WHO published its World health statistics report 2025, revealing the deeper health impacts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on loss of lives, longevity and overall health and well-being. In just two years, between 2019 and 2021, global life expectancy fell by 1.8 years—the largest drop in recent history— reversing a …
This paper provides an outlook for the Indian economy in the light of the extraordinary global financial crisis, that started in the US, but which has now transformed into the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. The Indian economy was slowing down even before the onset of global crisis …
Two months ago, a massive strike by 18 trade unions threatened to completely hogtie work in the Rs 6,500-crore jute industry. On December 1, the unions went on an indefinite strike, demanding higher wages and settlement of pending financial negotiations. The managements and workers of jute mills have been caught …
Pune, August 29 The number of deaths in the industrial units of Pune district till July this year almost equals the total such deaths in the entire previous year. This is because there has been an increase in the numbers of hazardous units that are employing
This report provides detailed information on human risk of asbestos exposure and its health effects. Reveals that unorganized units have poor industrial hygiene conditions and recommends preventive measures to reduce the risk of workers exposed to asbestos. This report provides detailed information on human risk of asbestos exposure and its …
ANNUAL EMMY AWARDS / OUTSTANDING INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM . September . 2002 Ala Rachel Carson, he is chemical industry's enemy number one today. In March 2001, Journalist Bill Moyers in his documentary 'Trade Secrets' exposed how industrial workers were poisoned and how the whole exercise was hushed up. Last week, he …
For Sumani Sahu, of Orissa's coal town Talcher, the days are becoming longer. Mining has eaten away at her village, leaving but a shell behind. Fetching water and gathering firewood keep her occupied from three in the morning to late in the evening. The remaining hours in the day are …
For the last three decades, the villagers of Karauli district in Rajasthan had grown accustomed to listening to the blasts of mines. And worse, to having their fields rendered useless for cultivation. With illegal miners clearing large tracts of land, and using dynamites for creating quarries, agriculture is no longer …
These factories do not exist in government records. Nor do they figure in the lists of pollution control boards or other regulatory bodies. Even as they have mushroomed in small towns, they are also sprouting in the dark bylanes of congested localities in large cities. They function from one or …
a polluting industrial unit in Gujarat continues to operate with the help of a minister, despite the Gujarat Pollution Control Board (gpcb) issuing notices to shut it down. In a bid to close the unit, the board suspended its production and cut its power supply. But a mere phone call …
Industrial workers need sell only their skills, not their health. A landmark Supreme Court verdict says that the right to occupational health falls within the meaning of Article 21 of the Constitution, which guarantees the right to live with dignity. The ruling by a three-judge bench came in response to …
WEST ASIAN countries have ample funds at their disposal thanks to their oil reserves, but they suffer a lack of adequate manpower. Men from Kerala are among those who have gone to these countries to work on construction sites, in factories and various other labour-intensive activities. While the phenomenon of …
US PRESIDENT Bill Clinton was right when he predicted not everyone would be pleased with his solution to the timber crisis in the northwestern states (Down To Earth, May 31, 1993). Both environmentalists and timber workers are up in arms against his proposal, which calls for reducing logging to 25 …
BASED on a study by a Dutch academic, this book attempts to analyse variations in female employment by examining a cross-section of different forms of production and estimating their impact on women's bargaining power within the household. It suffers, however, from a major weakness: It dwells at length on the …
TECHNOLOGY evolves so fast that the shelf life of job skills now rarely exceed 10 years. Automation and rationalisation have pushed entire categories of manufacturing operations, such as machine tools, away from the Western labour market. All over the developed world, companies are being forced to get more work out …
THE RATE of work-related accidents in India is nearly eight times that of Western nations and has risen by 20 per cent in the last decade. The 13th World Congress on Occupational Safety and Health, held in Delhi recently, thus rightly focussed on working conditions in the country. Factory owners, …
EVERY year, thousands of industrial workers all over the country fall prey to various occupational diseases. Most of the cases go undiagnosed or fail to get proper treatment, until it is too late. For instance, agricultural workers are susceptible to diseases caused by contact with chemical pesticides, whereas, illnesses such …
