Unsafe workplaces responsible for high casualty

Workplace fatalities do not make big news unless tragedies on a scale of Rana Plaza, Tazreen and Spectrum take place. In the Rana Plaza tragedy, the country's deadliest industrial disaster ever, about 1,200 workers perished and the number of the injured was more than 2,000. But let alone the major factory accidents, the number of casualties in workplaces in the country is staggeringly high.
A Bangla contemporary reports that the number of casualties in workplaces in the first six months has already crossed 650 mark. It has quoted the Occupational Safety, Health and Environment (OSHE) foundation and the Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies (BILS) to claim that 80 per cent more deaths have been reported in the first six months of the current year. It has compared the BILS figure 363 deaths of 2015 with 664 deaths it attributes to OSHE report. Surprisingly, the contemporary has not taken into consideration the OSHE casualty figure of 600 in the first half of 2015. According to the OSHE, 600 workers died in between January and June in 2015. Of the deaths, 170 died in the formal sector and 430 in the informal sector. Also 488 workers were injured with 225 in the formal sector and 263 in the informal sector.
One wonders if there is a mix-up in the report the newspaper carried. In that case the percentage of rise in accidental deaths during the time under scrutiny does not stand at all. However this does not make the observation that the country has a far greater share of workers' accidental death than it should have been out of place. Rather, there is reason to fear that the number might give anyone a mortal shock. If 600 accidental deaths of the first six months of 2015 is any indication, the yearly head count could have well surpassed the Rana Plaza death toll, if not the injury figure. Had the OSHE's casualty figure for 2015 and first six months of 2016 been available online, a clear idea of the issue could be formed.
Yet the available figures of the first half of 2015 are an indication of the hazards and risks workers are exposed to in their workplaces. Laws are absent in ensuring the rights of the 54.1 million workers in the country. Of them 88 per cent are engaged in the informal sector where the occupational hazards are greater than in the formal sector. Such accidental deaths in workplaces are unacceptable. There are many reasons for such deaths but it can be argued convincingly that lack of safety at workplaces is the prime reason.
Unsurprisingly, casualties in the informal sector are the highest. Here is a sector that is in total chaos, flouts rules and is run by people not educated and trained enough. They not only put passengers' and pedestrians' lives but also of their own at risk. Undisciplined, this sector often creates troubles and then becomes desperate to get over the frustration. It is because of this, drivers engage in the deadly game of overtaking each other or some other acts of daredevilry. If discipline could be enforced and traffic rules complied with, death toll of both passengers and transport operators could be reduced.
Next comes the construction sector where workers are forced to undertake works they are not accustomed to or trained for. The simple village folks come to towns and cities and they are enticed to do works that expose them to dangers they are not even aware of. When workers get in a safety tank either on their own for greater monetary reward or compelled by contractors or supervisors of a construction site without protective gears, poisonous gas accumulated there kill such unfortunate workers. Incidents like these have been happening more often than not but still there is no remedial measure for avoiding such unwanted deaths. All because, workers' lives are considered cheaper. If protective masks are used before doing such hazardous jobs, such accidental deaths can be avoided.
Then there are masons, fitters and paint workers who have to work on casually framed scaffolds or bamboo stairs on high-rise buildings. Precariously positioned, a little slip can be fatal for them. And this actually happens quite frequently. There are sets of modern apparatus for ensuring safety of workers doing such works on the outer wall of a high-rise building. But apart from a few construction companies, the rest do not bother to procure such gears and apparatuses.
Ship-breaking has developed as a very lucrative commercial venture but workers there do not get the kind of protective gears and tools in order to protect them from unseen hazards. But they should have enjoyed the internationally approved safety standard. Similar is the case with tannery workers of many factories. They have to process raw hides with their bare hands. Exposed to highly dangerous chemicals, they develop incurable diseases. In plastic and re-rolling factories, the work environment is no less life-threatening. In lathe factories, underage children are exposed to all kinds of danger too.
These are known facts but the government turns a blind eye to those. It has framed the National Occupational Safety and Health Policy 2013 but apart from a casual call for respecting the policies and international conventions, it does not play any role in execution of measures equal to the task. This is exactly where actions are needed most in order to ensure workplace safety.  
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