Construction
Workers' Campaign
For
the past three years, SEWA has been actively organising construction
workers in Ahmedabad city. Construction work is a major avenue
of employment for millions of women and men. They are almost entirely
in the unorganised sector. In India there are more than 2 crore
construction workers. Five lakh of them are based in Gujarat State
and 50,000 in Ahmedabad City. This year the campaign for construction
workers developed considerably. Its main activities were:
- Pressing for
state – level laws for construction workers through the
Construction Workers Bill.
- Organising for
identity cards for construction workers, from the labour department.
- Dialogue with
the state security fund and its administration and implementation
via a tripartite board.
SEWA
organises construction workers by contracting them at 50 nakas
or sites where construction workers wait for work. Small meetings
are held in their neighbourhoods at night. Through filers and
these meetings, awareness is generated among the workers. With
the distribution of more than 2,000 filers, a steady stream of
workers made their way to our office. We also undertook a study
of 125 female and an equal number of male workers from 50 "nakas".
Construction
Workers’ Say …. Excerpts from our Study
- 45%
of women and 43% of men are between the ages of 26
and 35 years.
- 90%
of the women workers are involved in loading and unloading
sand, bricks and tiles.
- Women
reported earnings of Rs. 28 and men of Rs. 27 per
day.
- 74%
of women and 98% men reported no work security. Only
8% of women and 2% of men have permanent employment.
- 77%
of the women and 96% of the men reported working for
8 to 10 hours daily.
- 70%
of the women reported pain in limbs and headache and
16% said they experienced severe backache.
- 51%
of women and 14% of the men reported having experienced
injuries and hence work loss.
- 90%
of women and 95% of the men reported that they did
not obtain any social security or other workers’
benefits.
- 86%
of both women and men said that they would prefer
to do some other work.
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Given the difficult
conditions under which construction workers live and work and
their need for laws and social security, SEWA organised a convention-cum-public
meeting of workers, a "sammelan". 2,000 workers participated
and presented a memorandum with their concerns and demands to
the Assistant Director – General of Labour Welfare from Delhi.
State level labour officers were also present. All the government
officers present promised that Gujarat would soon pass a law for
construction workers, and that the central government would assist
and encourage this process.
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