NEW DELHI: At a dusty construction site on a hot Delhi afternoon, 46-year-old Atar Singh is busy paving a bad stretch on the Delhi-Meerut Expressway with layers of hot tar. He has no clue that he is “helping build India” nor does he care whether he is. All he is bothered about is that the stretch of road he is working on should be smoothly macadamized even if that means he will be left with blisters or allergies on his hands and feet.
“If the court has said so, then sure I am helping in nation-building. But for me getting my daily wages is the priority. The contractor who has hired us does take care of us if one of us is injured, but then you know your own savings are the only support you can fall back on if you lose a limb or break your hand,” said Singh, whose family comprises three children and his wife, apart from old dependent parents.
Along with 10 others, Singh moved to the National Capital Region from Firozabad district in Uttar Pradesh seven years ago. Since then, he and his group that specialises in tar-laying work have been hopping from one project to the other.
Sometimes, he works as a brick-layer. Before starting on the Delhi-Meerut Expressway, he was in Noida working on a multi-storeyed housing project.“The Delhi-Meerut Expressway project came at the right time as work has dried up in this region in the last three years because of an excess of housing projects in Noida and Greater Noida. After this project is over, we have no offers on hand. So we will go back home to do some farming,” said Singh, who gets `250 for every metre of tar laid.
Earlier, the Supreme Court had come down heavily on government agencies for failing to implement various provisions under the Building and Other Construction Workers Act, 1996, and the Workers’ Welfare Cess Act.
“It must be appreciated that construction workers do not assist only in building infrastructure, but they also assist in building the nation,” the court had said. It was hearing a petition seeking meaningful implementation of the BOCW Act and the Cess Act filed by National Campaign Committee for Central Legislation on Construction Labour (NCC-CL), an NGO.
“The attitude of governments towards the welfare of construction workers is just appalling. The Delhi government, in the last 12 years, collected Rs 2,548 crore as cess from construction workers but spent only 6 per cent of it, a mere Rs 152 crore, towards their welfare. Whether it is private or government contracts, implementation of law is very poor,” Subhash Bhatnagar, Coordinator, NCC-CL, told The Sunday Standard.
Under the Building and Other Construction Workers Act and the Cess Act, cess is collected from every employer of a government or a public sector undertaking at a rate not exceeding two per cent but not less than one per cent of the cost of construction incurred by an employer. The cess amount is supposed to be spent for the benefit of workers, like setting up provident funds in their names, giving them health insurance and special maternity benefits and creating awareness among them.But for Balwant Kumar, such things sound strange.
“I have a mother, father and brother back home who are dependent on me for food. The boss here is nice, he does provide for your treatment when you get injured, along with your daily wage. But construction work is diminishing since the last two years, so farming is the only backup,” said Kumar, employed by Panchsheel builders in Vasundhra Sector 3, Ghaziabad. His daily wage is `400
“Our company follows the rules on cess laid down by the government but it is they who have to implement the schemes. We help our employees as much as we can,” said Ankur Nagar, Deputy General Manager, Panchsheel housing project, Ghaziabad.