NEW DELHI, Feb 3 (NNN-PTI) – India’s National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), said yesterday that, it has issued notices to the federal and local state governments, over reported high death rate of workers, in accidents in factories across the country.
The move was taken, after the rights panel took cognisance of a newspaper article that said, three people died and 11 others were injured each day on an average, between 2017 and 2022, due to accidents in the country’s registered factories, as per the Ministry of Labour and Employment’s Directorate General Factory Advice Service and Labour Institutes data.
Quoting figures from the article, NHRC said, as many as 3,331 deaths were recorded between 2018 and 2020, but only 14 people were imprisoned for offences under the Factories Act.
“The commission feels that, considering the gravity of the matter, as highlighted in the newspaper article, it raises serious concerns about the human rights of the workers in various business enterprises, including factories,” the panel said in a statement.
The NHRC said, human rights risk can be mitigated at the stage of structuring contracts or other agreements, between employers and employees, within the purview of law, giving due importance to the concept of business and human rights.
“Accordingly, the commission has issued notices to all the chief secretaries/principal secretaries, Department of Labour of all the states, to provide detailed reports with respect to the death/incapacity of workers/employees, due to accidents in the factories,” said the NHRC.
According to the rights panel, response is expected within six weeks.– NNN-PTI
