Building a safer future

Construction safety and India's journey towards Viksit Bharat

- Kamarajan M

When we speak of Viksit Bharat—the government's roadmap to making India a completely developed nation by 2047— what comes to mind are roads, railways, smart cities, energy plants, and green housing projects rising across the country.

Brick by brick, steel beam by steel beam, India is constructing its future. But there’s another side to this story, one that is often invisible. It is the story of the millions of workers who shed their sweat and risk their lives every day to make this vision possible.

India’s construction sector is its second-largest employer after agriculture, with over 7.1 crore workers today, projected to cross 10 crore by 2030. These workers are literally the ones who are laying the foundations of Viksit Bharat. Yet, construction is also among the high-risk industries in the country. Studies show that while India accounts for 7.5% of the world’s construction labour force, it shoulders 16.4% of fatal occupational accidents worldwide.

As a developing nation, Viksit Bharat must be built on a safer foundation.

Cost of ignoring safety

The frequent causes of fatalities in construction, including falls from height, electrocution, collapsing scaffolds, being struck by heavy equipment, etc, are not new. They are well-documented, preventable, and yet continue to claim thousands of lives. Beyond the loss of human life, unsafe worksites impact productivity, delay projects, raise costs, and erode trust.

Why safety is development

We often measure development through GDP growth, infrastructure spending, or FDI inflows. However, we must start focusing our attention on the human dimension of development also which includes the dignity of labour, safe working conditions, and the health of the workforce, which are equally important.