State of Construction Workers in Bharat

In this superfast life, when we all are so engrossed with our work, family hassles which put
us into immense pressure that we become ignorant of many things in our surroundings.
We all must have encountered at various construction sites in our cities, nearby our places,
there is a workforce , working incessantly under the scorching heat of furious sun, some
with whole body drenched with sweat, sounds of shrieking children with boredom, hurt
and playfulness, playing relentlessly amidst the dust, stand and floor of mud.

A great number of workers hail from the remotest villages of the country with a hope for a
better livelihood and fair employment opportunities and with dreams of a quality of life,
majority of construction workers ended up at construction sites. To arrange two square
meals, women of the family, besides managing household and taking care of children have
to succumb to construction work with no choice left.

The Construction Industry is very vital in creating the infrastructure and set up, necessary
for the development and growth of India, on account of high demand specifically in cities, a
large number of workforce including of all kind; skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled are
employed into Construction work which has also been called one of the hazardous
profession. According to statistics demonstrated by WIEGO (Women in Informal
Employment; Global and Organizing), Women account for half (51%) of the total
construction labour force who are almost exclusively unskilled, casual, manual laborers
and are rarely found in male dominated skilled trades including electrical wiring, carpentry
etc.

Working at these sites and temporary staying at construction sites, these women are prone
to myriad of problems related to health, safety, harassment, wage discrimination, working
conditions etc.

Recognizing the need of framing a legislation for the welfare of construction workers, a
huge uproar at civil society was observed and through various social rallies, the needs of
social protection including pension, a good education for the children, an environment of
festivities and joy was observed post the government declaration of law promising the
social security benefits to construction workers.

The two major powerful legislations; The Building and Other Construction Workers
(Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996 and the Building and
Other Construction Workers Cess Act, 1996 were introduced. In the ambit of which
construction worker welfare board was established which aims to guard the interest and
monitor the various entitlements including scholarship for children of construction
workers, marriage allowance, maternity benefit etc that are covered under social
security provision provided to construction workers. The acts came into being in 1996,
however the implementation of the same on the ground took several years. It was in
2002 after a period of seven years the construction worker welfare board was
established.

As per government data, as on December 31,2017, Rs 38,514 crore has been collected as
construction workers welfare cess. Out of this, Rs 9,756 crore has been spent which clearly
depict the thousands of crores rupees lying unspent which is meant for the welfare of these
workers.

Despite of strong legislative protection, to an extent the implementation of the same has
been an utter failure. Until the policies at the implementation level wouldn’t strengthen
there would be no. relief delivered to the construction workers including women who
face double jeopardy of managing various tasks of family and workplace at a time
Besides that, there is dire need for a movement of awareness dissemination among
workers pertaining to the social security provisions entitled to them in the law. The
irony is, after 82 years of formation of special laws for construction workers, very little
are reached to the benefits.