• Mr. Heeralal Samariya, Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Employment, (MoLE)
• Mr. Devender Singh, Economic Advisor, MoLE
• Dr R K Elangovan, Chief Inspector of Dock Safety, Director General Factory Advice Services and Labour Institutes (DGFASLI)
• Distinguished senior officials of the central and state governments
• Distinguished guests and participants

On behalf of the ILO, I would like to extend my sincere appreciation to MOLE for organizing this national workshop.

It will allow us to renew our commitments to improve occupational safety and health for all workers in India.

The employers and workers are keen to learn about measures to prevent occupational accidents and diseases, and create safe, healthy and productive workplaces for their business sustainability.

The ILO’s Decent Work Country Programme for India (2018–2022) selected Safety and Health is one of the priority areas for national action in India.

To achieve this outcome, the Ministry and ILO have been developing the National OSH Profile and the National OSH Programme, with the reference to the ILO Occupational Safety and Health Conventions.

In this respect, I would like to reiterate the ILO’s strong commitment to the development of preventive strategies on OSH in India.

As embodied in the Preamble to the Constitution of the ILO, the protection of workers against sickness, disease and injury related to their work environment, has been a central issue for the ILO since its establishment in 1919.

And once again, the ILO constituents’ strong commitment towards OSH was re-affirmed in the ILO Centenary Declaration for the Future of Work, adopted at the International Labour Conference in June this year.

The new Declaration marks the 100 years of the Organization and responds to the transformative change in the world of work, driven by technological innovations, demographic shifts, climate change and globalization.

The Declaration acknowledges that safe and healthy working conditions are essential to the creation of decent work, and effective means to promote the transition from informal to formal economy.

To improve OSH, we must be proactive in creating a culture of prevention.

But the question is “how”.

Three OSH instruments of the ILO provide us with a sound basis to strengthen OSH national systems, namely, the Occupational Safety and Health Convention and its 2002 Protocol, the Occupational Health Services Convention, and the Promotional Framework for Occupational Safety and Health Convention.

From our experience, we know that workplaces with trade unions that follow collective agreements and organize active safety and health committees, better constitute safer and healthier workplaces.

Employers’ and workers’ collaborative activities to improve OSH at the workplace are critically meaningful.

The OSH policies and programmes should also be inclusive, by not leaving behind those who are most vulnerable in the world of work.

I mean to say those workers at the bottom of global supply chains, including workers in micro and small enterprises and self-employed in the informal economy.

Now, let me briefly review the recent OSH development in India:

The Government of India has been taking steps towards strengthening national systems of occupational safety and health.

In 2009, the 1st National Policy on Safety, Health and Environment at Workplace of India was adopted.

Since then, this policy has been widely referred to as the way to promote OSH.

In 2017, the Government of India, employers’ and workers’ organizations, along with the ILO, carried out six regional and national consultation workshops.

As a result of these extensive tripartite consultations, the available OSH data and information have been compiled and analysed, and now ready to be published as the National OSH Profile.

While developing the National OSH Profile, we noticed that many occupational disease cases still remain unreported without having proper remedy and compensation.

In its conclusion, the constituents recommended that preventing occupational accidents and diseases and protecting workers’ health should be a priority area for national action.

And the actions include:
First, Workers and employers need urgent support to identify and eliminate occupational health hazards and risks at their workplaces.

Second, For effective enforcement, labour inspection systems need to be strengthened and strategic.

Third, OSH training and information activities for small enterprises and the unorganized sector should be strengthened.

Fourth, Training to medical doctors and health professionals on occupational disease diagnosis is also required for early detection, treatment, compensation and prevention.

Fifth, Public awareness for preventing work-related accidents and diseases and remediating hazardous working environments should increase.

Sixth, India can undertake stronger national campaigns and awareness raising activities for workers and employers.

Seventh, mass media and journalists should highlight the safety and health challenges of workers in various economic sectors and disseminate the information for accident and disease prevention.

And lastly, At the workplace level, the first thing to do is to establish workplace OSH committees and involve workers for identifying OSH risks.

Indeed, we know that a safe and healthy workplace is productive and dynamic. Given India as the growth pole of the world economy, OSH policies and programmes are needed by the Indian economy more than ever before.

In an international OSH meeting, I heard a CEO of an Indian enterprise stated: ‘’My company has 900 workers, so we have 900 safety and health officers’’.

I was so impressed. Because in his company all the workers are actively involved in OSH risk management and report identified OSH risks swiftly to their supervisors for preventing accidents and diseases and protecting businesses.

How can we emulate such good practices and promote the preventative culture in minimizing OSH risks elsewhere?

To answer this question, in the next two days, we will look at the details of the occupational safety and health situation in India and hope to achieve three objectives:

First, Arrive at a common understanding of the challenges and opportunities for decent work in Indian workplaces, focusing on the improvement of OSH, but also on the potential for making the workplace more productive and sustainable;

Second, Define policies and actions that will improve occupational safety and health in India and help bring about a safe and sustainable economic development in India; and

Agree to the measures and actions required by the Government of India towards the final adoption of National OSH Profile and the development of National OSH Programme.

The ILO looks forward to working with you towards these objectives.

I wish you all very fruitful deliberations.

Thank you for your kind attention!