Safety in Construction Operations: A Great Concern

Construction in India is the second largest economic activity. In consumes around 40% of the total investment for National Development Plan. Globalization brought a boom in the Construction Industry. Construction in India is labour intensive even today. Labour element constitutes around 20-40% of the total cost of a work. Thus a large number of workers mostly illiterate, unskilled and low skilled are employed in Construction Industry. Construction workplaces keep on changing. Work is temporary and of short duration. Workers are seasonal and migratory. They work on piece rate basis through contracts. In view of short duration of work and mode of payment the main objective of workers is to earn as much as possible even at great personal risks. To finish the work quickly they even ignore standard safe methods of construction, improvise their own and expose themselves to hazards leading to accidents. Construction fields are infested by large numbers of small firms. They work as subcontractors under Prime contractor on different work packages on small margins. To them safety is a costly item and therefore they pay no heed to safety. Many of them may not be aware of safety rules and regulations.