How Billions of Rupees have been Snatched from Workers

On September 10 the Supreme Court strongly criticised the government for denying benefits to construction workers for which legislation was enacted as much as 14 years ago. The reality is that as a result of such delayed action on the part of the government, billions of rupees which should have been spent on the construction workers’ welfare and social security have been snatched from them.

We see them standing precariously at a height of over one hundred feet or perhaps two hundred feet, contributing to the creation of yet another skyscraper, and shudder to think of the consequences that can result from a single wrong step. We see their children crying amidst the dirt and dust of construction sites, as working mothers find it difficult to get a short break even to feed their babies. Far away from the observation of most of us, they also toil at the most distant and deserted places to construct dams and power plants, tunnels and bridges, roads and defence works, bravely facing a frightening combination of occupational hazards, natural disasters and more recently violence by terrorists.

They are 30 million construction workers of India—men, women and children who themselves endure the most wretched housing conditions to create skyscrapers and shopping malls of ‘shining’ India. They are also among the most vulnerable in terms of occupational accidents and other hazards.

Instead of extending a helping hand to them, during the past 14 years ‘shining’ India has deprived them of billions of rupees (at the rate of millions of rupees per day). Here is how the plunder of this poorest section has taken place relentlessly during the last decade.

In 1996, after a long delay, two important legislations were passed by Parliament for construction workers: the Building and Construc-tion Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996 and The Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Cess Act, 1996. The latter legislation came only after a 12-year-long sustained campaign by the National Campaign Committee for Construction Labour (NCC-CL) in which various central trade unions campaigned unitedly. Among other things, this legislation provides for a cess to be collected on all new construction activity at the rate of one to two per cent of the total budget of the construction being taken up. This amount has to be deposited with the Construction Workers’ Welfare Board for many-sided welfare activities of the construction workers including pension, assistance in case of accident, housing loan, insurance scheme, maternity benefits, education of children etc.

This legislation applies to every building or other construction work which employs ten or more workers. It covers all Central and State Government establishments. It also covers all private residential buildings if the cost of construction is more than Rs 1 million.

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THESE central Acts have to be implemented by the governments of every State and Union Territory. Even after almost 14 years implementation at the national level is highly inadequate. Construction workers under the guidance of NCL-CL have been campaigning for the implementation of the 1996 Acts but there has to be a bigger effort at the national level for satisfactory implementation. It is clear that if the rules of these legislations had been framed and its implementation had started in the true spirit within almost one year of the passing of the legislations, then during the last 13 years or so billions of rupees would have become available for the workers’ welfare. This rightful share of workers, provided for them by Parliament 14 years back, has been held back from them because of avoidable delays in the implementation of these legislations which are of crucial importance for the welfare of nearly 30 million of the poorest workers in India.

For example, as per the affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court, Uttar Pradesh had not collected any cess under the Construction Workers Act till 2009. According to the affidavit, a rough estimate of cess collection is Rs 50 crores per year. So keeping in view the non-collection of cess for 12 years this means that workers have been deprived of Rs 600 crores. This is as per the government’s under-estimate of the likely collection of cess. UP is a very big State. In smaller States like Delhi and Gujarat the State’s rough estimates of cess collection (as given by the State Government) is Rs 100 crores per year. If we make a conservative estimate that the collection in a big State should be at least one-and-a-half times of this, then the minimum likely estimate of cess collection for UP should be Rs 150 crores per year. If we use this estimate, then during 12 years the construction workers of Uttar Pradesh were deprived of Rs 1800 crores.

On this basis if we make a national estimate then we can say with confidence that construction workers in India have been deprived of at least Rs 10,000 crores (or Rs 100 billion) during the last 12 years.

In Delhi this period has seen a great spurt in construction activity. Just imagine what a difference just one or two per cent of these project outlays could have made to the welfare of construction workers if only the already enacted relevant legislation had been implemented soon in the right spirit. In Delhi rules were notified in January 2002, the Board was constituted in September 2002. Hence the collection of cess for the welfare of workers and registration of constr-uction workers as beneficiaries was also delayed.

So far it is only in a few places (where efforts for the welfare of workers had started much before the enactment of the national legislation) that reasonable amounts have been collected for the welfare of workers. This is peanuts compared to the amount which should have become available as per the legislative norms. This grave injustice to construction workers should be corrected as early as possible to ensure that their faith in the justice of our democratic system is not shattered.

The author is currently a Fellow at the Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi.