The shop floor can be a hazardous place for workers, with various types of injuries occurring on a regular basis. These injuries can range from minor cuts and bruises to serious and life-altering accidents. In order to help protect workers and provide support in the event of an injury, many companies choose to leverage state insurance, such as the Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) in India.
The Safe in India Foundation (SII) supported by Forbes Marshall has launched its first Worker Assistance Centre in Pune to address the dire need for addressing shop floor injuries and increasing awareness about schemes like ESIC that benefit the workers. The center, located in Mohan Nagar, Chinchwad, is a stone's throw away from the ESIC affiliated hospital and is part of SII's ongoing Social Compact initiative.
Pimpri Chinchwad is known as an industrial hub with a majority of the automotive and engineering industries. SII was able to locate over 150 injured workers in the area. The launch event was attended by the workers and discussions were held regarding their grievances. A medico who attended the event mentioned that he sees 2 to 3 amputations every week at his clinic. Another worker from the crowd spoke of serious injuries every Saturday.
This Worker Assistance Centre will help the injured, often disabled workers with their ESIC healthcare and compensation. The center is aimed at alleviating the pain of the workers and providing them with the support they need to recover and get back on their feet.
Quotes from the key persons:
Viru Gill, Director, Forbes Marshall - Through this Center we hope to harness our supplier base and we aim to replicate the process of encouraging the uptake ground up. The content SII has so effectively put together, will help us in getting the message across that they need to come forward for us to then enable them. This is the main change as it could push both the employers as well as their consultants.
Sandeep Sachdeva - Cofounder & CEO Safe in India - Our Pune center will be run on the same SII values: worker-centricity, solution-centricity, independent of any affiliations with any political party, union, religion, and caste. We will never charge any worker for our services. Every interaction of ours with workers should add value to them. Their time is more precious than ours
