Courses on safety awareness in Kerala schools

The Kerala government will soon introduce safety awareness courses in the school curriculum to increase awareness about safety at workplaces, Kerala Labour Minister Shibu Baby John said here Tuesday.

The minister was speaking during the inauguration of a national meet on occupational health, safety and fire, organised at a resort in Dona Paula on the outskirts of Panaji.

"Accidents are accidents and we have no control over them. They do not happen out of the blue, due to some divine intervention or astrological reasons. They are caused by unsafe practices," he said.

"Our government is all set to induct safety courses in the curriculum of schools and colleges as per the International Labour Organisation guidelines," John said.

Many universities in Kerala have already started engineering modules like fire and industrial safety at the graduate and post graduate levels.

"India ranks low in occupational safety and health legislation and infrastructure," John said.

Globally, 88 percent of accidents are caused by unsafe actions, 10 percent due to unsafe conditions and only two percent are due to natural causes and climate changes beyond human control, he said.

"Which means 98 percent accidents occur due to unsafe actions and conditions," he said.

The minister said more people are killed in accidents than in wars and expressed regret that India had not learnt any lessons on industrial safety even after the Bhopal gas tragedy which killed over 25,000 people and injured over two lakh.