The Hindu : New Delhi News : Workers demand a better deal

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Saturday, May 02, 2009
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New Delhi

Workers demand a better deal

Staff Reporter

Photo: R. V. Moorthy

Up in arms: Construction workers led by SEWA protesting against the working of the Delhi Building and other Construction Workers’ Welfare Board in the Capital on May Day.

NEW DELHI: Construction workers led by Self-Employed Women’s Association-Bharat (SEWA-Bharat) sat on dharna at Kashmere Gate here on Friday protesting against the working of the Delhi Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Board.

The construction workers were demanding disbursement of social security benefits including scholarships for children’s education, medical assistance, accident relief and workers’ pension to which they were entitled under the Building and Other Construction Workers’ Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service Act, 1996.

Deepak Gupta of SEWA said: “The Welfare Board in Delhi has above Rs.200 crore in its coffers and yet no tangible benefits have reached the workers since the inception of the Board in 2002. This is in contrast to the Welfare Board in Madhya Pradesh where seven lakh construction workers have registered and Rs.14 crore has been utilised during the same period for providing workers a better quality of life.”

“The Board in Madhya Pradesh has provided some extraordinary benefits to the workers like building sheds at labour chowks and provision of ambulances in various districts for construction labourers who are a highly accident prone occupational group. It is disappointing that on the one hand Delhi is going to host the Commonwealth Games and is on its way to becoming a world class city but on the other hand the real builders who are the labourers continue to languish in poverty,” he added.

Considering the Commonwealth Games as a window of opportunity, SEWA has taken up the responsibility to register as many workers as possible with the Delhi Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Board to ensure their adequate representation in the Board so that they can avail of their rightful benefits, Mr. Gupta said.

“Unlike the Board in Madhya Pradesh where labour registration is almost free, workers in Delhi are required to pay Rs.20 per month to avail of a registration card that is of no use. SEWA’s experience of working with construction workers in multiple States testifies that the crisis of the Welfare Board in Delhi is due to poor coordination within the State Labour Ministry, no initiative for publicity of various labour welfare schemes by the Government and lack of a full-time member-secretary of the Board.”

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