Chandreswar Khan (left) at the conference at Centre for Excellence. Picture by Bhola Prasad

Jamshedpur, July 2: It was a seminar where industrialists got to know what their responsibilities were towards the workers and society as a whole.

It was a seminar on Occupational Health and Safety conducted by Jharkhand council of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on the premises of Centre for Excellence.

Convener of human resource development of CII D.D. Pathak gave the welcome address of the seminar. Addressing the participants, he said that personal safety and injuries can be avoided. “Business houses and individuals should try and avoid such accidents. Measures like installing gas purifier, sewage not being discharged in water bodies which affects human life should be taken up by business houses. Safety of the workers inside the industry should be the responsibility of the industry,” he said.

Pathak also stressed on personal safety which affect the industry or business house one is part of.

Around 50 people from various industries were part of the seminar.

“Often its seen that industries in a bid to make their business profitable overlook the safety of their workers and the thousands of people outside the industry. They do not install the gas purifier in the industries, discharge waste in the water bodies, do not think about the position of the workers and their safety. Therefore, when an industry comes up in the vicinity, people of that area protest the setting up of these industries as they think the factory or industry would adversely affect them,” said an industrialist at the seminar.

“The business houses have a responsibility towards its workers and the society as a whole and should adopt various safety measures,” he added.

“Personal safety is compromised by two factors — conflict condition and unsafe act,” said Manoranjan Prasad, the head of safety department, Tata Steel.

“An unsafe act is an act which is caused by the individual’s carelessness. For example, if a person eats a banana and then throws the skin on the floor, it will be an unsafe act. A conflict condition, on the other hand, is when the environment that surrounds the individual compromises his safety. By throwing the banana skin on the floor, a conflict condition is created,” said Prasad.

“The well-being and providing a safe environment for one to work is the duty of any organisation. Under no circumstance should these things be compromised as it will affect the organisation in the long-run,” another speaker said. “Tata Steel has adopted a six-step contractor’s safety guide as contractors remain out of the safety purview most of the time. This system allows better management of contractors. The six step guide include: contract selection, preparation, award, orientation and training, managing safety and post contract management,” said chief safety officer at Tata Steel V.N. Gaekwad.

Assistant general manager (training) at Tata Motors Chandreswar Khan said that if industry adopt these means of safety it can benefit the organisation and the society along with making profits. “Industrial organisations are gradually learning that safe and healthy working environment gives them an effective competitive advantage,” he said.

Khan also said that safety measures like wearing of helmets, uniforms, hand gloves and boots should be made mandatory and this reduces the risk of accidents within an industrial unit.