Charades over safety

THREE HORRIBLE ACCIDENTS, which have between them claimed 48 lives in a single day, have exposed the low priority accorded to safety in India by the authorities as well as by individuals. If the blast at the Tamil Nadu Industrial Explosives Limited that incinerated 23 persons horrendously reflects the system's fatal lapses in ensuring a secure workplace, the tragic train accident in Maharashtra - in which 15 persons were mowed down by the Mumbai-bound Geetanjali Express - brings out the ghastly consequences of the disregard of basic tenets of safety by individuals. The 10 fatalities of the train collision in Bihar are but victims of continued lapses in the country's railway safety mechanism. What is evident through these three killer episodes is that the pace with which India has set out to reach higher levels of industrialisation and economic development has not been matched by an equal concern to ensure that its residents are able to go about their daily tasks safely. That there exists a systemic collapse when it comes to addressing the issue of accident-related deaths is evident from their recurring nature.

The inferno in the loss-making Tamil Nadu Industrial Explosives Limited encapsulates the serious shortcomings that continue to exist in industrial establishments. Even if it were conceded that human negligence caused the explosion, the systemic collapse is evident in that the sensitive manufacturing facility was not adequately shielded from possible human errors. Given the specialised nature of the operations, there is no escaping from the fact that in terms of preparedness - both on-site and off- site - matters remain much less than desired. That the manufacturing unit was a tinderbox is apparent. For, barely five years ago a major catastrophe was averted, when an explosion killed two persons, because most of the workers were away. It is imperative that the Government comes out with a comprehensive and workable package of measures to prevent a recurrence. It will also be appropriate if such an exercise is not restricted to the affected industrial unit, but is carried out by all similar facilities across the country. Given the backdrop that much of the shortfall in maintaining safety requirements is a result of cutting corners in a situation of adverse financial conditions, it will also be in order if industrial units make clear the investments made into safety. The checks and preventives that have been charted out but continue to largely remain on paper will have to be translated into action on an urgent basis. The singular lesson from the Bhusaval tragedy, where 15 persons were crushed to death by a speeding express train, is that safety is as much an individual responsibility as it is of a system. The highly disruptive practice of passengers bringing trains to a halt in order to disembark at unscheduled places has brought the gory death on these travellers. It is important that this event serves as a reminder and thereby a deterrent for those tempted to violate the system for immediate personal advantages. The Bihar collision, for its part, should galvanise the country's railway system into addressing serious but avoidable lapses that have continued to take a heavy toll of human lives.

Above all, what is required now is a sense of urgency in addressing the larger issue of safety at both the organisational and individual levels. It is imperative that as India aspires to move towards a knowledge society, it ensures that the available physical and intellectual resources are meaningfully utilised to provide secure conditions of work and living. As Governments across the world change their scope of operations, it will only be in order if the national efforts are tuned to meet the larger end of ensuring a safe and secure living.

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