Revisiting safety regulation

Ludhiana deaths must not be ignored

A gas leak in the crowded neighbourhood of Giaspura in the industrial city of Ludhiana has tragically claimed 11 lives, including those of children, with several people sent to hospital. The state police have set up a five-member special investigation team and the Punjab Pollution Control Board is also reportedly investigating. It has as yet not been confirmed what the gas was and how it was formed, but the indications are that it escaped from a sewer. The investigation will have to confirm not only which gas caused these deaths, but also whether it came about due to an unexpected reaction, and, if so, the nature of the compound dumped into the sewer system that would have caused such a reaction. Was the compound itself toxic? Or did it react with some gas in the sewer system, such as methane, to create a toxic leak? Are the relevant regulations toothless or outdated? And how can such things be prevented?

It is unfortunate that these issues are the subject of such attention only when a large number of deaths are involved. Several gas leaks have taken place in the past year, many involving the use of ammonia in small-scale industry. Some of these have also led to fatalities, if not on the scale of the Ludhiana incident. If it turns out that the immediate cause of the Giaspura gas leak was the clandestine dumping of chemicals into the sewer system, then the broader question of small-scale industrial safety must be re-examined. In India, industrial safety is considered the subject of heavy and intrusive but patchwork regulation — and is usually targeted specifically at large manufacturing companies, not at other parts of the supply chain.

This is not in itself surprising, given India’s history. After all, the Bhopal gas leak of 1984 lives on in infamy. Yet it must be noted that a large proportion of India’s productive establishments are small-scale. These are naturally hard to regulate. Indeed, some areas have explicitly or tacitly lessened the scope of environmental regulations and clearances for small factories. Yet can a free-for-all in terms of industrial safety also be acceptable? Such tragic deaths will be rendered increasingly commonplace. The sad fact is that industrial regulation for large factories is so onerous in comparison to smaller ones that it becomes another incentive for productive facilities in India to stay small. This is not only uncompetitive and inefficient but also decreases overall public safety and worker protection.

The modernisation of India’s economy along with the growth of manufacturing must go hand in hand with more effective regulation that levels the playing field between small and large enterprises, and protects neighbourhoods and workers, apart from being light-touch and pro-competition. The simple fact is that hundreds of environmental laws and onerous regulations currently fail to protect Indians such as those that died in Giaspura. Nor is inspection raj the answer. New mechanisms for monitoring and surveillance that utilise cheap and readily available data connections and other technological advances need to be piloted and evaluated. The government cannot long postpone a reckoning when it comes to regulating toxic pollution.