New Delhi: The government on Monday said that there were more than 1,400 fatalities last year in the various factories and industries registered under Factories Act.
"Fatal injuries during the last three years in factories registered under Factories Act, 1948, were 1,433 (2011), 1,383 (2012) and 1,417 (2013)," Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Bandaru Dattatreya, told Lok Sabha.
He said that the numbers were based on data collected by Directorate General Factory Advice Service and Labour Institutes (DGFASLI) through correspondence with Chief Inspector of Factories (CIFs) of state governments and Union territories.
Replying to another question, the minister said that the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna (RSBY) has been launched by his ministry to provide health cover to BPL families in the unorganised sector.
He said that RSBY has more than 10,000 empanelled hospitals as on March 31, 2014. More than 3.85 crore benificiary families are enrolled under the scheme as on March 31, 2014.
"It is the endeavour of the government to extend RSBY to all unorganised workers in a phased manner," he said, adding that apart from BPL families, the scheme will also be extended to other categories like building and construction workers, licensed railway porters, street vendors, etc.
Replying to another query, Dattatreya said that the number of companies or organisations which have registered in various states to employ inter-state migrant workers in central sphere is 243 while the number of licensed contractors in the central sphere is 613.
He said that in 2013-14, the number of inspections conducted in the central sphere were 286 while number of irregularities were 5,073. The number of prosecutions launched in the same period were 109 with 50 convictions secured.
He said that the government has framed new inspection schemes for effective enforcement of all labour laws, including Inter-state Migrant Workmen Regulation of Employment and Condition of Service Act, 1979, which aims to achieve the objectives of simplifying business regulations and bringing transparency and accountibility into labour inspections.
