The Indian economy has grown manifold over the last three decades and most of this development has manifested itself in the form of increased industrial and construction activity spread across the entire length and breadth of the nation. The industrial development has led to new industries being set up which use modern and advanced machinery and processes as part of the manufacturing, construction, and services sectors. This has also led to millions of workers finding jobs in factories and sites of different scale thus exposing them to occupational hazards in the form of personal safety and health and mental wellbeing and hygiene. The COVID-19 pandemic has also brought about a completely different set of challenges which most organisations are slowly coming to terms with.

The myriad industrial activity requires specialist knowledge of occupational safety and health laws and processes, most of which are routinely implemented and followed by leading industrial corporations in India and abroad. The HSE practitioners within these organisations have a vast experience of implementing these laws and processes and have scaled many a height in overcoming safety and health challenges withing their organisations. However, it is the small and mid-size (SME) organisations that still struggle with the knowledge and implementation of OSH laws and best practices and hence are a cause of grave risk to worker safety and health within their fold.

The OSH Gurukul campaign is a serious attempt at correcting these flaws. This hands-on safety and health awareness campaign shall draw from the experience of HSE veterans in large Indian industries and take their experiences to the uninitiated safety and health practitioners in the SME sector, thereby fulfilling the ambitious goal of bridging OSH divide within the large and small industrial clusters. This campaign will make India a safer place and hence bring in confidence in foreign investors to invest in a safe Indian manufacturing atmosphere, especially in the backdrop of the new Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020.

Unraveling the campaign, Mr. Pankaj Jain, Group Director & Digital Head, Informa Markets in India said, “OSH India Expo has a ten-year legacy of enriching Indian industry with HSE knowledge and spreading awareness through quality safety and health product demos and industry-leading conference sessions since the inception of its first edition in 2012. With a huge network of safety professionals, both large and small, under the OSH India umbrella, this is a unique opportunity to take the mission of spreading OSH awareness to the grassroots of Indian industry.”

Benefits to the Industry

In a rich and diverse country like India, it is not easy to bring all safety and health stakeholders and experts together to further the noble cause of safeguarding workers’ health. Here’s how we believe this campaign shall benefit the target audience:

• OSH India’s 10-year legacy in knowing the industry in-and-out.

• The OSH Gurukul will act as a catalyst to bring together thought leaders in the safety domain. It shall provide them a mouthpiece to carry their views to the community at large and support their HSE function with facts and figures from the ground.

• Reduction in accidents occurring in labour-related activities in the society, which primarily occur due to a lack of knowledge about various safety equipment available.

• Our deep and focused marketing campaigns that ease the job of promoting safety awareness within the targeted segments of industry.

• HSE leaders across large industries get to showcase their knowledge and skills to their brethren in SME sector, thereby fulfilling a crucial obligation as part of their CSR activities.

• Making the workers aware of the various safety equipment available that shall give them the confidence to work under different scenarios without being unduly worried about their safety and health.