INDIA: Health + Safety
/A month ago, a tragic accident occurred at work that left everyone in shock. It happened just as I arrived on campus that morning. Our building has seven floors, one of which we occupy. The cleaning staff here are from villages outside Bangalore, many speak little to no English, and I often exchange a few words with them in my limited Kannada and Hindi. They always smile, perhaps amused by my attempts.
That morning, one of the cleaning staff was working in the foyer, cleaning the glass walls surrounding the lift shaft. The lift’s power room is on the seventh floor at the back of the building. Someone went to switch the lifts back on, unaware that the man was inside the lift well. When the power was restored, the lift descended to the ground floor, crushing him instantly.
For days, the atmosphere in the building was heavy with grief. No one wanted to use that lift. On our floor, we held a memorial service beside it, observing a two-minute silence. We also collected donations for his family and sent them to his village. It was a devastating loss, one that should never have happened.
In the UK, health and safety can sometimes feel excessive, with endless regulations to cover every eventuality. Here, it’s different. Life is valued differently, safety considerations are often overlooked, and preventive measures are seen as an unnecessary cost. Tragic accidents like this will continue unless designers and workers are properly trained, and unless safety is built into projects from the start.
As a designer and educator, I can teach how to identify hazards and design accidents out of buildings, but I can’t help wondering if, without systemic change, it will ever truly make a difference.
