In February this year, at an under construction building in Badda, four young men were suddenly electrocuted while suspended four stories above the ground. Two of them died on the spot and the other two were severely injured. These workers were not even doing electrical work. They were welders, and they were being hauled up with a window grill in hand to the sixth floor when a loose electric wire hit the metal frame. Sadly, such incidents are only too common at Dhaka city’s under construction buildings, where one will often find little safety precaution apart from a warning sign or two. The appalling state of occupational safety in Dhaka’s construction business is reflected in the number of worker death tolls over the years. Since 2005, such accidents have claimed the lives of 1,548 workers while 1,574 more sustained injuries at construction sites, according to data compiled by Bangladesh Occupational Safety, Health and Environment Foundation (OSHE). The figure was 172 in 2015, 165 in 2014, 175 in 2013 and 2012, 116 in 2011, 138 in 2010, 106 in 2009, 136 in 2008, 122 in 2007, 163 in 2006 and 80 in 2005, it shows. Industry insiders say the figure includes only the reported accidents so the actual number of fatalities could be much higher. This correspondent recently visited construction sites in Shanir Akhra, Jatrabari, Azimpur, Hazaribagh, Khilgaon, Rampura, Badda, Gulshan and Dhanmondi areas of Dhaka and found that workers in most of the sites had little to no safety measures. Experts say most construction companies are non-compliant of the safety mechanisms prescribed in the law and policies are the core reason behind the negligence. The lack of safety not only harms workers but has also caused injuries and deaths to pedestrians and people living nearby. In 2011 there was a brief furor about construction site safety died after a college student was killed by after a brick fell on his head from a construction building in Panthapath. Later that year the High Court ordered Sagufta Group, the real estate company, to pay Tk15 lakh in compensation to the family of the student. Real estate companies often escape punitive action paying only a small compensation to the affected families due to the lack of enforcement. Although the High Court has warned concerned realtors, the situation has not changed much. Rajuk claims it has limited manpower with which to supervise construction. City development authority Rajuk’s Chairman GM Jainal Abedin Bhuiyan said the Building Construction Act specifies all security issues and a gazette was issued in May last year in this regard. “Building owners and real estate companies are responsible for preventing accidents by ensuring workers’ safety and site safety. Rajuk has taken a strong stand against those violating the laws,” he said. However, the chairman claimed the the workers themselves were often callous and did not care about the risks. Asked about irregular supervision of buildings and lack of safety measures, he said 20 building inspectors were recently served with show-cause notice for negligence of duty. “We do serve notice to the realtors or the owners if lack of safety measures is found during inspections,” he said. “But we are short of people. Manpower in Delhi is around 35,000 while Rajuk has only 1,100 people,” he claimed. “We are working sincerely with this small capacity,” he added. OSHE Foundation Executive Director Ripon Chowdhury said the number of construction workers killed has increased mainly due to the lack of surveillance by the concerned authorities. “There are around 56 lakh workers in Bangladesh and 80% of them are involved with informal labour sector who have lack of education and awareness,” he said, urging the government to to provide them with health and safety training to avoid such accidents. “We have discussed introducing risk insurance for workers with the Labour Ministry, which needs to be implemented urgently,” he added. State Minister for Labour Mojibul Haque Chunnu said the government is emphasising on ensuring safety and security of workers in their workplaces. “Companies and owners must employ workers by following safety rules of Bangladesh Labour Act 2006,” he said adding that owners will be liable if any worker is killed for their negligence. “The ministry is taking strict measures against negligence. It has filed several hundreds of cases on workers’ safety,” he added. Currently, there are around 300 ministry staff supervising construction sites. The minstry has recently appointed 40 first class officers and another 200 will be appointed in the next two years. “The ministry is planning to raise its manpower to 1,000 to properly monitor the enforcement of the labour law,” he said.