Three young construction workers, aged between 20 and 25, went out for work, like most other days, on May 17 this year. They were supposed to return home in the evening. The poor families of the youths were waiting for their return. But they did not and will never return. All of them fell to death from a building at Mayakanan in the capital when the suspended platform they were working on collapsed to the ground. Altafur Rahman, Mofizul Islam and Antar are a few among the numerous victims of construction site accidents.
Construction site accidents take lives of not only workers but also pedestrians. Not long ago, a Bangladesh Bank official, Dipu Sana, died after a brick fell on him from a building under construction at the capital's Siddeshwari. Lapses in construction safety are so widespread that anyone can fall victim to such hazards.
Construction site fatalities happen frequently here but still, it is an issue the country talks very little about. People here are not properly sensitised to the phenomenon and even building owners and developers are not well aware of the relevant statutes, their implementation authorities and compensation provisions. And what about newspapers? They encounter stories on construction site fatalities so frequently that now they hardly spare front page spaces for the news items.
Construction site accidents are not an issue Bangladesh alone is facing; it is a global phenomenon. According to the International Labour Organization, construction has a disproportionately high rate of recorded accidents. The ILO said that in 2019 the top causes of occupational fatalities on construction sites were falls, electrocution and crush injuries.
Although construction sites face significantly the same hazards, the rate of accidents varies in regions and countries due to a variety of safety standards, cultures and workers' compliance behaviour. Certainly, Bangladesh is among the countries lacking in all such counts.
According to the Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies (BILS) compilation, there were a total of 1,196 deaths in the construction industry between 2005 and 2016, meaning approximately 100 deaths every year on an average.
Bangladesh has legislations but no effective authorities to deal with construction site accidents. The Bangladesh Labour Act (BLA) of 2006, which provides for workplace safety and worker compensation in case of injury or death, has entrusted the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE) under the Labour and Employment Ministry with the task of implementation of the law. The department, however, is not much visible and its personnel are hardly found on construction sites. The existence of the department is mostly on paper. It rarely takes any proactive measures for enforcement of the law to ensure construction safety.
Different documents dealing with construction site safety suggest the DIFE cannot properly perform its duties mainly due to manpower shortage. This contention may be right or it may be a common excuse most government agencies resort to in covering up their inability or inefficacy. But the thing is that Bangladesh can no longer afford neglect of the issue.
If the department is understaffed, it needs to be given the necessary manpower. But it will be better to constitute a separate authority or at least a separate cell under any relevant department to exclusively deal with construction site safety.
The policymakers in this country are always less concerned about issues that affect mostly the poor, not the affluent section. Maybe, that is the main reason for neglecting the construction-site safety. A change of this mentality is overdue.
© 2024 - All Rights with The Financial Express
