|
|
|
|
Safety at construction sites is a priority for some big companies, but overall the industry continues to lag behind, says Syed Ameen Kader in this brief report
The government’s approach towards the safety of construction workers is woefully lull but some hopes lies with the big companies who give lots of importance to this issue.
Construction Week met India’s two big construction companies – Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) and Larsen & Toubro (L&T) – to assess their approach towards the issue of safety. We found out that these companies have some of the best safety practices in place for other players to emulate.
We visited the site of Bandra-Worli Sea Link, one of the 41 big projects currently under execution by HCC.
The project has won Golden Peacock award for occupational health and safety in 2007. The DGM of Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) for HCC, Subhamoy Maitra, explained to us that every new worker has to go through mandatory process of HSE induction, orientation and medical test before actually getting a helmet to work.
“The orientation programme creates awareness of the various safety hazards associated with a project and the necessary precautions that should be taken to prevent them. They are also taught how to evacuate during any emergency,” said Maitra.
He calls the lack of awareness the biggest hazard for safety. “Main safety hazards are related to engineering control, equipment, job methodology, material handling, structural fabrication and emergency preparedness. But lack of awareness is the biggest hazard for safety. That’s why we make sure that every worker goes through the HSE programme,” said Maitra.
HCC is among the very few Indian companies to hold the OHSAS 18001:2007, a certification for occupational health and safety management systems; 14001:2004, an environment management certification and ISO-9001:2000, a quality management system certificate.
The company had also won ‘Best safety contractor’ award for the year 2005-2006 from Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. “Safety is extremely important for us. The type of organisational structure which we have at HCC for taking care of safety is phenomenal.
 |
L&T’s whole time director and president, construction, KV Rangaswamy, said that when multinational clients like DuPont, Shell and Bechtel started their projects in India, they helped to bring a sea change in the awareness level of the construction industry with respect to occupational health and safety.
But the approach of the unorganised sector to the safety issue is weary. Most of the small and medium construction companies do not pay any heed to workers’ safety.
“The awareness levels vary to a great extent with the organised and unorganised sector. It is quite satisfactory among the senior management and workmen. Whereas the awareness level among the small petty contractors is in the nascent stage,” said Rangaswamy.
Despite the Central government passing the Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Act in 1996, many states are still to implement it. The act calls for forming welfare board and collecting 1-2% cess from every company executing construction work over Rs10 lakh and employing more than 10 workers. The money is meant to be spent on construction workers’ welfare.
SA Azad, a Delhi-based activist who is associated with Nirman Mazdoor Shakti Sangathan, an affiliation of New Trade Union Initiative (NTUI), found that no government department has data on number of accidents and fatalities taking place in Delhi.
He then approached deputy commissioner of police (DCP) of various districts of Delhi (Delhi has nine districts). The police records of five districts disclosed that about 200 deaths, 320 serious injuries and 300 accidents happened during 2002-2006.
“We found some jurisdictions have more number of incidents and some have very less. The difference is not because of one district has better safety practice than another. It’s just because many of the incidents never get reported,” said Azad.
The Delhi welfare board has collected Rs220 crore through cess levy on construction companies. “But only one worker has got the compensation of Rs15,000 so far,” he said.
| Articles | |
 |
Site Map
 |
 |
 |
 |
|  |
COMMENT
Comment on this article