Monday, February 23, 2009

Indian Government Aims to Reduce Workplace Stress

A new policy by the Union of cabinet of India aims to reduce workplace stress in Indian offices. While most previous OSH legislation in India has focused on workplace safety in mines and factories, very few pieces of legislation has centered on white-collar OSH issues. This current piece of legislation pays particular attention to placing restrictions on workplace size.

“The environment in the workplace is important — from the point of view of health, safety and efficiency,” said Sudhir Dave, former director of the National Institute of Occupational Health in Ahmedabad. “The space available at workplaces, the lighting, even noise levels are all important — they can affect health in the long term, but we’ve never given them the importance they deserve,”

OSH legislation often times means very little if not backed up by swift government action. In India, sadly, this has been severely lacking with previous pieces of legislation. It's our hope that at the very least this government action brings more attention to these critical OSH issues that are growing in importance as India's economy becomes increasingly dependent on white-collar jobs.

No comments: