Source: PIB & Ministry of Labour and Employment
The Government of India has declared the National Policy on Safety, Health and Environment at Workplace (NPSHEW) which aims to establish a preventive safety and health culture in the country through elimination of the incidence of work-related injuries, diseases, fatalities, disasters and to enhance the well-being of employees in all the sectors of economic activity in the country. Several steps are taken for promoting and propagating the objective of safety and health by holding various conferences, awareness camps, safety weeks, campaigns, awards and conducting of surveys etc
Key features
Goals
The Government firmly believes that building and maintaining national preventive safety and health culture is the need of the hour. With a view to develop such a culture and to improve the safety, health, and environment at the workplace, it is essential to meet the following requirements:-
- Providing a statutory framework on Occupational Safety and Health in respect of all sectors of industrial activities including the construction sector, designing suitable control systems of compliance, enforcement and incentives for better compliance.
- Providing administrative and technical support services.
- Providing a system of incentives to employers and employees to achieve higher health and safety standards.
- Providing for a system of non-financial incentives for improvement in safety and health.
- Establishing and developing the research and development capability in emerging areas of risk and providing for effective control measures.
- Focusing on prevention strategies and monitoring performance through improved data collection system on injuries and diseases.
- Developing and providing required technical manpower and knowledge in the areas of safety, health, and environment at workplaces in different sectors.
- Promoting inclusion of safety, health, and environment, improvement at workplaces as an important component in other relevant national policy documents.
- Including safety and occupational health as an integral part of every operation
Objectives
The policy seeks to bring the national objectives into focus as a step towards improvement in safety, health, and environment at the workplace. The objectives are to achieve
- Continuous reduction in the incidence
- Improved coverage of work-related injuries, fatalities and diseases and provide for a more comprehensive database for facilitating better performance and monitoring.
- Continuous enhancement of community awareness regarding safety, health, and environment at workplace related areas.
- Continually increasing community expectation of workplace health and safety standards.
- Improving safety, health and environment at the workplace by the creation of “green jobs” contributing to sustainable enterprise development.
Action Programme
For the purpose of achieving the goals and objectives, the following action programme is drawn up and where necessary time-bound action programme would be initiated, namely;
- Enforcement: By providing effective enforcement machinery as well as suitable provisions for compensation and rehabilitation of affected persons.
- National Standards: By developing appropriate standards, codes of practices and manuals on safety, health, and environment for uniformity at the national level in all economic activities consistent with international standards and implementation by the in true spirit.
- Compliance: By encouraging the appropriate Government to assume the fullest responsibility for the administration and enforcement of occupational safety, health and environment at workplace.
- Awareness: By increasing awareness on safety, health and environment at the workplace through appropriate means.
- Research and Development: By providing for research in the field of safety, health and environment at workplace, including the social and psychological factors involved, and by developing innovative methods, techniques including computer aided Risk Assessment Tools, and approaches for dealing with safety, health and environment at workplace problems which will help in establishing standards.
- Occupational safety and health skills development: By providing for training programmes to increase the number and competence of personnel engaged in the field of occupational safety, health and environment at workplace.
- Data collection: By compiling statistics relating to safety, health and environment at workplaces, prioritizing key issues for action, conducting national studies or surveys or projects through governmental and non-governmental organizations
- Review: National Policy and the action programme shall be reviewed at least once in five years or earlier if felt necessary to assess the relevance of the national goals and objectives
