Unsafe India: Workers make a tally of accidents

Kavita Charanji, New Delhi

SAFE in India (SII)’s sixth annual report, “CRUSHED 2024”, breaks new ground. For the first time, injured auto sector workers themselves carried out research for the report. Shramik Saathis or worker volunteers were trained in participatory research methods by SII and its partner, Praxis.

They used tools like factory resource mapping, body mapping and daily schedule mapping for an entire year. Through community or factory meetings, group discussions and individual-level interactions, the workers collated their major findings on worker safety concerns, key causes of compromised workplace environments and made important recommendations to the government, factory owners and managements.

Eight workers led over 100 workers in the survey. Their findings are brought together in an important chapter, “Hamaari Baat, Hum Bataayengey”, in SII’s report.

 Several workers identified high production targets as the main cause of accidents. “When targets are high, operators sometimes themselves stop or remove the sensors and continue working,” said one worker.  They also expressed anger at the unfair treatment meted out to them by managements.

Perhaps the greatest value addition of the research is the recommendations by workers to factories, auto brands and the government. The workers call on auto component factories to meet basic safety standards like good equipment and infrastructure, clearly worded contracts and job security along with fair wages, basic facilities like clean workspaces, hygienic canteens and toilets.

Workers also want automobile brands to be more proactive in ensuring welfare issues are not compromised. They called for fair pricing for auto supplier factories so that employers can give workers a better deal.

State and Central governments are asked for more support and closer monitoring of factories. The workers sought permanent jobs, timely payments, stricter government audits, job security and encouragement to establish groups or platforms that will enable them to jointly voice their concerns and resolve them.

“My recommendation is that workers should get permanent employment. This  would result in salaries being credited to the accounts of workers. They would also get the legal minimum wage,” said Suchita Saini, an injured worker.

Women workers are under additional pressure as there is gender disparity in auto sector supply chains.  They are underpaid, overstressed and face pressures at home too. 

 Data was gathered by over 300 injured women workers, led by a group of 20 women injured on power press machines in Faridabad, Gurugram and Manesar. The proportion of women paid less than `9,000 is higher than men, both as operator and helper. Financial pressures often drive women to operate power press machines instead of the packing jobs for which they are usually hired.

Altogether over 6,500 injured auto sector workers that SII has assisted over the years, mainly in Haryana and Maharashtra, have contributed to the report. The statistics of injured workers are likely to be much higher nationally.

The report has several highlights. Thousands of workers in the supply chain of the top 10 auto brands continue to lose their fingers across the country. There are no major changes in vulnerable regions. Injured workers from Haryana and Maharashtra are mostly young migrants in low-paid, contractual jobs.

The lower the wage and level of education, the more fingers are lost. Untrained, low-paid helpers are often forced by their supervisors to function as  machine operators without safety measures or adequate training. 

Injuries due to crushing continue to be on the upswing. The major culprits are the notorious, poorly maintained power press machines that function without legally mandated safety guards or sensors.

Employers are unconcerned and reluctant about registering employees under the legally mandated Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) when they are hired.  The ESIC e-Pehchaan (identity) card is vital for workers as it entitles them and their families to a range of ESIC healthcare benefits as well as compensation for sickness, injuries, unemployment, childbirth and death.  However, injured workers report that they received the card only after the accident. The claim for insurance then becomes a long, arduous journey.

Rules are bent in other ways. Few get appointment letters or salary slips. Less than 5 percent work the legally mandated 48 hours per week or less. The majority work 12 hours a day, six days a week. Needless to say, they do not receive legally mandated overtime wages.

Against this grim scenario, there is some good news. Maruti Suzuki, Hero and Honda, brands with significant supply chains in Haryana, have seen eight  quarters of falling accident trends, although they reported 1,000 injuries in 2024.

But there is need “to see a consistent improvement in this data for three years to demonstrate systemic change,” the report points out. More worryingly, there is “anecdotal evidence that one of these three brands is asking their suppliers to be ‘zero accident’. That mandate is leading to some suppliers not sending their injured workers to ESIC, making their situation worse.”

The auto industry has to wake up to the plight of workers down the deeper supply chain.

As Sandeep Sachdeva, founder and CEO of SII, observes in his introduction to “CRUSHED 2024”: 'We cannot forever rely on “low-road” manufacturing based on low-cost labour arbitrage. We need to take the “high-road” of better working conditions to drive up higher value and quality production which is not possible with our current jugaad mindset.’