Should you fall ill or suffer from bad health, what do you realize about health? The fact remains that living and working with sound health often is attached little importance — especially when you are engrossed in your work. Because staying healthy is wisdom, working at the cost of your health is an invitation to poor performance and family issues.
This author well knows a family where a man (of 40 years) always worked like a horse. But the man unfortunately was unwilling or unable to take care of his health— a fact which has destroyed his health to the alarming magnitude: a fatal ailment has invaded him. Not only has this development hit him but has almost traumatized the entire family. Now running of the household has by far become painful; rather impossible for the other family members facing the tragedy.
You may dispute my point, claiming that anybody anytime can be affected by a disease. Definitely so; agree I with you. But the man in question — nine times out of ten— did not take his health seriously and I am a witness that he even disregarded a doctor’s advice. Let alone health tips. What happens? His health deteriorates.
The United Nations has declared April 28 as the World Day for Safety and Health at Work. According to the UN statement , throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen that having a strong Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) system, which includes meaningful participation of governments, employers, workers, public health actors and all relevant parties at the national and enterprise level, has been crucial in protecting working environments and safeguarding the safety and health of workers.
It adds that at the workplace level, a strong OSH culture is one, in which the right to a safe and healthy working environment is valued and promoted by both management and workers. A positive OSH culture is built on inclusion, through the meaningful involvement of all parties in the ongoing improvement of safety and health at work. In a workplace with a strong OSH culture, workers feel comfortable raising concerns about possible OSH risks or hazards in the workplace and management is proactive in collaborating with workers to find appropriate, effective and sustainable solutions. This requires open communication and dialogue built on trust and mutual respect. As we continue to live through a global health crisis and face ongoing OSH risks in the world of work, we must continue to move toward building a strong safety and health culture at all levels.
In 2003, the International Labour Organization (ILO) began to celebrate the World Day to put focus on the prevention of accidents and diseases at work. This occasion is an inseparable part of the global strategy on occupational safety and health of the ILO as documented in the conclusions of the International Labour conference in June 2003. The World Day for Safety and Health at Work is an essential pathway to shed light on making work safe and healthy. April 28 is also the International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers; this has been organized across the globe by the trade union movement since 1996.
There is no escaping the fact that the health of workers — whether officials or non-officials — needs to be given primary importance; all else comes secondary. A worker in good health can work efficiently and effectively provided he/she has sound ethics; poor health, on the contrary, is a curse. It slows down the progress, delays work completion and may prevent work. Thus, it can slow or stop economic development of society.
An example. If a doctor has not healthy working conditions to work in, how can he/she do duty happily for the welfare of patients. A clean and germ-free room or ward is a key requirement for the honest doctor to perform duty effectively.
Similarly, a clean, well ventilated and noise- proof classroom (along with the required learning aids) only can prepare a handsome and healthy platform for a well – intentioned teacher to teach efficiently to the students’ advantage. No alternative to it.
Education, it must be admitted, is an integral part of schooling. But what purpose can education serve if it is carried out at the expense of the health of teachers and students. Accordingly, the government thankfully provides healthy working conditions at schools.
Even a peasant working in the agricultural field needs safe and pollution-free working conditions in order to stay healthy and work better. Poor health: feeling of fatigue, anaemia, diseased teeth, aching muscles and so on — is likely to reduce the working capacity of the affected person. The entire family could suffer economically and socially.
Make no mistake; a healthy person can shoulder family and social responsibilities the best and very usefully. The tragic experience of the middle aged man, the UN stress on safety and health, the financial issues of a family where a member suffers from a disease — all indicate that staying healthy is a blessing for a family and society at large. Unsafe and unhygienic conditions for a doctor or teacher or a farmer close the door on their fruitful work for themselves and people; education ends up purposeless in polluted conditions. So stay healthy, stay handy.
(The Author is a Teacher and RK Columnist. He can be reached on [email protected])
