1 · Not bad luck, but a system that stopped watching

• Reactive, not preventive: After every big accident, the State pays ex-gratia (this time ₹2 lakh from the PM’s relief fund and ₹25 lakh from the Centre) and forms a committee — then moves on. The deeper job, stopping the next accident, is left undone.
• A painful repeat: A blast at the same plant in 2012 killed about 16 workers. The response then was almost identical to the response now. Many of the dead this time were contract workers, who often do the most dangerous jobs with the least protection.
• Three quiet failures: Behind the tragedy lie three problems we will examine — too few inspectors, unreliable accident data, and workers too afraid to speak up.

2 · The enforcement gap: too few inspectors

Safety laws exist on paper, but there are simply not enough people to enforce them on the factory floor. In some states, one inspector must watch over hundreds or even thousands of factories.

Factories per inspector (selected states). The more factories one inspector must cover, the less real oversight is possible. (Figures as per available analyses.)

• Empty desks: As of 2023, nearly half of the 349 sanctioned posts in the central safety agency lay vacant.
• Fewer and fewer checks: The share of registered factories actually inspected each year fell from about 32% in 2010 to under 20% in 2022.

3 · We cannot even count the harm

Before a problem can be fixed, it must first be measured honestly. India struggles even to do that.

• Two records that never agree: Safety data is compiled each year in the Standard Reference Notes (SRNs). These carry two separate counts — one from the Labour Bureau, another from the states’ Chief Inspectors of Factories — and the two figures never match.
• A big undercount: Even both counts together capture only a fraction of the real toll. For example, the fire deaths they record are only about one-third of those reported by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) in its Accidental Deaths & Suicides in India (ADSI) data.
• States that simply don’t report: Major industrial states like Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and West Bengal did not send safety data to the Labour Bureau even once between 2009 and 2022.

4 · Why workers stay silent

• No union, no voice: Most factory work today is done by contract workers, who usually have no union to stand behind them.
• Speak up, lose your job: A worker who reports an unsafe condition risks being fired, having wages withheld, or facing harassment. With no special law to protect private-sector whistleblowers, many choose silence — and unsafe conditions build up until they explode.

5 · The new rulebook: the OSH Code, 2020

• Faster reporting: Serious accidents (“dangerous occurrences”) must now be reported within strict timelines — within 12 hours.
• Health and a voice for workers: Free annual health check-ups, and safety committees made compulsory in larger establishments (those with 500 or more workers).
• Going digital: Establishments must register online, creating a clearer record that is harder to hide.
• The watchdog body: The technical nodal body advising the Centre and states on factory and port safety is the Directorate General Factory Advice Service and Labour Institutes (DGFASLI), under the Ministry of Labour and Employment.

6 · Way forward