The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Moving tale of sweat and blood far from home

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Monday, Jul 07, 2008
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Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Moving tale of sweat and blood far from home

City Bureau

Migrant workers are the most vulnerable groups dispersed across industries, employed on a contract basis

Photo: V. Ganesan

SWEATING IT OUT: Migrant labourers from Orissa toil at the construction site of a residential apartment complex in Tondiarpet in north Chennai. —

Chennai: Far away from their homes, they build high-rise apartments, make bricks, carry loads or take up domestic work. The toil of migrant workers has translated to benefits for the city’s economy but the labourers themselves are poorly-paid with little or no health and safety cover.

V.Periasamy, aged 43, is from Kaduhur in Ariyalur district. For several years now, he has been carrying loads in the Koyambedu market complex. He lives in the market premises and sends money to his family in the village. He is paid Rs.200 per day.

Periasamy is one of tens and thousands of migrant labourers who have come to the city to eke out a livelihood.

In the Koyambedu market, for instance, many of the labourers are farmers from the dry regions of Perambalur and Ariyalur. M. Murugesan, aged 42, owns four acres of dry farmland in Vayalapadi Keeranur village in Perambalur district. He grows groundnuts and cotton. When returns were poor, he came to Chennai to find employment. He is one of the few who know about the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA).

“Some of us applied for employment under the NREGA some months ago. But we were not given jobs. Four days ago, the official concerned asked us to provide a fresh application as the earlier one was misplaced. As we did not want to wait for some more months again, we did not give the application,” Mr. Murugesan said.

The construction industry draws the bulk of migrant workers to the city.

The labourers live in tin or plastic shelters with poor facilities for drinking water and sanitation.

Labourers from Bihar and Orissa are brought by agents to work under contractors here.

Contractors and employers have to register with the Labour Department here as per the stipulations of the Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act, 1979. The Act, however, does not apply to those who migrate on their own and those migrating within the state thus excluding a large number of workers.

Lawyer R.Vaigai, who specialises in labour law, said the Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act is very sketchy and implementation is shoddy. The Act came into force at a time when groups of labourers migrated from one place another for large construction projects. They were recruited by contractors or agents. But now the context has changed, in that, the labourers choose to migrate in search of better opportunities. The Act also has no provisions to deal with children who migrate with their families and are also employed as labourers at times.

As such a migrant labourer is also a ‘workman’ and entitled to all the rights enshrined in labour laws. But since such labourers are mostly illiterate and unaware of their rights, they fall prey to exploitative practices, Ms. Vaigai said.

The poor implementation of the Act is evident from the few numbers of employers and contractors registered with the labour department. In the year 2007, only 17 principal employers and 18 contractors in Chennai were registered with labour department. The department did not have statistics on the number of migrant workers in the city.

Deputy Commissioner of Labour S. Kalaivani admitted that there was no proper mechanism by which labour inspectors could monitor the terms of employment of migrant workers or their working conditions. She said the mode of recruitment of migrant workers was not transparent and usually their period of employment was also not specific which made it difficult for officers to enforce labour laws.

Health and safety

“Safety of workers is being increasingly compromised as the contract system of employment gains currency,” Ms. Kalaivani said. In case of fatal accidents, employers are required to report to the labour department and workers are compensated as per the Workmen’s Compensation Act. “Injuries are usually not brought to our notice,” she said.

Also, when entire families migrated for work, only the head of the family is paid and the labour contributed by his wife or children goes unrecognised. When employers or contractors are found not maintaining proper records or without a license they are levied a fine of Rs.1,000, which is a poor deterrent to breaking the law.

Migrant labourers are also constantly exposed to disease and illness. Many of them are at risk of contracting HIV. R.Isabel, executive secretary of voluntary organisation Madras Christian Council of Social Service said, “The migrant labourers are forced to leave their family in the native villages and their mobility, poor working condition, and feeling of loneliness make them a high risk group for HIV/AIDS.”

There are also migrant labourers who gather in small groups near bus stops or scrap dealer shops every morning. They are not sure of what work they will get that day and are at the mercy of agents. With so many uncertainties, migrant workers have become the most vulnerable group of labourers as they are dispersed across industries, employed on a contract basis and cannot unionise.

Their welfare needs much more attention.

(With inputs from Vidya Venkat, Aloysius Xavier Lopez and Kannal Achuthan)

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