Building Collapses in India

In the last few months, India has been experiencing a lot of building collapses.  Just a few days ago, a residential building in New Dehli collapse, killing at least one person and with two people in the hospital. In April, a multistory building in Thane (a city in the Mumbai region) collapsed, killing several. Also in April, a building in Mumbai killed 61 people, and there was also a garment factory in Dhaka, Bangledesh that collapsed during the work day, killing 1,127 people in what the NY Times called "the deadliest disaster in the history of the garment industry".

Several reasons for these collapses have been found, but to me the common factor between all these buildings is the "substandard" material being used to build them. India has such a large population, but with so many people with low incomes, they can't afford to build safe structures, let alone ones that might survive a natural disaster. Construction regulation also seems to be a major problem. In the case of the garment factory, the owners didn't build it to safety standards to begin with, then began adding more illegally constructed floors and power generators that shook the building whenever they were on. Despite these safety issues, the factory owners ordered their employees to keep working. Clearly, the enforcement on building regulations needs to be increased.

These recent building collapses in India speak a lot about hazard management in less developed countries. Safety seems to low on the priority list. I feel like the risk workers in these areas take are mostly involuntary. I'm sure they would all rather work in a safe building, but because having any kind of job is better than no job, especially in just a poor area, I could argue that many feel the risks of not having a job are far greater than having one, even in unsafe conditions.

NY Times Article Right After the Dhaka Collapse
NY Times Follows Up on the Dhaka Collapse
CNN on the Residential Building Collapse in New Dehli