New Delhi: Walk through construction sites in the city, and labourers proffer their site IDs instead of labour cards when asked. Some of them aren’t aware of the benefits they’re entitled to as construction workers. Even if they are, they have no idea if their labour cards are up to date.
This underlines the lack of knowledge about the labourers’ rights despite awareness campaigns at labour chowks and other such exercises. This is crucial because the earnings of construction workers are often disrupted by events, such as the imposition of the anti-pollution Graded Response Action Plan restrictions. Even a day without work can push them into a debt cycle, claimed a security guard manning a site at the Central Vista site near India Gate.
For Pushpa, a single mother and daily-wage construction worker in Narela, life followed a predictable rhythm. At 5am, she got up and prepared a meal for her five children before heading to work. Her earnings allowed her to buy fresh vegetables each evening. But the halt to construction due to GRAP left her struggling. “I’m a single mother and such disruptions affect me badly,” she said on Wednesday. “The little savings I had are gone. We lived on boiled rice with salt. I even borrowed food from neighbours. Even today, we’re having the chapatis they gave us.” Despite holding a labour card, she confirmed that she is still awaiting the promised ₹8,000 compensation.
Vimla, Maheshram, Santosh and many others too found their lives grinding to a halt. For Vimla, the crisis cut even deeper. Her son is undergoing treatment for a brain clot, and with no income, even a single day without work is a heavy burden on his treatment. “Out of the blue, they told us there’s no work. I have a labour card, but I haven’t received the ₹8,000 compensation yet,” said Vimla. Sources later revealed there were problems related to renewal of the card.
Not many know about the labour card or the benefits it brings. Maheshram is one of them. “I’ve worked for months, but no one ever told me about any benefits. Can you tell me how to get a card?” he asked. A husband and a father, he works at the Sarai Kale Khan construction site and struggles to send money home to Bihar. “My wife called last week asking for money to buy food. All I could say was, ‘This month is tight. I have nothing to send,'” he said sourly.
To make ends meet, Maheshram borrowed money from the contractor. “Thekedaar ya kisi se karz lena padta hai aese mein, ab uska bhi jawab dena hoga kisi mor pe toh (We have to depend on loans, but even that we have to repay some time or the other),” he groaned. Santosh similarly said in Narela, “Udhaar (credit) becomes the routine at such times. I received a message today that my labour card lapsed two months ago.”
The Delhi Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board portal currently shows 90,581 workers registered and active. Of around 13.7 lakh labourers, the renewal rate for the labour card is just 29%, hinting that on average, seven of 10 cards remain unrenewed.
Thaneshwar Dayal Adigaur, secretary, Delhi Asangathit Nirman Mazdoor Union, said, “The board has transferred financial assistance of ₹8,000 to the bank accounts of approximately 90,000 workers. However, payments were returned from around 12,000 accounts that were not Aadhaar-linked. A list of these workers has been sent to all district offices, where workers can update their account details. We have urged all construction workers’ unions to inform those who have not received the money about this process. However, many of the 90,000 workers have still not received the payment. Some received ₹2,000, while some got ₹6,000.”
Construction workers have to be mandatorily registered with the board, with display boards providing information on facilities and registration processes at the site, and the board should set up registration camps, create special schemes for migrant workers, and ensure construction companies regularly contribute to the welfare fund cess, added Adigaur.
Sunil Kumar Aledia, executive director, Centre for Holistic Development, which works on the rights of the homeless, said, “We have requested assistance in registering homeless construction workers in Delhi’s shelter homes to ensure access to essential services and benefits through construction workers’ board registration.”
A contractor claimed, “I personally organised camps and helped workers fill out their labour forms, but these weren’t cleared. There’s definitely a flaw in the system.” He said that with no work available, many workers went back to their villages and will return only when there’s work. “Of the 50% workforce that left, only around 15% have returned to Delhi,” he said. “The system is too rigid. Earlier, they could visit in person and share their details, but now they must apply through a portal, which creates problems for them because they aren’t tech-savvy. The applications are often rejected because they lack the required documents.”
There was no response from Delhi govt to questions on the matter.
