VIEWS ON MINE SAFETY IN

INDIA

NHRC

2014, 25 July

624 Coal120 Oil

MINES IN INDIA:

8690 Metal/Non-Metal

Direct Employment – about 1(one) million (daily average)

�Beginning of 20th century

�Only 14minerals were mined

�Coal, Gold, Manganese ore, Mica, Salt, Oil, etc.

� 1946

�22 minerals - exploited commercially

� Post independence era

Mining industry in India.. Then----------

�Great spurt in mining activities

� Late Fifties

�Large Public Sector Mining companies formed in Coal, Oil, Iron

Ore, etc.

�1971 - 73

�Coal Mines Nationalised

� Presently

� 87 minerals of commercial importance (4 Fuel, 11 Metal, 50 Non-

metal) are being exploited

� Employing over 1(one) million persons directly

� Covering wide range of mining activities

• small surface deposits

• deep seated & large operations

Mining industry in India.. and now----------

• extremely soft deposits

• very hard formations

• steep deposits

• lenticular deposits

• placer deposits

• widely varying geological characters of host rocks & minerals

• under sea activities

• wide array of machinery & techniques

OHS regulation in Indian Mines

• History of development of Mining and Mine

Safety Management System is similar everywhere

in the world

• Followed the same path

– From cottage industry with pick mining to semi-

mechanisation to modern mechanised mines

– From Zero regulation to SHMS through prescriptive

legislation to Self regulation

• Difference being the pace at which the change

taken/taking place

• In ‘mainstream’ OHS legislation in developed countries, prescriptive approach largely abandoned in 1970s and 1980s and 1980s

• In mining it lingered on for much longer

Present SHMS in Indian Mines

• Heavy reliance on prescriptive standards

• Enforcement driven• Enforcement driven

• Mere compliance with rules – nothing beyond that

• Becoming more and more prescriptive, over-complex

…………….. Time to change…………….. Time to change

The Work Process

Concept Decommission

Competency

Training

Fitness for

Dust/Noise/light

/Hkeeping

Working at

heights / near

The Model we are looking at

Fitness for

work

Safe design/

manufacture

Safety

Provisions

PHMP / RA

SOP

Hierarchy of

Control

TARP

Change Mgt

Investigation

Emergency Mgt

heights / near

water-bodies

Gas

� Competency

• Mine workers not to carry out tasks unless

competent

� Training

• Obligation to train mine workers so that they

Competent people – a necessity

• Obligation to train mine workers so that they

are competent to perform their duties

• SHMS must provide for Training schemes

� Induction

� Refresher

Fit for purpose plant & equipment

• Obligation of designer, manufacturer, importer

or suppliers of plant etc.

• to ensure the plant is designed and

manufactured so that, when used manufactured so that, when used

properly, the risk to persons from the use of

the plant is at an acceptable level

Safe working methods� PHMP

� PHMP Risk assessment

� TARP

� Standard Operating Procedure

� SWI/SWG

� Standard Guidelines

� Hierarchy of Controls� Hierarchy of Controls

� Recognised Standards

� Risk assessment / JSA / JHA/ SLAM/Take 5

� Work place inspections

� Control effectiveness audit

� Built in checks like check sheet / prestart checks/

� Adequate and effective supervision

� Change Management

Interventions vis-à-vis OSH in Mines

Legislative:

Enforcement measures

Drawing attention of mine operators about

contraventions of statutecontraventions of statute

Withdrawal of permissions, etc.

Improvement notices, prohibitory orders

Suspension of statutory certificates

Prosecutions in the Court of Law

Actions by mine managements

Interventions vis-à-vis OSH in Mines

Promotional:

Safety weeks, campaigns

Conferences on safety in mines

National Safety AwardsNational Safety Awards

Safety incentives

First Aid, rescue competitions

Promoting workers’ participation in safety

management

Interventions vis-à-vis OSH in Mines

Other Initiatives

Self regulation

Awareness generation

Information disseminationInformation dissemination

Safety Management Plans

Specialized training

Safety alerts/ advisories

Seminars, workshops

0.80

1.00

1.20

1.40

DEA

TH

RA

TE

TREND IN DEATH RATE

PER 1000 PERSONS EMPLOYED

0.00

0.20

0.40

0.60

0.80

1901-10 1911-20 1921-30 1931-40 1941-50 1951-60 1961-70 1971-80 1981-90 1991-00 2001-10 2011-13

DEA

TH

RA

TE

DECADE

Coal Non-Coal

105

81 8387

96

78 7680

83

97

83

96

80

100

120

No

. o

f fa

tal

accid

en

ts

Trend in incidence of fatal accidents in mines

6562

50 5155

47

54 5349

33

50

4237

54

9

2 1 2 14 3 5 3 4 5

25

0

20

40

60

2001 2002 2003 2001 2002 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

No

. o

f fa

tal

accid

en

ts

Year

Coal

Metal

Oil

Lime Stone, 4, 2%

Manganese, 1, 0%

Stone, 22, 12%

Others, 32, 17%

CASUALTIES DURING 2013 BY MAJOR MINERALS

Coal, 114, 61%

Oil, 6, 3%

Galena &

Sphalerite, 3, 2%

Gold, 1, 0%

Iron Ore, 5, 3%

Cause wise fatal accidents in coal mines,

2013

Cause wise fatal accidents in non-coal

mines, 2013

Place wise fatal accidents in Coal & Non-coal

mines, 2013

James T Reason* Swiss Cheese Modelof Accident Causation

* University of Manchester, 1990

James T Reason* Swiss Cheese Modelof Accident Causation

• Organization’s defenses against failures – modeled as

series of barriers (slices of cheese)

• Holes in the slices represent weaknesses , continually

varying in size and positionvarying in size and position

• System fails when a hole in each slice momentarily

aligns, permitting “a trajectory of accident opportunity”

• Hazard passes thru’ holes in all the slices, leading

to failure

• Failures can be – ‘active’ or ‘latent’

Improvement in OSH scenario depends on successfully addressing all the four failure domains in our industry …………………….

Organizational influencesUnsafe supervisionPreconditions of unsafe acts& Specific unsafe acts

Our Goal

To Introduce an adequate and effective SHMS

• Which shall Include•Principal hazard management plans and

•Standard operating procedures

• SWI/SWG/TARP/Checksheets

•Incident investigation and management system

•Emergency Management System

•Change Management Procedure

Gradual changes from prescriptive to self regulation

General principle of self regulation

Prescription for core issues

Help in introducing high level of

The Path

Help in introducing high level of commitment, transparency and self motivation in the industry

Adequate legislative back-up

Comprehensive and effective understanding

Capacity building for development and implementing SHMS

Areas to work on-

Exposure to World best practices

Capacity building in relevant areas

Help in creating an ‘Outreach program’

Recast vocational training modulesRecast vocational training modules

Consider a ‘perception survey’

Use scientific ‘training need assessment’

for officers, workers

Development of effective training delivery

mechanisms

We are working on-

Comprehensive specialized training on Accident InvestigationReview & updating of Mine Vocational Training

RulesRulesSafety perception survey

Awareness generation programs at NE statesAmendment of regulations

…….Thank you