What! Rs 635 cr for Delhi construction workers lying idle

New Delhi: Two months ago, 40-year-old mason Ilyas attended an information camp at a construction site in South Delhi’s Okhla industrial area. Illyas, who hails from Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, remembers little of the two hour session, except that a man wearing a white bush shirt had read ‘something’ out to the 150-odd construction workers who were participating. Ilyas says he was also made to fill a form for which he paid Rs 5. “They said that it would avail me some benefits,” said Ilyas, who is also a father of five. The following month he got a passbook, which he immediately stored with his other important documents in a saffron trunk, inside the 3 by 6 foot shanty where he lives. Ilyas who cannot recall anything the man in the white bush shirt said at the camp, does not know that the passbook he has stored away so carefully would give him access to as much as 15 different welfare schemes, ranging from scholarships for his children’s education to medical insurance for himself. “I am a mason and not a lawyer. How do you expect me to remember all that”? he shrugs, wiping the sweat off his forehead. The ignorance of lakhs of workers like Ilyas, and apathy on the part of the authorities, means that more than Rs 2800 crore meant for the welfare of construction workers is lying unspent with state governments across the country. The building and other construction workers act 1996 (BOCW) stipulates that one percent of the total amount of every construction project worth Rs 10 lakh or more , private or public, must be submitted to the state labour ministry under the head ‘welfare cess’. The building and other construction worker’s welfare board (WB) administered by the state labour ministry, then uses this cess to execute various welfare schemes for construction workers. Though the welfare schemes vary from state to state, many include benefits such as providing scholarships for the children of construction workers, pension benefits and medical insurance for workers. To avail these benefits however, construction workers must be registered with the district labour office. But a severe lack of awareness among this segment of the population has resulted in minimal registrations. And of course no registration means no disbursement of money. Take the example of Delhi. [caption id=“attachment_176972” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Workers are not aware that they can avail up to 15 different welfare schemes. Naresh Sharma/Firstpost”]  [/caption] According to an estimate by the National Campaign Committee for Construction Laborers (NCCCL), an association influential in getting the central act passed, Delhi has an estimated 10 lakh construction workers who have contributed to construction projects worth approximately Rs 5,000 crore. But although it has been 14 years since the central act was first passed, only 62000 of these 10 lakh workers are presently registered with their respective district labour offices. Delhi has collected Rs 635 crore as cess since the act was first passed, but has been able to spend only Rs 28.36 crore to date. In other words, around Rs 607 crore meant for the welfare of construction workers is lying unspent with the Delhi government’s labour department. Concerned with the discrepancy, members of the Delhi welfare board have suggested two ways to increase the number of registrations with the district labour offices. They say that first the act should be amended to make it mandatory for construction workers to register with the board (it is voluntary at present), while secondly all employers (at least government bodies) should incorporate a clause in their contract agreements, regarding the compulsory registration of construction workers hired by their contractors. But the problem is actually much bigger. First, a very crucial roadblock in the utilization of the money lying with the welfare boards is that there is almost zero awareness about the act among construction workers. This is compounded by the fact that some states do not even have welfare boards, while there is a massive staff shortage in those that do. Delhi’s welfare board itself is short of 31 contractual employees and 11 regular employees. As per the construction workers act, the welfare board must meet once every two months. However it has met only 21 times since its formulation in September 2002. “The Board has limited manpower. We discuss this issue in almost meeting. While some people in the labour ministry say retired officers should be inducted into the board, I am personally for some young blood. As long as this issue remains, we will continue to grapple with a shortage of staff,” says Rajender Dhar, joint labour commissioner, Delhi. The situation is the same if not worse in other states. Three states; Nagaland, Mizoram and Sikkim do not have welfare boards at all. Chandigarh and Meghlaya are among five states and two union territories that have non- functioning Boards. Maharashtra created its own welfare board only in early 2011. Data with the NCCCL shows that out of an estimated workforce of 30 lakh in Maharashtra, only 20000 are registered workers. Dada Rao Dongre, president, Maharashtra building construction forest and wood workers congress says, “Maharashtra notified the rules in 2007,a good 10 years after the central act came into being. The WB does not function at all. No worker has been issued with any pass book.” Dogre adds that unless the Board is tripartite- consisting of workers’ representatives, government officials and the contractors, the problems will not be solved. And like almost every welfare scheme in the country, this one is also fraught with red tape. Construction workers cannot send their children to private schools. Three kinds of schools cater to them- government schools (run by the directorate of education) and those run by the MCD and NDMC. The Delhi welfare board gave Rs 15 crore to the directorate of education (DoE) as scholarships for children studying in its schools. But the DoE has been able to utilize only Rs 3.5 crore from this amount. Meanwhile the board has not disbursed any funds to MCD and NDMC schools. “We are working on a scheme under which the worker can collect this scholarship amount from the board and not from the school or the headquarters of the civic agency. We will resolve the matter soon,” says Dhar. Barring scholarship for the children of workers, the rest of the 14 welfare schemes for workers in Delhi are available only on paper. There is a proposal to constitute an advisory committee which will help in increasing the entitlement under different welfare schemes. Continues on the next page “From no registrations, we have come to a stage where we have more than 60000 registered workers in Delhi. We are nowhere near the ideal condition where every worker will be entitled to all the 15 benefits,” says Thaneshwar Dyal Adigaur, president, Sneh Bandhan Society, an association working for the cause of construction workers. Another issue is that of the 60,000 plus registered workers, more than half are migrant labourers. They keep shifting from one state to another depending on the project they are working on. Thousands of workers who came to the capital to build stadia, roads, parking lots and hotels during the Commonwealth games, are now nowhere to be seen. And though the workers keep moving, the welfare schemes are not portable. They are meant only for workers such as Ilyas who has lived in Delhi for more than a decade, got himself registered in Delhi and can thus renew his registration in Delhi. Assigning the workers with unique numbers or identity cards which work across the country appears to be a solution. Till the time that happens, workers like Ilyas will live with their passbooks, not utilizing them or even knowing what it is for.