Southern States - Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram   

Saga of misery for migrant workers

By C. Maya

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM Feb. 12. The recent incident in which a labourer from West Bengal was killed when the earth caved in at a construction site at Overbridge, has highlighted the unsafe and exploitative working conditions of the burgeoning population of migrant labourers in the city.

The deceased worker, Roy Ganesh, and two others who had been injured in the accident, were part of a big group from West Bengal.

The district administration could hardly do anything to help these men in the absence of proper address or records and the body was finally taken back by some of the workers themselves.

The district labour officials have so far been unable to contact the contractor who is said to have brought them here and it is highly unlikely that the deceased labourer's family would be given any monetary compensation, either by the State or by the principal employer.

The city is playing host to a large community of migrant labourers from various parts of the country, including Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Orissa, Bihar and West Bengal.

Most of them are engaged by construction companies or by telecom companies for cable-laying work. Many of them have been brought in groups by contractors, but there are many others who have come here on their own, along with their families and relatives, to find work.

While a construction worker here is protected by the labour laws of the State and has separate welfare fund boards, the migrant labourers are unorganised, have no uniform wage structure and do not enjoy the benefits of any welfare measures that are enjoyed by their counterparts here.

Most of the migrant workers here do not have proper addresses or records with them and in the event of an accident, have to fend for themselves.

"Migrant labourers are preferred because they are willing to work for longer hours and expect to be paid less than what a worker here earns,'' says G. Shanker, a prominent architect in the city.

``This kind of contractual labour is often another form of slavery. These workers are willing to be herded here because compared to the wages in their own States _ women there are paid Rs. 45 or less, while the men are paid around Rs. 70 _ they get about 70 per cent more here. They are also happy because there is no casteism here, unlike in the North,'' Mr. Shanker points out.

A mason here is paid about Rs. 180 to Rs. 200 and an unskilled worker, Rs. 140 to Rs. 170, for eight hours' work with lunch and tea breaks. The migrant labourer, on the other hand, is paid about Rs. 30 to Rs. 40 less for working 12 hours or more and doing night-shifts too.

Apart from the exploitation of their labour, the migrant workmen are forced to live in inhuman conditions, often at the work site itself or by the roadside.

Makeshift tents serve as living and sleeping quarters, where they do their cooking also.

There are no washing and toilet facilities and drinking water has to be collected from public taps. Often, big families, including women and children, stay in these camps till they move on to their next work site.

This exploitation continues, despite the existence of an Inter State Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Condition of Service) Act. Under the Act, every contractor who has five or more workers under him, should secure a recruitment licence from the home State of the labourers and another employment licence of the State where they are to be deployed.

The principal employer should register their employment details with the labour enforcement authorities.

The contractor must compulsorily maintain a wage register at the site and pay the wages in the presence of a representative of the principal employer. There are also several welfare clauses in the Act, such as provision of suitable residential premises with facilities for food, water and toilets, work clothes, free medical care, journey and displacement allowances.

The workers are also required to have a wage book, with all details, address of a relative and a photograph.

However, the rules are observed more in the breach.

"Enforcement of these rules is often impossible, because the protection of the Act can be provided only if there is a contractor responsible for the labourers. In most cases we can never trace the contractor and the labourers too do not cooperate with us for fear of losing their employment,'' says the Deputy Labour Commissioner, Prameela.

The district labour authorities say that during their inspections, labourers vehemently deny that there is a middleman and claim that they came on their own in search of employment.

``The migrant labourers are being ruthlessly exploited and there is no effective system in place to check this. Big contractors and builders are capitalising on the ignorance of these workmen,'' points out a builder.

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