202 dead in workplace accidents in six months: Survey
At least 202 workers died at workplace accidents in the country in the last six months of 2015 (1 January to 30 June), says report of a survey conducted by Safety and Rights Society, an NGO, yesterday.
The survey shows that 202 workers died in 147 separate workplace accidents while in the same period of 2014, 158 workers died in 129 workplace accidents. Safety and Rights Society is an NGO working for ensuring safety and rights of workers.
The survey is based on monitoring 26 daily newspapers (15 national and 11 regional newspapers) between January 1 and June 30 of 2015. The report does not include deaths of workers outside the workplace or in road accidents on the way to or return from workplaces. The survey found that highest 76 workers died while working at construction sites, 61 died at factories and 47 died at service organisations like hotels, workshops and power supply organisations.
In addition, five workers of agriculture and 13 of transport sector were killed during this period.
Similar to the previous years, the highest number of deaths involved electrocutions, with 49 deaths. Fire caused 29 deaths while 23 people died after being crushed through falling from machinery or heavy load or hard objects.
Nineteen workers died after falling from heights (i.e from scaffolds). Fourteen workers were killed in building, wall or roof collapses while seven died form inhalation of poisonous gas of septic or water tanks.
The remaining workers died from various causes including boiler explosions, chemical and gas explosions, road accident, lightning stroke, drown in water as well as earth collapses. Sekender Ali Mina, executive director of Safety and Rights, said the actual number of the workplace deaths is almost certainly to be more than the numbers set out in the report as many workplace deaths are not reported in the newspapers.
He stressed the need for significant greater efforts on the parts of employers and owners to take measures to reduce the level of risks that workers suffer.
The survey found that most of the electrocutions occurred when iron rods carried by construction workers came into contact with live electric lines passing near the under-construction buildings or when the workers were involved in construction work or worked as an electrician.
