COUNTERVIEW: Ahmedabad: Saturday, April 28, 2018.
Even as
Gujarat government has begun paying, following a Supreme Court order, Rs 10
lakh compensation each for the death of 170 workers because of suffocation in
manholes, thanks to a long-drawn-out battle by people's organizations, facts
have come to light suggesting that it is showing high degree of indifference in
this regard for the accidental death of 877 construction workers.
A Bandkam
Majur Sangh (BMS)-sponsored seminar, in which construction workers'
representatives, government officials, and executives from top building
construction companies, such as L&T and IL&FS, has been told that for
just 20 out of 877 deaths since 2008 compensation has been paid.
Quoting from
a Right to Information (RTI) reply, BMS' Vipul Pandya told the seminar,
"According to the rule, the state government should pay Rs 3 lakh as
compensation to those who are are registered as workers with the State
Construction Workers' Welfare Board."
The workers
were not being paid compensation, it was revealed, despite the fact that the
welfare board has a huge Rs 1,900 crore at its disposal, collected at the rate
of Rs 30 per square metre from the construction sector for the welfare of
workers. Collected since 2006, so far the state government, ironically, has so
far spent a paltry Rs 150 crore for the workers' welfare.
If health
facilities are claimed to have been offered to construction workers for free,
some of the 27 schemes at the disposal of the welfare board have simply not
taken off. For instance, Some one of the schemes is Rs 1,000 pension to workers
after 60 years of age, for which they must be found to have registered
continuously for the last three years. A senior official at the seminar
admitted, "Not one application has come..."
"As for
those who are are not registered, they should be paid Rs 1.5 lakh", Pandya
said. Pointing out that only 30% of the construction workers out of 12 lakh are
registered, Pandya said, "None of the those who died and aren't registered
have been paid any compensation." According to the rule, each worker must
renew registration every year, otherwise her or his registration would
lapse."
Identifying
"major problems" while registering construction workers, majority of
whom are tribal migrants from Gujarat as well as places as far away as Bihar
and West Bengal, senior board official IG Soni triggered hornet's nest, saying
that "fake registration" has been taking place to take advantage of
its 27 welfare schemes, one reason why one has to be "extra-careful."
Giving the
example of registration of migrants who work in Surat's diamond industry, Soni
said, "We were in the process of registering about 1,500 of them. And
suddenly we found that there were 150 Rohingiyas among them, hence stopped
registration." Asked how did he come to know that they were Rohingiyas,
Soni said, "They didn't know either Gujarati or Hindi. They did not have
any aadhaar card either."
Asked whether
he thought that some of those present in the seminar but did not have aadhaar
could be called Rohingiyas, a worked up Soni said, "Did I say that? I am
not accusing anyone here." Amidst uproar, a migrant workers'
representative called Soni's statement "highly objectionable and directed
against a particular community." In Gujarat unlike other states aadhaar is a must for registration with the board.
According to
a Government of India estimate, there are around 40,000 Rohingiyas in India.
Victims of ethnic violence in Burma, Rohingiyas are mostly Muslims. Majority of
them, living in sub-human conditions, have crossed over from Burma and reached
Bangladesh by boat. Some of them reached India. Victims of humanitarian crisis,
the Government of India wants them to be deported to Bangladesh.
Giving more
details, Pandya said, last year 80 persons died while working on construction
sites. Majority of them, 28, were from Ahmedabad. "These construction
workers are underpaid. Even those working in Ahmedabad metro work for 12 to 15
hours to earn full day's wage, which is a safety issue. Most of them die
because of falling from a height."
Pointing out
that these migrants have "no space to live, no toilets, no water, no
creche where women workers can put their children while going on work",
Pandya said, "About 40% of those who die are tribal migrants." A top
consultant for the metro, FM Dahodwala, responsible for safety issues,
admitted, the government's special purpose vehicle set up for constructing
metro in Ahmedabad, MEGA, has, in all, 1,500 workers, but of these "only
10% are registered with the welfare board."
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