“Our values call upon us to care about the lives of people we will never meet.” ~Barack Obama
With this hope, 50 years ago, the Ministry of Labour and Environment conceptualized the Central Labour Institute in Sion, Mumbai. Currently under DGFASLI, it has multiple divisions catering to personal and industrial hygiene, safety and mental health of workers.
As part of an initiative by the lovely Switch India, 20 of us, from medical and physiotherapy colleges from Mumbai, Pune and Nasik, visited this esteemed institute on 13th may, 2019.
Firstly, we were explained in detail about the Preventorial Medicine Division. Under this division, the institute gives training to doctors to treat occupational diseases.
This is necessary because occupational diseases are a non-clinical subject, because of which doctors often misdiagnose patients of occupational diseases like silicosis and asbestosis, as patients of TB or asthma.
Next, we were ushered into the Industrial Hygiene Division which deals with recognizing, evaluating and controlling hazards. We were explained that ideally, hazards should be eliminated but unfortunately, that is possible only in less than 1% of industries.
Also, we were taken to more important divisions like Engineering Control, which serves to provide maximum possible comfort to workers in factories, in the form of isolation, segregation and maintenance, building of personal protective equipment and keeping hazardous substances under their respective Threshold Limiting Values.
Lastly, we were taught about the services offered by Industrial Hygienists and Factory Medical Officers. An Industrial Hygienist analyses all possible chemicals present in a certain industrial equipment. The hygienist also defines hazards to worker safety and ensures that necessary precautions are taken.
For instance, it is the job of the hygienist to ensure that saturated or halogenated hydrocarbons near welding centres, as the highly poisonous phosgene gas may be formed, leading to death of workers.
On the other hand, a Factory Medical Officer is a doctor posted permanently at a certain factory. One officer is stationed for every 50 employees in 8-hour shifts and works to ensure safety and optimum health of workers in industries.
The officer regularly conducts health check-ups of the workers and sends the reports to the government, to be admitted as records of good factory standards. Also, officers are trained to especially cater to specific diseases in particular factories. For example, salt workers and welders are more prone to cataract while cold-storage industry workers are more prone to frostbite.
The Central Labour Institute in Mumbai conducts courses in Industrial Medicine and trains the future Factory Medical Officers for work at the 80,000 factories established in Maharashtra alone.
All throughout the visit, we were assisted by the coordinators and Director of the particular division. The institute was well-maintained and we were enlightened by the depth of information.
We were sensitized to the needs of some of the most marginalized yet hardworking sections of society. We were showcased how important it is to care for those unsung heroes who work at the sidelines to ensure the country’s progress and to make sure that they do not have to give up their lives for the same. We were taught to care for those who, thanks to poverty, desperation and lack of education, cannot care for themselves.
The experience was humbling, enlightening and truly one-of-a-kind! Thank you, Switch India, for opening our eyes to a whole new set of people who need our help, and motivating us to ensure they are never left behind again.
