Lax occupational safety costs 10-20% of GDP in asian countries

For achieving a higher level of safety management, India has to build a preventive occupational health and safety culture at organisation levels

Laxities in occupational health and safety management was estimated to cost about US$ 1.25 trillion or 4 per cent of the world economy, while the figure for Asian nations was at 10-20 per cent of their GDP, while about 7,500 people are losing their lives every day due to occupational hazards.

This was stated by Ellen White, Global Business Director, Personal Safety Division of 3M while addressing the keynote address at a conference on Occupational Health & Safety, organised by the CII Naoroji Godrej Centre of Manufacturing Excellence.

For achieving a higher level of safety management, India has to build a preventive occupational health and safety culture at organisation levels, by forging a collaboration among corporate entities besides promoting public-private partnerships, White said.

In his address, VB Sant, Director General, National Safety Council, said that occupational health and safety should be linked to various government schemes for building a robust safety culture in corporate entities as part of promoting ‘Make in India’ scheme.

“Quality is being recognised even by the consumers as an important part of some products. If safety aspect is also recognised that way then it can be a booster for building safety culture. While granting incentives, loans or subsidies, the government should make safety aspect also a part of the eligibility conditions. Let safety be part of everything, make it part of every solution. That can change the paradigm for occupational safety,” Sant said.

Stating that India has a long way to go before achieving excellence in safety, Sant said, “If you take a scale of 1-10 and if your goal is to achieve 10, I think we are between 2-3 only, if one is being honest about it and in the light of measures adopted in advanced countries. There are big organisations doing better or willing to do even better in safety aspect. But what about the organisations at the bottom of the pyramid – the small, micro enterprises, the medium enterprises, and that is a big challenge.”

Anil Verma, Chairman, CII Task Force on Industrial Safety and President & Executive Director, Godrej & Boyce Mfg, said that with several investors focus on investments in companies with noble causes including occupational safety themes, it has become an incentive for companies to follow safety aspects, while highlighting the conference theme: Excellence in Safety: A Must for Make in India.