The Ministry of Labour & Employment, Government of India, instituted the “Vishwakarma Rashtriya Puraskar (VRP)” & “National Safety Awards (NSA)” in 1965. These Award schemes are operated by the technical wing of the Ministry, namely the Directorate General Factory Advice Service & Labour Institute (DGFASLY), Mumbai. DGFASLY renders advice/service to workers, their representatives and managements in factories and docks to humanize industrial activities by promoting safety & health at work.

VRP & NSA applications are invited in the prescribed form for consideration of the Awards from eligible applicants throughout the country through advertisement in the leading national and local dailies published in English and local languages every year. For VRP, the managements are required to send the applications on behalf of the workers and for NSA, the managements directly apply for awards under each scheme.

The applications thus, received for VRP as well as NSA are adjudged by a Tripartite Awards Committee consisting of representation from employers’ organizations, employees’ organizations and Central/State Governments. This Tripartite Committee is constituted by the Ministry of Labour & Employment, Govt. of India. Apart from the Tripartite representation, there are also experts on the Committee from renowned Institutions, Universities and industry in the field of safety, health, environment, productivity and quality.

VRP is awarded in recognition of outstanding suggestions given by a worker or group of workers and implemented by the management during the previous calendar year resulting in improvement in quality, productivity and working condition such as safety, health and environmental conservation in the industrial undertakings where “Suggestion Schemes” are in operation.

VRP is presented in the form of Cash Prize and a certificate of merit under the following three classes: in class "A"-Five nos. (5), in class "B"-Eight nos.(8). In class "C"- Fifteen (15). There are a total 28 Puraskars being shared by 109 winners out of the total of 177 applications received from different industries for

The financial savings due to adoption of suggestions of the winning applications of the VRP for the performance year 2006 were 91.72 crores recurring and 3.04 crores non-recurring in Indian currency and 7.5625 lakhs US $ recurring & Rs. 83.4 lakh non-recurring in foreign exchange.

The NSA is given in recognition of outstanding safety performance of industrial establishments, Construction Sites and Ports to stimulate and maintain the interest of both the managements and the workers in accident prevention programmes. These awards are given under ten schemes, eight of which are meant for factories / construction sites and two are for ports. These establishments are classifieds in different schemes on the basis of working of man-hours.
The criteria for presentation of these Awards is as indicated below :