"Can India build cars and bikes without workers losing fingers? Yes, if auto firms act on this report", 28 August 2019

A new report from India’s automobile hub outside Delhi...establishes what...had [been] reported in 2014: ... [a] large number of workers in companies manufacturing auto-components are losing their hands and fingers in completely avoidable accidents.

Safe in India...documented 1,369 accidents in the auto industry in Gurgaon since December 2016...Nearly half the accidents took place on machines called power presses...In nine out of ten such accidents...workers lost their fingers or hands. Often, machines did not have safety sensors or these had been disabled to allow for faster production...

...companies must enrol [workers] in the Employees State Insurance Corporation and give them their ESIC card. But in 67% of the cases...workers did not have their card at the time of the accident. They were taken to private hospitals and not the ESIC hospitals where they would have received better care...

...Automobile companies...outsource...production...to other factories...They are part of the supply chain of large companies like Maruti Suzuki Limited, Honda Motor Company and Hero Motocorp Ltd.

Safe in India presented their report to the three automobile companies, which did not contest its findings. The company officials agreed that the problem of accidents needed to be addressed....