Human Engg. & Safety 2(1+1)

Lesson 14. REHABILITATION AND COMPENSATION TO AGRICULTURAL ACCIDENT VICTIMS

14.2. Rehabilitation scheme for agricultural accident victims

Most of the workers in Indian agriculture are in unorganized sector and, therefore, accidents and safety don’t get due importance either at farm level or at organizational level. Though nationwide efforts are being made to reduce accidents, yet it is not possible to totally eliminate them. The majority of agricultural accidents are due to human factors viz. lack of awareness, lack of formal training, long working hours, restlessness, carelessness, fatigue, seasonal operations of agriculture, etc. Therefore, monetary relief for rehabilitation of agricultural accidents victims and their family members is justified beyond doubt. In 1983, the Indian Parliament passed DMRA to regulate dangerous machines with a view to securing the welfare of operator and for payment of compensation for the death or bodily injury suffered by any labourers while operating such machines. As per DMRA, the manufacturer was fixed responsibility for providing compensation to user in case of accidents due to manufacturing fault. The employer was also asked to take accident insurance policy for users. Further, this act covered only the power threshers and its implementation was lacking in different states of India.

Punjab State took a lead for rehabilitation of accident victims by providing blanket insurance coverage to all concerned engaged in agriculture and marketing operations at any time during the year. This social welfare scheme has been widely appreciated all over the country and some other states have also adopted similar schemes.

14.2.1. Rehabilitation scheme for agricultural accidents victims – Punjab Model

Compensation policy was formulated and proposal was submitted way back in 1978 and monetary aid was started in 1984 through Punjab State Marketing Board.

14.2.1.1. Basic policy

The Government of Punjab through Punjab State Marketing Board formulated policy and procedural rules for providing monetary relief for rehabilitation of agricultural accidents victims. It defined in detail the various terms and procedures for the effective implementation of policy. Among the various rules and regulations, it also formulated a quantitative percentage of loss of earning capacity depending upon the injury (Table 14.1).

Table 14.1. Loss of earning capacity depending upon injury.

S.N.	Description of injury	Loss of earning capacity (%)
1.	Loss of both hands or amputation at higher sites	100
2.	Loss of a hand and a foot	100
3.	Double amputation through leg or amputation through leg on one side and loss of other foot	100
4.	Loss of sight such that victim is unable to perform any work	100
5.	Very severe facial disfigurement	100
6.	Absolute deafness	100
7.	Amputation of upper or lower limbs depending upon its extent	10 - 45
8.	Loss of one eye or its vision depending upon its extent	15 - 20
9.	Loss of finger or its parts depending upon its extent	1 - 7

 

Punjab State Marketing Board provides financial help to all the farmers, their family members, agricultural labourers and marketing committee workers, while:

• Working on agricultural machinery and implements like threshers, tractor, trolleys, chaff cutters, spray pumps, etc. in field.

• Digging of wells or electrocution while operating tube wells on the farm.

• Using pesticides or due to snake bite in the field.

• Use of agricultural implements in the notified market committees in the state of Punjab.

• All accidents happening during agricultural operations in field or at farm house or in registered marketing committee or during transportation of agricultural produce to marketing committee.

Insurance scheme was started with collaboration of Insurance Company for coverage of accidents leading to death or disablement to agricultural workers. At the start, the policy was named as ‘Compensation in case of thresher accidents’ and covered only threshers and chaff cutter. However, later on other agricultural accidents as stated above and also due to crop produce or lightening, etc. were included to cover the gaps. Punjab State Marketing Board is, thus, covering about 21 lakhs cultivators, 15 lakh agricultural labourers and also the family members of the cultivators in the Punjab state.

14.2.1.2. Economics involved in monetary relief 

No insurance premium is collected from anyone covered under the rehabilitation scheme. In fact, Punjab State Marketing Board has 145 principal (regulated) agricultural market committees and a large number of notified committees for facilitating sale and purchase of agricultural produce. A fee @ 2% is collected for providing facilities for sale, purchase, storage and processing of agricultural produce. The collected fee amounts to over 300 crores at present. The fund collected is spent on various development schemes for the social welfare of the farmers and rural mass. The rehabilitation of victims of agricultural accidents is one of these schemes. A budget of 5-10 lakhs is allocated to each of the principal committee to speed up the relief to victims. The monetary relief at the start was fixed at Rs. 12,000/- in case of loss of life and was revised regularly to the maximum of Rs. 2,00,000/- at present. The monetary compensation amount in case of loss of limb was also revised accordingly. Also a new category of type of injury has been introduced in the year 2011. Monetary compensation is also provided to the victims of agricultural accidents who suffer internal injuries leading to disability (more than 25%) of body parts (Table 14.2).

