uncovered manholes, and unmarked road bumps, … causing riders and drivers to lose control, and leading to injuries and deaths!
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NORMALIZATION OF DEVIANCE – d
by potholes
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Future of Safety Awareness
▪ Let us decide ... ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!▪ Those of us who know, let us share it:✓With our equals, ✓ With our juniors, ✓With our seniors, ✓ With our friends,✓With our families, ✓ With our children,
▪ … until …✓Enough people understand✓Enough people feel the shame✓Enough people feel the pride✓Enough people want to set things right
▪ BRINGING AWARENESS OF DANGERS TO THE PUBLIC MAY BE OUR BIGGEST TASK!Don't say 'It won't happen to me, or my loved ones …' DO A RISK ASSESSMENT!
Ask yourself: 'Can I (and they) afford the consequences, if … – IF – it happens'?
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Status of Engineering Responsibility
▪ Engineers have a 'Duty of Care' to society, in ALL their works.▪ But often there seems to be a lack of commitment to
complete a job so as not to leave any hazards to users.✓Ditches dug for utility lines, and bore wells drilled, not
covered up or covered up sloppily after completion.✓Good products lose their value and brand-respect when
they are not serviced or maintained properly.✓Projects are left incomplete, faults are not set right
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promptly, and facilities are not maintained pro-perly, inconveniencing and endangering users:• Road surfacing & signs• Road drainage• Electricity, water supply• Irrigation canal silting
Dry river beds
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Two-year Old Dies in Abandoned Borewell – a
a disused bore well hole … and died.▪ He had initially been stuck at 9 m
depth, but as they tried to reach him, he fell to 21 m into the 180 m well.
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▪ On Friday, 25th Oct. 2019, two-year old Sujith Wilson fell into
Who is to blame? … The person(s) who did not recognise the
hazard, … who did not plan to prevent it and implement it.
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Future of Engineering Responsibility
▪ Engineers owe it to society, not only to provide solutions to civic and technical problems, but to ensure they continue to work as intended throughout their expected life.
✓Penalty clauses for inefficient functioning, and for regular maintenance of products and infrastructure, for specified periods after delivery should be built into project contracts, and strictly enforced.
▪ Education and training must emphasize and train for maintenance over the entire life cycle, as even more important than planning, design, and fabrication and erection of a product or facility.
✓After all, if the construction of a building takes two years, people are going to live or work in it for fifty years or more!
▪ We need to emulate – not imitate or depend fully on – others
✓Cannot simply copy them – must develop our own solutions24
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Status of Safety Regulations
▪We have extensive, excellent legislation
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▪ But the documents are costly, unaffordable by most SMEs.▪ The message does not seem to have reached down to most.▪ Not much incentive to comply, or threat for non-compliance.
OSH Legislation• Factories Act 1948, amended '54, '70, '76, '87• Mines Act, 1952• Dock workers (SH & Welfare) Act, 1986• Plantation Labour Act, 1951• Explosives Act, 1884• Petroleum Act, 1934• Insecticide Act, 1968• Indian Boilers Act, 1923• Indian Electricity Act, 1910• Dangerous Machines (Regulations) Act, 1983• Indian Atomic Energy Act, 1962• Radiological Protection Rules, 1971• Manufacture, Storage and Import of
Hazardous Chemicals Rules, 1989• National OSH Policy, 2009
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Future of Safety Regulations
▪ Publicise, and educate the public on safety regulations
✓ Intensive and extensive dissemination by posters, movie slides, etc.
▪ After due warnings and sufficient time for transition, enforce the regulations swiftly and fairly.
✓Provide carrot incentives and stick penalties
✓Subsidise and support small and medium enterprises
✓Competitions and awards for implementing safety
▪ Keep politics and syndicate interests out of engineering
✓Engineers must unite in the resolve to keep public welfare and workplace safety as their primary (only) goal, without interference from non-technical vested groups.
✓Gradually educate and guide civic bodies in appropriate technology for the good of the people, beyond company interests, proactively, instead of reacting to accidents.
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Status of Safety Data – a
▪ Shown below WHO statistics for Sri Lanka … How neat and pretty!
▪ But India is not found! Why?✓Because we do not send/have data!
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Sri
Lanka
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India on Global OHS Map
▪ India is missing in many ILO and WHO statistics for lack of reported data barely , and makes it on the global map.
▪ But things are slowly improving.28
Rantanen, J., Lehtinen, S., Valenti, A. et al. "A global survey on occupational health services in selected international commission on occupational health (ICOH) member countries". BMC Public Health 17, 787 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-017-4800-z
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Best Available All-India Data
▪ We have a very elegantly produced detailed annual report on accidental deaths and suicides in India produced by the National Crime Records Bureau.
▪ BUT THIS IS REPORTED CRIME DATA!
✓There is no data on occupational deaths and workplace accidents, which is of primary concern to engineering and other industries … without which, engineers cannot:
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• Know what, where and how big their safety problems are; and,
• Therefore cannot prevent, or mitigate them.
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Status of Safety data – b
▪ No (specific) data means:
✓No worry … (Ignorance is bliss!)
✓No measurement,
✓No statistics,
✓No facts,
✓No evidence,
✓No way to understand,
✓No way to assess,
✓No way to correct,
✓No way to improve,
✓No way we can hold our head high and say,
✓ "We too are workplace safe!" 30
KEY TO
SAFETY
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Future of Safety Data
http://urbantransport.kar.gov.in/Road%20Saftey%20Audit.pdf
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Status of Safety Technology
▪ Almost none, except a handful of companies.
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▪ Eg. Body har-ness and its requirements
▪ Guard-rails▪ Sewer gas test
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Future of Safety Technology
▪ Facilitate, educate, train, and enforce use of essential workplace safeguards.
✓During transition, Government may have to subsidise SMEs
▪ Apart from engineering professionals, the larger public also needs to change its attitude towards safety.
✓The brag that "It won't happen to me" should give place to "It should not happen to anybody".
✓Karma not to be used as a cover-up for callous indifference.
✓Government, regardless of party politics, should come down hard on violators of public safety and hygiene.
▪ Engineers should demand a voice in promoting, implementing and enforcing not only workplace safety and health, but – at least to the extent engineers have the shared responsibility –also public and social safety and health.
✓Professional societies must have final say on infrastructure.33
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Blueprint for Safety Improvement
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The End
Thank you
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