Migrant workers themselves live in squalor, with 450 of them managing with 20 toilets and an open bathing area. Occupying just over 225 sq. ft., each hut is crammed with 10-15 migrants, reeling under scorching heat. Sunitha Sekar and Pavan Dahat report from a labour colony
At the foot of a beautiful mountain near Tirusulam is a bumpy narrow stretch bordered by a row of tin-sheet huts. Occupying just over 225 sq. ft., each hut is crammed with 10-15 migrants, reeling under scorching heat.
Migrant workers who reside in the labour colony at Tirusulum live in deplorable conditions. For about 450 people employed at various construction sites across the city, there are just 20 toilets and an open bathing area. Some residents of the locality said that, earlier, workers would defecate in the open near the Tirusulam railway tracks. This stopped after iron fencing was raised around the colony after a few alleged cases of railway track deaths of these workers. S. Sai Lakshmi, a resident of Tirusulam said, “Until two years ago, the workers resorted to open defecation since there were no toilets for them. This resulted in a couple of railway track deaths. Later, guards were deployed near the tracks.” Ironically, the Tambaram Railway Police said no such cases of death had been reported.
Most of the workers hesitate to bring their families here as safety is an issue. R. Mahesh Yadav, who hails from Bihar, said, “I can't imagine living with my family in such a condition.” His apprehensions are justified considering a five-year-old girl of a construction worker was raped at Egattur in 2009. The paucity of water is another worry. “The situation was not this bad a couple of years ago. Initially, the contractor would send us more than five water tankers but now we have to manage with just three,” said S. Ashish, a migrant from Odisha.
To add to their woes, they say they are under close scrutiny by locals and the police. The labour contractors were asked to create a database of migrant workers after the Velachery encounter earlier this year. P. Pradeep from West Bengal said, “After the incident, the police told us not to venture outside the colony after 10 p.m. We were also asked to submit our details, including a photograph.”
Most workers are reluctant to reveal their wages fearing a reprisal. After assurance of anonymity, a 20-something migrant from Bihar, said, “While I get paid Rs. 140 for eight hours of work, a local receives Rs. 300 for the same job and working hours.”
A contractor, who did not wish to be named, denied this and said unskilled workers were paid Rs. 250-270 while the skilled ones earned about Rs. 370 for eight hours. He said migrant workers from north India are hired for the obvious reason that they come at a cheaper price.
The Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulations of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996, and the Building and other Construction Workers' Welfare Cess Act, 1996, mandates that all States collect a cess for the welfare of construction workers.
Geetha Ramakrishnan of Unorganised Workers' Federation, said, “According to the Building and Other Construction Workers Act, 1996, the Tamil Nadu Welfare Board has to collect one per cent cess from all construction sites. But the board collects only 0.3 per cent at present. Earlier, cess was never collected from construction sites of central government undertakings. Only now have they begun to collect it from them.”
Section 6 of The Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979, says that the employment of a migrant without registration is prohibited. Ms. Ramakrishnan said that many labourers were not registered and the process itself had become difficult as the Village Administrative Officers did not bother to verify the identity of migrant workers.
The indignities of poverty force these workers to gravitate to the city for employment so much so that they readily accept any living condition. Their sole aim is to send home a sizeable amount. But even that seems like a far-fetched dream now, they say.
(Names of the workers have been changed to protect their identity.)
How much money the construction contractors will loose by providing
these people with some basic facilities?? Cheap workforce doesn't mean
they are not humans.
I agree with Mr. Mani... the officers of the government should do
something as they are authorized. should make sure that the workers will
get theirs wages right. and even provide better conditions for living.
Indians are always proud about their culture. It is painful to see how
we had slowly lost it. In our culture, we treat our guests with
dignity and love. Anyone who visit or work in our state are our
guests, as they depend on the locals for everything. If we start to
exploit ppl for economic reasons, it will hurt us some day. Though it
is the duty of the government to create an atmosphere of safety and
fair treatment, every individual can still contribute by not being
prejudice about the migrant worker and accept them as one among us. It
is always the responsibility of the well-off or fortunate people to
let the less fortunate people to look-up to them and better themselves
Mani Iyer: What you say may be true but they do deserve to live better
don't you think? because they are not aware of laws and other stuff,
they are dealing with these kind of standards. So it is the duty of our
state or the company who hired them to supervise their (Labor's)
standard of living because without these blue collar hard workers they
can't go anywhere. So just because they lived like these before,this
should not continue for rest of their lives.
Sunita Sekat and Pavan Dahat's story, given in the context of the caption "They are changing the way Chennai Lives But..." is misleading. Is this unique to Chennai? And is this uniquely the Bihari, Oriya, and UP migrant workers' experience only in Chennai? go and see how these migrant workers live in Bangalore, Hyderabad, in Keral cities, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata... ...
The description in the story also fits the condition of aLL low-skill and muscular migrant workers in the Indian context, no matter where they are migrating from, and where they are migrating to. Go and see how the "Madrasi" -- they can be from anywhere in the South -- low-skilled workers' living conditions in Mumbai and Delhi, and Kolkata. I am not referring to those pursuing white college jobs with high school education or better.
The same is the story of ALL Indian workers in the Persian Gulf countries.
I wonder how many in the Media treat their house-hold help with dignity and respect.
Mani Iyer must be living in a basement! There comes the thought process!
This article can be extrapolated to the Indians living in the US where they complain of discrimination! Cheap labour...
Mani Iyer: If your sons / daughters living in America are told the same kind of argument that the conditions in India are deplorable, will you accept it? Hence, do not have double standards.
The exploitation of labour and denying it basic dignity is the dark secret behind India's economic growth and rising "affluence". Only when the costs of providing adequate wages, housing and sanitation to workers is properly accounted for in the overall costing will the true growth rate become apparent. If environmental costs are also included, what will show up is not growth but decline.
Nothing surprising. That is their standard of living back home also. You can see them all over India living like this.
The government should mandate a minimum wage scheme for these workers. Our Government should follow wage protection scheme introduced in UAE. Through this scheme the Government is able to know how much each worker is earning.
Employers should be liable to provide adequate help for the migrant workers, but this would drive up their manufacturing costs. It is much advisable to provide employment opportunities for local people which may be expensive at face value, but because many would already be settled, they would not require housing, hence, may be cost efficient in the long run.
It is sad to see that the workers who play a major part in shaping up of the city the way it is now, are forced to live under deplorable conditions with lack of access to the most basic of necessities. This situation is true of all the kinds of projects, may it be the metro rail projects or the airport expansion projects or private constructions. Makes us wonder where our sense of morality has gone. This doesn't mean the local workers are treated a lot better, just that they seem to be a little better off than the rest of the migrant lot due to their ability to speak the local language. They're as badly treated as their migrant counterparts nonetheless.
It is advisable for the state government to step in and penalize the employers and also make arrangements to give temporary shelter in proper locations, if not this could lead to another dharavi near chennai airport, think about it
Anybody from Labour Department reading this???
I have heard several people who employ workers rue over NREGA taking away cheap labour from them. What else do they expect when they provide such abhorrent living conditions and abysmal wages?
Why are these north Indians allowed in TN. We must throw them out as
they are always involved in crimes and make the place filthy.
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