Industrial safety meet spotlights India

THE RATE of work-related accidents in India is nearly eight times that of Western nations and has risen by 20 per cent in the last decade. The 13th World Congress on Occupational Safety and Health, held in Delhi recently, thus rightly focussed on working conditions in the country.

Factory owners, workers and government representatives blamed each other for the ineffective safety measures. However, most participants agreed very few accidents were reported by firms. Factory owners were also accused of being callous towards occupational safety, for financial considerations, by All India National Trade Union Congress president A Ramanujam.

The government took its share of the flak when an employee of a Bangalore-based firm blamed the tardy monitoring of mishaps by the Karnataka government on the paucity of staff.