Urban building collapse: what are the health implications?

A string of disasters in India’s big cities has sparked public fury and focused attention on what causes buildings to collapse. In early July one person died when a building under construction collapsed in downtown Mumbai. In June, a crumbling four storey building in New Delhi collapsed killing 10, including five children, and injuring several others. Also in June, an 11 storey structure under construction in Chennai failed, resulting in the deaths of 61 people.

A total of 3074 structures (including houses, other buildings, and bridges) collapsed in India in 2013, up from 2764 the previous year, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.1 In 2013, building collapse was responsible for the death of 1379 people and a further 384 were injured.

A report in the Economic and Political Weekly considered the Chennai collapse, noting that investigators, supervised by the police, had found that the construction site was on “unsafe ground.”2

Several people have been arrested, but the report pointed out, “The tragedy . . . is not just the loss of life, but often employees’ lack of knowledge of laws that entitle them to compensation through a grievance redress mechanism.” This is compounded by government indifference and collusion with employers, the article says, hampering efforts to prosecute under, for example, the Workmen’s Compensation Act or the Building and Other Construction Workers Act.