NEW DELHI: In another attempt to help construction workers to avail the benefits under various government schemes, the Delhi Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board (DBOWB) will organise a month-long special drive starting from Monday. Officials, privy to the development, said that the special registration camps would be held in nine districts for which labour inspectors had been appointed to make the campaign successful.
“Labour inspectors to supervise the camps in each district have been appointed. The idea is to get maximum people registered this time,” said a Delhi government official. The previous registration campaign launched by the government from August 24 to September 12 across the national capital was marred by technical glitches and the coronavirus pandemic, which had resulted in poor turnout.
The special drive was launched after the Delhi High Court directives to initiate membership renewal of all city workers to compensate for their loss of earnings due to pandemic-induced lockdown. The registration rate remained abysmally low despite efforts by the government as labourers didn’t turn up at the centres due to fear of contracting Covid-19. The other reason was that the online portal created specifically for the purpose didn’t function properly.
According to a report on registration drive prepared by a team of Centre for Holistic Development (CHD), about 1.05 lakh workers visited the registration centres in August-September. However, only 10,942 applicants appeared for the verification and 1,388 applicants could be verified as new registrations. A total of 1,342 workers were verified for renewal. Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, in November, had announced that the registration of construction workers would be done through the doorstep delivery programme.
A number was introduced for construction workers and daily wagers to get registered for the government’s schemes. All building workers aged between 18 and 60 are eligible for registration as beneficiary. Plumbers, electricians, painters, and security guards working in the construction sector may also take advantage of the welfare schemes. Till March 2007, there were 1,558 workers registered with the Board. As per the government statistics, the city, till March 2020, has over 5.5 lakh registered construction workers.