As per the official data of the Directorate General Factory Advice Services and Labour Institutes (DGFASLI), the rate at which labour inspections happen across India has reduced significantly over time. The percentage of workplaces that get inspected by labour authorities, compared with the total number of workplaces liable to be inspected in a given year, has fallen. The decline has been from 47.56% in 2005 to 19.12% in 2023. The inspections are provided for in the Factories Act, which has existed since 1947.While this trend has received attention in academic and policy debates, its implications remain largely ignored. This is particularly true for administratively constrained regions such as Jammu and Kashmir, where staff shortages are common and institutional capacity weak, especially given recent governance disruptions.These writers’ analysis, based on DGFASLI data for many years in a row (2005-06 to 2022-23), therefore focuses on the situation in Jammu and Kashmir vis-a-vis labour inspections. Weakening of labour law enforcement jeopardises workplace safety and lack of safety, in turn, fosters widespread under-reporting of such issues.Labour inspections and enforcement coverageLabour inspections form the backbone of labour law implementation, translating de jure (by law) labour legislation into de facto (in effect) statutory rights at workplaces. The coverage of factory inspections therefore provides a clear picture of how effectively labour regulations are enforced.Long-term inspection data from DGFASLI shows that inspection intensity – the percentage of registered factories inspected in Jammu and Kashmir – declined from 78% in 2005 to 41% in 2023. This is a fall of about 47% over the reference period.This downward trend became more pronounced after 2018. The inspection intensity, which was about 65% in 2017, fell to 36.4% in 2018, nearly 30% by 2019 and remained weak thereafter. This implies that the policy stance of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, a Union Territory since August that year, shifted from inspecting most factories annually to inspecting barely one-third of total factories.Also read: Implementation of Four New Labour Codes Doesn’t Address the Precarity of Indian Labour MarketThe decline in inspections and enforcement coverage is also reflected in declining staffing levels under the Factories Act, 1948. Throughout the 2005-2023 period, inspector strength in Jammu and Kashmir rarely exceeded one inspector per 10,000 workers and frequently remained below this threshold. This means that each inspector was responsible for overseeing 300-500 factories and ensuring compliance for nearly 14,000 workers on average each year.Such a heavy workload makes regular, detailed and preventive inspections infeasible. It implies that inspectors prioritised a small subset of units or responded only to complaints and major accidents rather than conduct regular inspections.The effectiveness of labour inspections can be assessed in terms of outcomes: the number of prosecutions initiated and decided, penalties imposed on employers for detected violations and, most importantly, effective judicial follow-up. In Jammu and Kashmir, the number of new cases filed against employers for violations detected during inspections declined sharply, from 16 cases in 2005 to just 3 cases in 2023.Similarly, the number of cases disposed of by courts declined from 18 cases to just 3 cases during the same period. This marks a decline of about 81% in new cases and 83% in case disposal, respectively. In addition, the available data illustrates a sustained decline in penalties imposed under the same Act, falling from Rs 2.63 lakh in 2017 to just Rs 2,500 in 2023. This means enforcement was more symbolic than substantive.The year 2017 was taken as the baseline in this study as years prior to 2017 show missing data.Under-reporting of data on safety and working conditionsAccording to Becker’s theory of deterrence from economist Gary Becker, people commit crimes – or flout rules – when the expected benefits outweigh the expected costs. In other words, employers behave as rational agents and comply with labour and safety regulations only when the expected costs of violation outweigh the costs of compliance. It follows that as inspections and enforcement coverage decline, the expected cost of non-compliance collapses, making non-compliance and concealment of accidents a rational response for employers.Also read: Why Do Labourers Migrate to the Kashmir Valley Despite the Dangers?Now let us consider the official data from the Labour Bureau of the Union government and DGFASLI on non-fatal factory injuries. Surprisingly, both sources record a sharp reduction in reported non-fatal industrial injuries, from 306 cases in 2007 to only 67 cases in 2023 – an over 78% decline. Even fatal injuries were reported infrequently, with more than half the years since 2010 recording zero or missing fatalities.Such figures are implausibly low given the expansion in factories and workforce. The number of registered factories in Jammu and Kashmir increased from 1,132 in 2005 to 1,929 in 2023, an increase of about 70.4% over the period. The industrial workforce increased from about 24,500 workers in 2005 to nearly 48,700 workers in 2023, a rise of nearly 98.5% between 2005 and 2023.In general, more factories and workers would imply greater exposure to workplace risks, unless there is a significant improvement in compliance with laws and safety standards. However, when reported injuries decline sharply without any corresponding improvement – in fact, a steep fall – in inspection coverage, the declining trend in reported factory accidents is more indicative of systematic under-reporting than improvement.Policy suggestionsStrengthening labour law enforcement in Jammu and Kashmir requires recognising labour inspections as a core public function rather than a residual administrative task. This demands a sustained expansion of inspector strength, restoration of inspection coverage to meaningful levels and penalties that are credible enough to deter violations.Expanded inspections would also curb under-reporting, as routine inspections increase the likelihood of detection and enforce mandatory reporting of actual safety conditions and compliance. Equally important is the revival of occupational health infrastructure within factories, including medical officers and emergency facilities, alongside transparent and regular publication of inspection, prosecution and injury data. Simplification and digitalisation cannot substitute for field-level enforcement in high-risk workplaces.As the government of India is in the process of framing the Labour Ministry Vision@2047 (Viksit Bharat), Jammu and Kashmir’s experience must serve as a cautionary lesson for labour governance reforms across India.Irfan Ahmad Sofi is Incharge Head, Department of Economics, IUST, Kashmir and Sahil Manzoor is a PhD scholar at the Department of Economics, IUST, Kashmir.