Impact of Pollution Prevention Steps on Workers in Delhi | Bharat Dogra

As a part of steps to reduce air pollution in Delhi almost every year during winter or preceding weeks a temporary ban on construction work is announced which can extend to several weeks. What is the impact of this on workers and to what extent their difficulties are relieved by the compensatory payment the government provides? To find out I asked several construction workers in those colonies of Delhi where the population of construction workers is concentrated.

Rakesh, Bharat and Gopal are all construction workers who live in Shahbad Dairy colony in outer Delhi. They have been running around trying to get the compensatory payment of Rs. 8000 announced for the work closure which took place twice in 2024 but they have not received anything so far.

As Rakesh says, he had worked hard in the earlier part of the year to save a little but whatever little saving he had from the earlier days was exhausted during the recent work closure. He does not dare to take any further loans, as he is already indebted due to the loan taken at a high interest rate for the treatment of an ailment at the rate of 10 per cent per month interest. For the last few years every winter has been bringing similar problems. In some families the problem of hunger also appears, while in others the already meager amounts of pulses and vegetables are reduced further.

Bharat and Gopal say that they have not received any compensatory payment either this year, or in previous years. In fact Bharat had not received such payment even during the lockdown days, while Rakesh and Gopal had received this but not the pollution curb related payments.

In fact a visit to such settlements these days would reveal a lot of activity among workers related to trying to get the recently announced compensatory payment of work closures but in most cases they are disappointed.

Workers also ask whether different payments will be made for the two work closures announced recently or one payment already announced is meant to cover both periods of work closures.

One reason why the payments made using the funds of the Delhi Building and other Construction Workers Welfare Board ( in short the Board) are not received by most genuine construction workers is that the number of workers under the latest active registration of the Board have come down significantly compared to earlier registrations and these are much less than the actual number of construction workers in Delhi. The efforts of the government to reach out to workers appear to be confined to the actively registered ones at the present time, and thereby a big majority are left uncovered.

Secondly, due to procedural issues, incomplete records or bank account related issues, even some of the actively registered workers may be left out.
Thirdly, due to corrupt practices several persons who are not construction workers have got themselves registered as construction workers, to avail of benefits meant for construction workers. They may get the compensatory payment while genuine construction workers are deprived of this.

Another important issue is that these compensatory payments arising from work closure are being made from welfare funds of workers, meant actually for the Board to support pensions, education scholarships etc. for their households, instead of being paid for work closure compensation. In other words, the welfare funds of workers collected here in the Board are being emptied for work closure compensatory payments which should have actually been made from funds made from disaster management or pollution reduction. The special pollution reduction plan should make a provision for these funds. In the process the already very poor performance of the Board with respect to its welfare support for workers is likely to be weakened further.

To protect workers from debts and hunger, the government should improve its work closure compensatory program in significant ways so that all genuine construction workers can get this payment within a few days of its announcement.

Many workers including masons raise the question that when most of our work is non-polluting, why is a ban placed for several weeks or months on this every year? Subhash Bhatnagar, who played a very important role in campaigning for welfare laws and then struggling in courts to improve their implementation, says that there are court orders which say that there should be no blanket ban and only the polluting aspects of the work can be stopped for certain periods. Despite this, the ban is implemented in arbitrary ways so that all parts including non-polluting parts of construction work get covered. As sometimes big fines have been imposed during the period of such bans and tools have also been seized from those found working, workers become even more afraid to take up even non-polluting work.

In another context, however, pollution needs to be understood more widely. In the colonies which I visited to speak to construction workers, there was all-pervasive dirt and garbage but, as particularly women complained, this was not being prioritized as a reduction of pollution. While these worker households of course also face the hazards of air pollution the hazards that exist from the dirt and garbage surrounding them are likely to be even bigger for them, and so reduction of this dirt should also be prioritized in the drive for reducing pollution.

(Author: Bharat Dogra is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Man over Machine, Protecting Earth for Children, Planet in Peril and A Day in 2071)