Faridabad, Haryana: Shailendra Kumar counts himself lucky. An explosion and fire at his factory in May singed his legs and most of the skin off his arms. After five months, including one in hospital, he rejoined work on 18 September.
Two of his friends—Sid Bahadur and Narender Mehra—died in the fire at Lakhani India Ltd’s shoe factory in Faridabad, Haryana, out of a total 15 who perished in the 500- worker unit. At least 24, including Kumar, are still coping with burns of various degrees, and doctors have asked him to stay away from chemicals of any sort.
“I could walk out of the building on my own then. Many couldn’t, so they didn’t make it,” says Kumar.
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Lakhani India and its managing director P.D. Lakhani didn’t respond to queries at the time of going to press after phone calls were placed to him and the company. Questions sent by email elicited no response.
Lakhani’s three-storeyed building in Sector 22, reduced to its frame after the fire, is a mute witness to one of the curses of the Indian workplace—the lack of safety regulations and the government’s wilful ignorance of this non-compliance.
Kumar, a 25-year-old migrant from Bihar, was giving the finishing touches to the soles of rubber sandals in the basement of the building when a “ball of fire” exploded into the room through the door-less lift at about 5:45pm.
The explosion, blamed variously on gas cylinders kept in the sun and trapped inflammable dust, was like a clap of thunder that could be heard several miles away, according to one of the four inquiry reports accessed by Mint. At the factory, it caused the floors to buckle, glass to shatter and walls to collapse. Residents of Sanjay Colony, a working class neighbourhood close to the factory, say the sky glowed red past midnight as the fire raged for more than 12 hours.
Lucky to be alive: Shailendra Kumar considers himself fortunate to have escaped with his life after the fire that left him scarred. Ramesh Pathania / Mint
The explosion was just another desultory blip in the record books. Bad practice in industrial safety has become commonplace in areas from mining to manufacturing and construction projects to chemical plants as the country’s severely understaffed bureaucracy ignores violations, labour officials and trade unions say.
In Haryana alone, 11 reported fires broke out in May and June, according to a state labour official who requested anonymity. They were largely on account of unsafe practices, many of which had been approved wrongly by labour officials, he said.
The inquiry reports seen by Mint indicate at least nine violations at the Lakhani unit, including the lack of proper storage for hazardous chemicals, the non-segregation of work areas and improper arrangements for throwing out accumulated inflammable dust. It has also been rebuked for not training staff about the chemical hazards involved in the shoe-making process.
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