The Logo of the NSC, India.; Source: Public Domain

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The 1962 Labour Ministers’ Conference was responsible for laying down the idea of a National Safety Council, to educate with a campaign on accident prevention in the growing factories of India. From then on, the Standing Labour Committee accepted this proposal in February of 1966, and the Ministry of Labour, Government of India, established the Council on the Fourth of March, 1966. It seemed like a pretty generic government organisation - straightforward and bureaucratic.

> The official aim was to be a leading national agency to provide guidance, services and coordination on issues of making the workplace a healthier, safer and environment-friendly place.

Officially, it states that its mission is to ‘build capacity, material, methods, procedures and strengthen the national movement, including the unorganised sector on Safety, Health and Environment (SHE) - to prevent and mitigate loss of life, economic losses, and human suffering.’

It became a founding member of the Asia Pacific Occupational Safety and Health Organisation (APOSHO) in 1985, holding regional level conferences throughout the 80s and 90s on topics of SHE, in collaboration with these international, and the domestic Ministry of Labour in India.

Today, it conducts specialised training courses, conferences, seminars and workshops on the Safety, Health and Environment issues, commissions studies like Safety Audits, Hazard Evaluation, Risk Assessment, Emergency Management Planning, develops promotional material and publications on these issues for wider awareness, organising celebrations for the Safety Day (4th March) - celebrated since 1972, World Environment Day, Fire Service Week, Road Safety week et cetera - and the organisation of numerous national conferences and international conferences on safety like the 13th World Safety Congress of 1993 and the 11th APOSHO Conference in 1995.

It has further launched the Safety Awards for Companies engaging in SHE-certified practices, and has numerous E-learning courses on Safety. Rating systems developed by the NSCI are used for factories, hospitals, hotels, construction sites, malls, and other establishments.

The National Safety Council of India, responsible for generating public awareness on Safety, Health and Environmental issues, was formed today in 1966.