Three Workers Killed In Jaipur Pit Collapse

Synopsis

A section of an under-construction sewage pit collapsed killing three labourers and injuring three others on June 29 at a resort site near Tala Mod in Chandwaji, on the Delhi Highway, in the city of Jaipur. All the 6 men – who were migrant workers from Bihar – were caught when an unanticipated wall of soil collapsed.

What Happened at the Site

Police reports indicate the excavation pit at The Palace Aravalli Resort was some 100 feet in length, 30 feet in width and 20 feet in depth. Meanwhile, the trench was undergoing repair work from the inside while construction was taking place on one side and backfilling of the excavated earth was going on the other side, which could have caused the destabilisation of the trench wall. Suddenly a large part of the ground shifted and engulfed the six workers that were underneath.

Chandwaji police got information from the locals and senior officers went to the scene and initiated rescue operations with the cooperation of the villagers. 6 hours of time elapsed before all 6 trapped workers were removed.

Injured were rushed to NIMS Hospital where doctors declared three dead on arrival and the rest three are being treated for critical injuries. A case has been registered by police and the site's contractor is being tracked by police who says he is believed to be absconding.

The Computing Magazine

This tragedy at Chandwaji is a symptom of a much bigger problem. The construction industry which is one of the largest employers in India is also one of the most dangerous industries in the country.

Nearly 48,000 people die every year in India doing construction work from falling, electrocution or collapsing walls and scaffolding, according to a study conducted by the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT Delhi) in 2021.

Independent studies estimate that the crash rate is an average of about 38 fatal accidents per day in the industry, making such crashes sadly not an isolated incident.

A series of factors is cited as a common cause of labour rights violations. The most common causes of accidents at construction sites are negligence, inadequate adherence to safety standards and unsafe working practices, especially at smaller, less well-managed job sites such as those for pit digging at resorts and domestic construction projects, are often cited as the main causes of casualties. Labour economists often refer to the workers, like the ones in Chandwaji, as precarious, which means they are daily wage workers with little formal training or legal protection against losing their job, getting injured or being killed.

Accountability Remains Elusive

In most similar incidents across the country there is a tendency for the contractors to disappear after the fatal accidents are reported, which seems to be the case here. Trade union representatives have pointed out that compensation payments are sometimes offered as a less expensive option to the employer than the installation of adequate guardrails and shoring of trench walls and adequate trained supervision.

The Jaipur police investigation will have to establish if sufficient shoring had been put in place to avert the collapse of the trench, and if the safety measures stipulated by the Building and Other Construction Workers (BOCW) Act, 1996, had been adhered to at the site.