Every morning, hundreds of women pack up their scanty belongings and line up at bus stops, markets and designated “pick-up” points, hoping to be picked up for work by a contractor.
In most cases, there's little room for haggling, and in any case it is more or less known how much each contractor ‘type' pays: between Rs. 150-175 for women ‘helpers', and Rs. 200-270 for men. So when Malar, a migrant labourer from Tamil Nadu signed up for a two-week stint at a construction site near Hennur, she knew that she will be paid a third less than her husband.
Malar, who has done several short stints at construction sites across Bangalore since she moved here for work three months ago, does not know that the Equal Remuneration Act mandates that men and women, working the same hours, be paid equal wages. It doesn't surprise her, she says, that the pay is disparate, because in her village too, manual labour has always stuck to this formula. “I was working in a stone polishing unit, and women were paid half the wage. The logic is that our productivity is lesser than men,” she says, matter-of-factly. When prodded, she adds, that women do work harder to keep the job, as they are worried about maintaining their families.
At most construction sites, wages are different for men and women, workers confirm. Women are just about paid the minimum wage (fixed at Rs. 160.89 for Karnataka, for eight working hours). A ready excuse that contractors use to dodge liability is that women are doing the “soft jobs” — such as headload work, sifting sand, stone crushing or cleaning — while men undertake the heavier tasks, and are eligible for more.
Tasks gendered
Women, typically, work in “assistant” jobs. Indeed, the division of tasks too is gendered, leaving women at the bottom rung of this industry, working for years in tasks that require lesser skills. Men perpetuate the belief that women are not capable of doing the “heavier jobs”, leaving no room for women to be trained or pick up skills such as masonry that help men move upwards in the sector.
Rubeena (27), who moved from her village near Guntur after multiple crop failures at her farm, has worked at construction sites for a decade now.
At one site, near Coimbatore, she was “allowed to lay bricks”, perceived as a ‘man's job'.
“But I was paid Rs. 40 less than the men because they said I was slow,” she says, adding this is not true as she knows her threshold for prolonged hours of work is more than most men. Then why not demand more? Her husband Shajed interrupts, “She cannot take heavy loads. How will she climb a building?” Rubeena quickly points out that even when men work at heights, it is the women who are carrying them stuff.
Many women The Hindu spoke to also complained of abuse and sexual exploitation at worksites, often forcing them to change jobs.
‘Low skilled' jobs
Workers say that at large construction sites machines have replaced several tasks (concrete mixing, for example) that were traditionally earmarked for women, or “low-skilled” labour.
This has led to a decline in jobs for women in this booming industry. As early as 2005, a National Commission for Women report on ‘women in construction industry' had pointed to this decline, and a sharp plunge in the demand for unskilled workers. It had recommended that women workers be organised and imparted skills training.
Though an estimated 10 lakh construction workers move in and out of the State, only 1.7 lakh workers are registered.
Being unorganised, women cannot assert themselves and wages continue to be unequal, says N. Veeraswamy, secretary of the Karnataka Building and Other Construction Workers' Federation.
