Robot Safety in India

Know which law now governs factory safety

The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 is Act 37 of 2020, and India Code lists its enforcement date as 21 November 2025. It consolidates and amends the laws on the safety, health and working conditions of people employed in an establishment, factories included. The central directorate that advises on factory safety has changed too: DGOSH, the Directorate General Occupational Safety and Health, was earlier known as DGFASLI, and its own site describes the Factories Act, 1948 as now subsumed under the Code. If your safety manual, permits or contractor rules still quote the old Act, schedule a review, and check which rules apply in your state.

Read what the Code asks of employers

The Code places general duties on employers rather than listing rules for robots, so a robot cell is judged against those duties. Its text includes a duty to provide and maintain plant and systems of work that are safe and without risk to health, and it requires the Central Government to declare standards on occupational safety and health for factories and other workplaces. That makes the risk assessment for each cell your main evidence. Record the hazards at the robot, the gripper, the workpiece and the surrounding machines, the measures chosen to reduce them, and who checked the result. Update the file whenever the programme, tooling or layout changes.

Check the Indian robot safety standards

The Bureau of Indian Standards record for IS 14530:1998, its earlier code on the safety of manipulating industrial robots from the PGD 18 committee on industrial automation systems and robotics, shows it withdrawn and superseded by IS 14530 (Part 1):2019 and IS 14530 (Part 2):2019. Because the Indian parts date from 2019, ask your integrator whether the cell's risk assessment and safety functions follow them, the newer international editions, or both. Ask for any differences that affect guarding, speed limits or collaborative modes to be explained in writing, and keep copies of the standards your safety file relies on with the machine documents.

Use DGOSH and your integrator well

DGOSH is an attached office of the Ministry of Labour and Employment that helps the ministry shape national policy on safety and health in factories and docks, working through the Central Labour Institute in Mumbai and regional labour institutes in other cities. Pair that public expertise with clear contracts: make the integrator responsible for a documented risk assessment, validation of every safety function at handover, and training for operators and maintenance staff. Ask for the validation records in a form an inspector or auditor can follow, and keep them with the machine's maintenance history. Repeat the validation after any change to programmes, tooling or guarding.

Sources and further reading

• The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 (Act 37 of 2020) — India Code, Government of India.
  Official record of India's consolidated workplace safety law, with its enforcement date and the text of the Act.
• Directorate General Occupational Safety and Health (formerly DGFASLI): introduction — Directorate General Occupational Safety and Health (DGOSH), Ministry of Labour and Employment.
  Role and institutes of India's central technical body on safety and health in factories and docks.
• IS 14530:1998 Manipulating industrial robots: safety (withdrawn) and its 2019 replacements — Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).
  BIS record showing the old Indian robot safety code withdrawn and replaced by IS 14530 Parts 1 and 2 of 2019.

Common questions

Who trains staff to work safely around robot cells?

The employer stays responsible for training under its OSH Code duties. Write operator and maintenance training into the integrator's contract, refresh it whenever the cell changes, and use DGOSH's labour institutes as an independent source of safety advice that does not depend on any robot seller.

Does my workshop count as a factory under the OSH Code?

It depends on headcount and power. The Code defines a factory as premises where twenty or more workers are employed in a manufacturing process carried on with power, or forty or more without power, so compare that definition with your own numbers.