Round table discusses on how implementation of safety and hygiene standards in industrial workforce will reduce healthcare costs
Lindstrom India, a subsidiary of the Lindstrom Group, a Finnish work wear service company, recently organised a round table on the importance of health and safety for India’s industrial workforce in New Delhi with the support of Embassy of Finland.
Informing that implementation of occupational health, safety and hygiene standards in the workforce is the biggest challenge faced by heavy industries, Girish Shankar, Secretary, Ministry of Heavy Industries, said, “The legal framework has been provided to ensure the hygiene and safety of the workforce but implementation is the biggest challenge and the industry has to come forward. In 12th Five Year Plan, we had a workforce for occupational safety and health. It came out with an action plan to ensure safety and hygiene for the workers. If we ensure safety and hygiene to the workers it will reduce healthcare costs substantially.”
Sharing some statistics, Shankar said, “Workers covered by safety policy or safety committee or covered by the on-site emergency plan are very low, 9.63 per cent factories reported injuries comprising few workers and 4.63 per of total reported injuries were fatal. So this is a real eye opener that the industry has to gear up and improve substantially.”
Shedding light on the subject specifically in the food industry, Pawan Agarwal, CEO, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) said, “In India, a lot is required to improve hygiene standards. Very few places have high standards of hygiene so we have to go a long way and this is something that is not discussed as widely as it should be. This is the first time that an event has been organised which specifically focusses on hygiene and safety. FSSAI is launching a series of initiatives to touch the lives of all citizens at all times. The first initiative is around safe and nutritious food at home, second is safe and nutritious food at school and third which is relevant here is safe and nutritious food at the workplace and finally, safe and nutritious food when we eat out.”
The round table brought together industry experts like Akhil Jha, CTO, Shell India, Bhupinder Singh, CEO, Vista Food, Akash Rathore, Director-Commercial Pirelli India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and G Pawan Kumar, MD, Sprint Exports and Chairperson, Vizag Seafood Exporters Association.
Anupam Chakrabarty, Managing Director, Lindstrom said, “We want to raise awareness among the industries like food, pharma sector informing that the health and safety of the workforce is crucial. As most of them associate it with the cost element, but they should know that these factors are extremely essential for driving the business.”
The Ambassador of India to Finland Vaskunlahti, gave the session a global perspective and Francis Odhimabo, UNICEF Wash Specialist, shared his experience on how Lindstrom and UNICEF are working together at the grass root level to advocate the importance of building awareness about hygiene, cleanliness and safety right from childhood.
Headquartered in Mumbai, Lindstrom India has its service centres in 11 cities including Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Panchkula, Vadodara, Viskhapatnam, Tinsukia and Pune.
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