By Kanthar Balanathan, Australia

The West and the developing world is focussed on Safety systems for human services at workplace. The respective governments enact regulations, acts, and continue to publish amendments to keep people and workplaces updated of its current knowledge and the regulations and acts they have revised, to cover the hazards employees face during work. Different Acts and Regulations such as, (i) Occupational Health & Safety Act, (ii) OH&S Regulations, (iii) Workplace Health & Safety (WH&S) Act, (iv) WH&S Regulations are in place.

Citing excerpts from the Victorian OH&S act: Ref: Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004

Act No. 107/2004i

1. to secure the health, safety and welfare of employees and other persons at work; and

(b) To eliminate, at the source, risks to the health, safety or welfare of employees and other Persons at work; and

(c) To ensure that the health and safety of members of the public is not placed at risk by the conduct of undertakings by employers and self-employed persons; and

(d)To provide for the involvement of employees, employers, and organisations representing those persons, in the formulation and implementation of health, safety and welfare standards—having regard to the principles of health and safety protection set out in section Accidents are investigated, Root Cause Analysis (RCA) is carried out to prevent such hazards.

Fireworks Accidents-India

Analysing Indian workers condition at workplaces, it is a crime that the employers in India does not want to enforce Health and Safety systems in their workplaces. Fire cracker factories in the N&S of India are a potential hellhole, where several accidents have occurred with serious injuries and death. The Law in India, may be, turn a blind eye towards employee’s age restriction. Several poor young children are taken away from school to earn money to run their family, where they become the main breadwinners.

• Fire accidents in Siva Kasi, the major centre for firecracker incidents: Ref: http://www.newindianexpress.com/states/tamil_nadu/article601806.ece.
• A story by Samudranil on Child Labour in Sivakasi Fireworks Industry: Ref; http://www.mapsofindia.com/my-india/india/child-labour-in-sivakasi-fireworks-industry.
• Reference in Andra Pradesh; http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-andhra-pradesh-cracker-unit-deaths-bring-back-focus-on-child-labour-2027987.
• A report by International Confederation of Free Trade Unions could be read in: http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/netzquelle/01310.pdf.
• Images in firecracker factories: http://fpa.photoshelter.com/gallery/Fire-Work-Balaji-Maheshwar/G0000BVDC4tgvvwA.
• Reference is made to FIREWORKS ACCIDENT ANALYSIS in: http://www.aria.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/wp-content/files_mf/Fireworksaccidentanalysis_jan2012.pdf.
• Safety Problems Persist in India’s Firecracker Industry report ref: http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/08/safety-problems-persist-in-indias-firecracker-industry/?_r=0

A report by Dr. Godsen Mohandoss Senior Technical Expert, NCPCR. Ref: http://www.ncpcr.gov.in/view_file.php?fid=21. Excerpts from this report: Tamil Nadu has been in limelight for long in terms for its child labour problem where innocent children fall prey to the exploitative labour in firecrackers and match industries”.

Reference is made to Review of Risks to Workers Associated with Fireworks Industry by Dhruv Katoria1, Dhruva Mehta, Dhruva Sehgal3 and Sameer Kumar. Ref: International Journal of Environmental Engineering and Management. ISSN 2231-1319, Volume 4, Number 3 (2013), pp. 259-264 © Research India Publications Ref: http://www.ripublication.com/ijeem_spl/ijeemv4n3_16.pdf

 Cleaning Industry-India

 It’s depressing and frightening to observe the way Tamil Nadu and India in general, how they carry out their maintenance of drains, sewer, storm water draining etc. India boasts to be a growing potential super power with eminent IT specialists, who rotate around the Silicon (SV) Valley area in USA, and the named SV area in Bangalore.

Examples of cleaning industry:

Humans go into sewers and carry out the cleaning. May be the Indian employers and the government do not understand the meaning of PPE- Personal Protective Equipment. This includes face masks, hard hats, ear plugs, respirators, gloves, boots, safety harnesses etc., and if necessary oxygen for breathing. Picture # 3 shows a person in the sewer, with no PPE, carrying out the work while a person inside the sewer is also helping the second person. Picture # 1 is calamitous. Picture # 6 is an indication of the transport industry in rural areas in the North. Picture #5 is the way how the brainless Tamil Nadu people think of their Chief Minister, while she enjoys the worship of the clueless retrograde people. However, the Chief Minister who was once a movie star, unmarried, not a Tamil, enjoys people worshiping her. PPE is equipment worn by workers to minimise risk to the person’s health or safety, which includes a wide range of clothing and safety equipment. Politicians, may have PPE standard of wearing white Dhoti and white shirt, to uphold their uneducated superiority.

Killing of Dalit Humans-India

 The caste system in India, is growing to a large proportion where the stamped, Dalit people are being massacred by the Indians, whereas the Dalits are the true inhabitants of the Indian continent. The Brahmins of India are clueless or do not want to accept this fact. Two examples of killing:

• Dalit people were killed on the roadside in Assam, a girl stripped and kicked, because the Dalits asked for more pay in the tea plantation.
• Dalit student were massacred and killed within the Law College campus in Chennai.

These are a two examples, however, young girls are being raped and killed. The caste difference does not allow the upper caste to mix with Dalits, however, what law or custom allows them to have sex with Dalit women? Thousands of incidents occur in India every day. However, politicians are busy with bribes, corruption etc. to maintain their position in the ruling industry. Government in India has become an industry for wealth accumulation. Every peasant who enters the parliament becomes a multi-millioner in a few years.

There may be no powerful body or Union to represent the Dalits or to fight for their HR violation. Dalits of India are almost held into slavery by the Indians, and the police cannot do anything about it. It is evident that Tamil Nadu government and its people are the main perpetrators for Human Rights violations.

Human Rights-UN

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) has been a milestone document in the history of human rights. Ref: http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/

There are a few questions to be asked:

Q1:       Does the United Human Rights Centre is aware of this?

Q2:       Does the UNHR Commissioner know about this activities and sufferings?

Q3:       Does not the UN consider these activities as HR violations at work place?

Q4:       If UN does not have the authority to question India on this discrimination and HR Violation, then who is?

Can we consider that UN fails in her activities and responsibilities of identifying HR violations in developing countries? India has hundreds of standards for workplace and designs. Do the employers and designers comply with the IS/IEC standards, Acts and Regulations? India should come out of their fundamental beliefs of caste, ethnicity, superstitious beliefs and the differential thinking, and make the industry safe for all people, irrespective of caste, creed and ethnicity.

May be UN staff should pay visit(s) to Indian workplaces, to inspect and satisfy whether India complies with their own standards or international standards, rather wasting time in unnecessary political campaigns.

Politicians like Vaiko, Dr Ram doss, Nedumaran, Seeman and the lot should redirect their attention to their own citizens, to sort out the sufferings they undergo. They should forget about SriLanka, because SL has top class operating methods in Industries.

 It is unclear how India is going to help SL with the ETCA agreement. Addressing the method, means, manner and condition in which India operates in all their technological sphere, including cleaning, transport etc. industries, one could be suspicious how it will impact on their local industry. It is a belief that India does not comply with standards drafted by human, but superstitious beliefs. India will make the country into which they creep, a garbage tip.

 Definitely no country in the West or Sri Lanka treats human beings like that of India. India should sort out their differences before stepping foot on foreign platforms. Indian politicians should refrain from making media statements of human rights violations in SL.