Cleanliness in manufacturing sector is next to godliness
The carnage inflicted by pandemic has demystified the perils of potential infections at the manufacturing units. The urgency of ensuring a safe and hygienic ecosystem at the workplace can not be more pronounced.
The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) have a large share in manufacturing sector of India, as pandemic has pushed the MSMEs to the cliff, the burden of low productivity may put them at spot to overlook the occupational health and safety and environmental performance which in turn can exaggerate the risk of infections.
According to United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) data, India ranked 6th in the world ($473 billion) in terms of Manufacturing Value Added (MVA) in 2018, following China, USA, Japan, Germany and South Korea. The combined capacity of principal manufacturing economies in SouthEast Asia like Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Philippines hardly comes to India’s manufacturing which provide 37.4% of jobs and 46.3% of manufacturing export earnings.
In UNIDO’s SDG 9 industry index that combines data on absolute and relative size of the manufacturing sector and its employment, carbon footprint and technological complexity, India currently ranks 77th among the 128 ranked countries globally which is really unfortunate and demands an tremendous overhaul in terms of providing a salubrious ecosystem at workplace.
Working with the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, UNIDO established energy management cells in 12 MSME clusters, covering five sectors: dairy, ceramic, foundry, brass and hand tools. Besides this UNIDO is also extending support to home grown innovations using industrial IoT to significantly reduce the carbon footprint of manufacturing.
Realising the exigency of ensuring cleanliness at workplaces to break the chains of infection transmission, the government under Swachh Udyog campaign is pushing to free up the space, materials, equipment and working time that contributes to green and inclusive economic recovery and self-reliance.
As last year has a monumental shift in our disposition towards cleanliness for good. As soon as people walk into a workplace or commercial space now, the first thing they are thinking about is hygiene.
