After agricultural workers, construction workers constitute the biggest segment of the working class in India, numbering around 4 crore. They are literally building the nation – yet they themselves exist and work in hellish conditions, falling victim to on-site accidents due to lack of safety regulations, and deprived even of timely and adequate wage payment.
Our union in Bihar has been taking up construction workers’ struggles since 1989. The Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996 was enacted as a result of national struggles. We struggled for 11 years against the ‘social justice’ dispensation of Laloo-Rabri and Nitish’s regime of ‘justice and development’ for implementation of this Act. Eventually it came into force in Bihar in February 2008. Under this Act, there are various provisions for workers’ welfare. Although these provisions are inadequate in light of steep price rise and the Act requires major changes, the Nitish Government is reluctant even to implement it in the existing form. This Act requires a cess to be paid into the Welfare Fund to the tune of 1-2% of the total outlay in case of all construction work. In the government sector, this cess is partially deposited after much struggle and effort by workers. But the Nitish Government is absolutely unwilling to collect this cess from businessmen, contractors and builders!
Decisions passed by the welfare board are not ratified by the Nitish Government’s cabinet. These decisions – including raising of pension amount from Rs 150 to Rs 1000; upgrading of maternity benefits from a one-time payment of Rs 1000 to 90 days worth of minimum wages; instead of Rs 20 per year for registration and renewal, registration and renewal for five years at the rate of Re 1 per year (in Tamil Nadu, registration and renewal are free); raising of education fund from Rs 100 to Rs 200; of cremation fund from Rs 1000 to Rs 2000; wedding assistance from Rs 2000 to Rs 5000 – lie pending with the Cabinet for the past 8 months. The Board has also recommended to the Central Government that sand workers also be given the status of construction workers, like brick kiln and stone-breaking workers. But the central government has paid no heed as yet.
The Unorganised Workers’ Social Security Act enacted by the Central Government in 2008 for all unorganized sector workers except agricultural and construction workers. Three years later, the Nitish government is yet to implement this in Bihar! After much struggle, the Centre allocated Rs 1 lakh crore for the Unorganised Workers’ Welfare Board for 2011-2012. But because the state government is yet to implement the Act, this amount is yet to reach Bihar.
The Nitish Government’s anti-worker attitude is clear from all the above instances. But when it comes to claiming political benefit Nitish never feels the least shame. The state government has not contributed a penny to the Construction Workers’ Welfare Board. Yet, in a recent grand function, Nitish himself distributed the cheques of Rs 15000 each from the fund as though it was given from his own ‘royal treasury’! The Rs 134 crore deposited in the welfare board and distributed among workers was no government charity – it was earned from workers’ sweat and blood. The Government, which is evading implementation of all rules and regulations provided for by the law, is earning cheap popularity by distributing among workers what was the workers’ own earnings by rights!
Construction workers do not get work all year round. They also work at plying rickshaws, selling vegetables, etc. They are mostly from a background of agricultural workers, sharecroppers or very small farmers. So, it is imperative that these workers get all the benefits due to cultivators and sharecroppers.
Everyday, thousands of construction workers come to Patna from rural areas to sell their labour. Patna district being the state capital district, and in view of the growing entry of capital in rural and semi-rural areas, our party must strive to organize this segment of workers who are relatively free from agriculture. Politicizing this section of workers has proved a big challenge. In Masaurhi, our party has a good hold among the sanitation workers’ and sand workers’ struggles, and now we are in the midst of a drive to recruit construction workers to our union and also secure registration for the workers. Struggling for implementation of the rules and regulations relating to construction workers – especially those relating to wages, safety, pension, health, maternity and schooling benefits, equal wages for women workers, and proper worksite amenities - is the main demand of our struggle.
