A manifesto on behalf of urban poor released by the Hyderabad Bastee People’s Federation, in view of the upcoming elections, demanded a policy for zero eviction in municipal areas. Double bedroom houses should be made available to all deserving families in urban areas within next three years, and the houses should be built in-situ with beneficiaries’ participation in planning and auditing, the manifesto said.
New housing colonies should be made to reserve 20% of the built up area for service personnel to ensure that no new slums were formed. Cheap rental housing for seasonal migrant working families too was demanded.
On behalf of sixty lakh working class population living in six municipal corporations and 136 municipalities of the Telangana State, the manifesto made a list of demands separately for domestic workers, construction workers, sanitation workers, and youth and children of urban slums.
For domestic workers, the manifesto sought establishment of a separate social security board under the Unorganised Sector Social Security Act, 2008, and implementation of several social security measures.
Two percent of property tax collection should be allocated by urban local bodies to the social security board, it said, besides demanding fair wages, weekly holiday, and maternity leave, and regulation and monitoring of recruitment agencies.
For construction workers, the manifesto sought compulsory registration, skill upgradation, increase of accident insurance to ₹5 lakh in case of loss of limbs and ₹10 in case of death, among others. Allotment of ₹100 crore in State budget for the self-employment and rehabilitation of manual scavengers was another demand in the manifesto, signed by representatives of organisations such as Campaign for Housing and Tenurial Rights and Gruhakarmikula Union.
The manifesto also demanded breakfast in State government schools and anganwadis, one anganwadi centre for every 200 households in slums, one ITI institute for 5 lakh population, and implementation of right to education.
It is expected of all political parties seeking votes of the urban working class to include these demands in their respective manifestos, the organisations said.
