Occupational Medicine & Health Affairs
Open Access

Abstract

Introduction: Licencing and field inspection for enforcement of occupational safety and health laws has been a challenge; particularly in developing nations like India. It became necessary to evolve a new law by subsuming several laws so as to do away with the overlapping and repetition of statutory requirements. It was also felt that several laws are not required in present scenario and a push was needed to evolve an OSH Code and Rules that supports computerization and online web-based system. Methods: After the enactment of Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020, State wise Rules were prepared. The author actively participated in framing Delhi State OSHWC Rules and care was taken to make the law understandable to the common person. Computerized licence system for establishments, factories and construction sites was developed. A computerized risk-based inspection mechanism was also developed in line with the recently enacted Code. The owners of establishments were encouraged through advertisements and other mode of communications resulting into more people coming forward to apply for licences and complying with the law. Results: The online portal was made self-explanatory and user friendly. Such robust system was developed to ensure hassle free issuance of licence by removing human touch points at all levels. Workplace compliance could be made possible through directions and written orders that were also communicated online. Administrative and technical control measures undertaken by labour administration gave expected outcome. Better coverage of establishments under the ambit of statutes due to online system resulted into considerable reduction of the occupational health problems and the numbers of accidents in industries were also decreased significantly. Discussions: The online application of entire licencing and inspection system brought efficiency in the working and helped in identifying the industries involving hazardous process and dangerous operations. Risk based selection of factories through computerization can be an effective tool in bringing down accidents, identify occupational diseases and lead to better workplace compliance. Such online system can also be used by other developing countries for better administration and control measures.

Biography

During his entire career of 30 years, he contributed in the field of safety, health and environment in different parts of country while working with various organizations. He conducted more than 2000 safety inspections and surveys, Safety Audits, Safety, HAZOP studies, Maximum Credible loss Scenario (MCLS) Studies, Environment Audits, etc. in different parts of India. He remained actively involved in computerization of workflow for online grant of licences and development of inspection mechanism. He is one of the authors of a handbook titled “Occupational Safety and Industrial Psychology”. Several papers written by him have been published in national and international journals of repute. He also worked as “Labour Inspection Specialist” in International Labour Organisation (ILO) in its readymade garments project in Bangladesh.