Healthy and Safety Foundation

Occupational health and safety is applicable to all offshoot of industry like in business and commerce including traditional industries, information technology companies, the National Health Service, hospitals, schools, universities, leisure facilities and offices. It is particularly important for the construction industry.

The purpose of this artical is to introduce the foundations on which appropriate health and safety systems may be built. Occupational health and safety influences all types of work. In a low dangerous organization, health and safety may be taken care of by a single competent manager. In a high dangerous manufacturing plant, many different specialists, such as engineers , lawyers, medical doctors and nurses, trainers, work planners and supervisors, may be required to help the professional health and safety intern in ensuring that there are satisfactory health and safety standards within the organization.

Construction is a large industry which accounts for 10% of the gross domestic product of the India. It employs 2.9 million people and produces activity worth over rupees 90 billion each year. The construction industry has a world reputation for the quality of its work but it remains one of the most dangerous in India .

In 2004/05, the fatal injury rate (per 80000 workers) was 2.4 while the industrial average was 0.8. In return to the 'Revitalising Health and Safety' campaign launched by the Health and Safety Commission and the Government in June 2001, the construction industry set itself a target to lower the rate of fatal and major injury to its workers by 40% in 2004/05 and by 45% in 2009/10.

The construction client who commissions the work is a very influence agent in the drive for progress the health and safety standards. He should insist on good proof of the health and safety record and performance of a contractor at the initials stage, ensure that health and safety standards are being met on site. He should also require that all the people working on the site are very well trained for their particular job. There are many glitches to the achievement of good standards.

The pressure of production or performance points out , financial constraints and the complicated of the organization are typical examples of such obstacles. Moreover, there are some strong incentives for organizations to rise for high health and safety standards. These reasons are moral, legal and economic.

The India Health and Safety Executive believe its mission is to ensure that the risks to health and safety of workers are properly controlled. In terms of corporate responsibility, they are working to encourage organizations to:

• Enhance management systems lessen injuries and ill health
• Indicate the priority of health and safety issues at board level
• Outline publicly on health and safety issues within their organization, involving their showing against targets.

The Health and Safety Executive believe that effective management of health and safety:

• is vital to employee well-being
• has a role to play in improving the reputation of businesses and aiding them achieve high-performance teams
• is financially beneficial to business.