Make in India is Fine; But Make India Safe Also

The continuing series of explosions, fires and other accidents in industrial establishments across the country in recent days have brought to limelight the disturbing lack of industrial safety in india’s work places. In Tamil Nadu on Tuesday, a massive explosion in a fireworks factory at Chinnakamanapatti killed eight people on Tuesday, while on Monday 36 were charred to death in a massive fire in a pharmaceutical factory in Hyderabad in Telangana. Both accidents have been widely reported in the mass media in the country and outside, though the real questions as why these industrial accidents repeat on a regular basis have not been properly addressed nor any satisfactory answers provided.

The fact is that while India has been making an all out effort to increase its industrial output in its race to become one of the topmost industrialized countries in the world, we have criminally neglected the need for enforcing stringent safety standards in the work places. It is common knowledge that for industrial production, often highly flammable or otherwise risky chemicals and other materials are used, and the managements deliberately neglect establishing the best and efficient safety standards which might require big investment in order to cut costs and maximise profits. The authorities in charge of ensuring safety in work places with regular inspections and other measures turn a blind eye to the rampant neglect of safety standards owing corruption or political pressures as most political parties in power are in cahoots with the capitalists who grease their palms and finance the electioneering expenses.

The result is that safety of the employees and workers is a not a priority for the governments in power. Take for example, the pharmaceutical industry, which is one of the topmost export businesses in India. It is one of the top foreign exchange earners, with a large number of pharma manufacturing units with tens of thousands of workers employed in the sector. Despite its massive financial power and its need and responsibility for meeting international safety standards, most of these units ignore such requirements with impunity. In August last year, another massive accident was reported in a pharma production unit at Anakapalle near Visakhapatnam. Again in April, there was another accident in Hyderabad.

The same is the case with the fireworks industry, based mainly in Tamil Nadu. Tuesday’s accident was the latest of a series of such incidents in the past few years. According to newspapers, in the first fix months of 2025, the state has seen eight accidents in its fireworks unis killing 26 people. In 2024, there were 17 accidents and 52 deaths, while in 2023, the number of incidents were 27 and deaths as many as 79. This is the case in other industries in other parts of India also.

Despite such continuing incidents which take a large number of lives, no corrective action has been made to go to the root cause of such accidents and find lasting solutions. It is not that there are no effective ways to prevent such accidents, only that our administrators and capitalists are not interested or willing to implement such measures.

The industrial accidents have been a sickening reality in India, also the shameful apathy of the authorities to the dreadful problems faced by the work force in their factories. This has been a fact the county has witnessed from the time of the ghastly gas leak tragedy at the Bhopal unit of the multinational Union Carbide in 1984, killing thousands of people and maiming many thousands more. Despite the criminal neglect of the US-based company’s India unit, the ruling powers at the time helped its owners and top managers to evade justice and those innocent people who faced huge losses were never properly or adequately compensated. Such a callous attitude on the part of the authorities still continues, despite the changes in the administrations over the decades.

BM Kamble
National Vice President
Social Democratic Party of India