 

Table 14.2. Rates of monetary compensation by Punjab State Marketing Board

Type of injury	Rate of monetary compensation (Rs.) w.e.f.
	1.4.1984	1.4.1989	1.4.1996	1.4.2001	1.11.2007	29.03.2011
Loss of life	12,000	30,000	50,000	75,000	1,00,000	2,00,000
Loss of one limb i.e. hand, arm, leg, foot etc./ any other equivalent serious injury	5,000	12,000	20,000	30,000	40,000	40,000
Loss of two limbs i.e. hands, arms, legs, eyes, feet etc./ any other equivalent serious injury	7,000	20,000	30,000	45,000	60,000	60,000
Loss of finger/ finger parts equivalent to amputation of complete one finger.	1,000	3,000	5,000	7,500	10,000	10,000
Loss of four fingers i.e. equivalent to amputation of one body part.	5,000	12,000	20,000	30,000	40,000	40,000
Disability (>25%) of body parts	-	-	-	-	-	50,000-1,00,000

 

No budget limit is fixed for providing monetary relief to victims of Punjab state. In fact, all the genuine victims are provided relief as per recommended rate. About 1600 agricultural accidents victims of Punjab state were provided with the monetary relief during the recent time (Table 14.3). The amount of relief disbursed under this rehabilitation scheme was about eight crores annually.

Table 14.3. Monetary relief by Punjab State Marketing Board

Financial year	Number of victims	Amount disbursed (Rs. in crores)
1998-1999	1438	2.51
1999-2000	1407	2.39
2000-2001	1539	2.37
2001-2002	1878	4.84
2002-2003	1750	5.04
2003-2004	1663	5.07
2004-2005	1830	5.16
2005-2006	1778	6.31
2006-2007	1818	5.83
2007-2008	1869	6.46
2008-2009	1902	7.39
2009-2010	1946	8.43
2010-2011	1934	8.67
2011-2012	1612	7.89

 

14.2.1.3. Application procedure 

The victim, or the nearest successor in case of loss of life to victim, has to report in written about the accident to the nearest market committee office  within 30 days of accident and submit duly verified prescribed application alongwith supporting documents immediately afterwards. The performa includes personal details of the victim, details of accident, nature and extent of injury, medical treatment, etc. The victim or family member has to submit a police report and a medical report. Death certificate needs to be enclosed in case of loss of life. The victim has to submit an affidavit certifying that monetary relief is not being sought from any other agency.

The application and necessary documents after being received in the office are verified confidentially by a three member committee consisting of i) Administrator or Chairman of the market committee, ii) Secretary of market committee, and iii) Assistant or Deputy District Mandi Officer. The monetary aid, after due approval, is distributed among victims at the earliest and without delay in the presence of some reputed persons of the area or competent officials of Marketing Board.

14.3. Status of rehabilitation scheme for agricultural accident victims in India

The Punjab State Govt. took a lead in formulating and implementing monetary compensation scheme for rehabilitation of agricultural accidents victims and their family members. The procedures and amount were revised as per need of time and various legal issues. Some other Indian States followed the Punjab Model and started providing monetary compensation to accident victims. A list of States providing monetary compensation is as given in Table 14.4.

Table 14.4. Rate of monetary compensation in case of death of victims.

Sr. No.	State	Nodal agency	Monetary compensation in case of death (Rs.)
1	Haryana	Haryana Marketing Board	50,000/-
2	Karnataka	Karnataka State Agricultural Marketing Board	50,000/-
3	Punjab	Punjab State Marketing Board	2,00,000/-
4	Rajasthan	Rajasthan State Agricultural Marketing Board	1,00,000/-
5	Uttar Pradesh	State Agricultural Produce Marketing Board	50,000/-

 

Similar procedure should be adopted all over the country, so that agricultural accidents victims may be rehabilitated. The amount of monetary relief also needs to be increased from the present level.

 

 

Suggested Readings:

Anonymous. 1983. The Dangerous Machines (Regulation) Act – 1983 (35 of 1983). Govt. of India. pp. 14.

Chhuneja, N.K. and C.J.S. Pannu. 2008. Monetary Relief for Rehabilitation of Agricultural Accidents Victims – Punjab Model. Paper presented and abstract published in the proceedings of “XXI National Convention of Agricultural Engineers (NCAE-2008) and National Seminar on Ergonomics & Safety Management in Agricultural Machinery & equipments” organized by Institution of Engineers, Udaipur Local Centre at CTAE, MPUAT, Udaipur during Jan 18-20, 2008.