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1005 Prevention of accidents in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Delhi City of India
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  1. PK Goswami,
  2. Deputy Director
  1. Labour Department, Government of Delhi

Abstract

Background Great efforts are directed towards the advancement of Small and medium Enterprises (SME) in developing countries. SMEs are considered as the driving force for the economic growth of a developing country like India. According to WHO, over 1000 million people worldwide are employed in SME industries. In India about 70% workforce are working in SMEs of unorganised sector. It provides employment for both men and women, mainly those from the lower socioeconomic classes. These SMEs are mostly run by private enterprises in unorganised sector to avoid legal obligations of Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) provisions. Basic OSH provisions are not maintained in such establishments. This study was conducted in Delhi city of India for the accidents took place between 2011 to 2014. The objective of the study is to analyse the type of accidents and to establish a relationship between training/experience of workers to occurrence of accidents. At the end of the study it is aimed to design a Participatory Action Oriented Training (PAOT) programme.

Methods Survey and Data analysis methods, followed by applying simple statistical techniques were used for this study. The accident related data for the study period, collected from the labour department and Police stations, were analysed for the study. The study was completed in April-2015

Results It was found that most of the accidents took place in SMEs situated in unorganised/Non industrial areas in Delhi. The causes of accidents are predominantly unsafe machinery or working conditions and lack of training of worker.

Conclusions Adequate training to workers and managing safe and healthy workplace are fundamental responsibility of every employer for prevention of accidents. There is no safety culture in SMEs in India. It has been revealed from this study that two critical points for ultimate results of accidents in SMEs are: unsafe machinery/equipment or working condition and lack of workers training and experience. High emphasis needs to be given to develop safe workplace and workers training. This is possible in large extent by Participatory Action Oriented Training (PAOT), easily available and low cost solutions.

  • Safety Culture
  • Accidents
  • SME
  • Training

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