Using Design Thinking to Improve Worker Safety in Manufacturing

The Indian workforce boasts more than 450 million people, with over 50 million employed in the manufacturing industry. Within this vast and fast-moving economy, unsafe working conditions and unsafe work practices pose a massive challenge. Government figures show that work-related accidents, which are second only to road accidents, killed at least 47,000 people in 2019 (and it should be noted that many believe these numbers to be largely underreported at the national level). Improving workforce safety is a priority for all responsible Indian organizations, even as they often struggle to balance safety and productivity demands. Acknowledging that quandary, we wanted to know whether new approaches to workplace safety and worker training may be able to help keep more workers safe.