India to develop mining safety codes to protect contract workers
Datetime: 2018-08-17 15:42:09
India to develop mining safety codes to protect contract workers
The Directorate General of Mine Safety
(DGMS) in India is currently developing a set of safety codes to protect the
wellbeing of contract and temporary mine workers, ahead of the country’s
National Safety Conference in Mines, which is scheduled to be held in November.
Around 100,000 people are
employed as contract workers in Indian mines, and the DGMS has identified poor
living conditions and inefficient infrastructure as the most important factors
in determining worker wellbeing and happiness.
“This is part of an ambitious
plan to augment mining production as well as to reduce accidents, including
fatalities,” said DGMS deputy director general Sanjibon Ray. “Currently, we are
in the process of preparing a set of recommendations as a strategy to improve
the occupational safety and health of contractual workers. We are in talks with
all stakeholders before we finalise the recommendations.
“The prime areas of concern
include lack of adequate training and safety awareness of the contractual
workforce, something which is one of the contributory factors in creating
unsafe and accident-prone situations in mines. The main factor leading to
accidents in mines is fatigue and poor living conditions, such as don’t have safety cap lamps, don’t get proper drinking
water, hygienic food, and medical facilities.”
Mining contributed around INR
1151 to the Indian economy in January of this year, but this figure has
fluctuated wildly, from highs of this figure and INR 1121 in January 2017 to
INR 767 in the second half of 2017. There have also bene 1,053 recorded
fatalities at Indian coal operations, compared with 919 in Australia and 1,060
in France, suggesting that the industry is in need of financial stability and personal safety. Statistics show that contract-based workers are 2.47 times
more likely to suffer from an accident at work than full-time workers, so
reducing risks for temporary workers is a priority for the government.