Fair draft

FACT FINDING MISSION REPORT ON HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS AGAINST MIGRANT LABOURERS AND THEIR FAMILIES IN SITES OF OMR ROAD, KANCHIPURAM DISTRICT, THE REAL PLIGHT, CONSEQUENCES AND RECOMMENDATIONS.

BACKGROUND

Construction activities are an integral part of the Indian economy and have attracted considerable amount of finances in both the public and private sectors. A construction worker is one who contributes his/her labour to construction of structures such as bridges, houses, buildings etc. Construction labour is the second largest unorganized sector of industry. Rapid urbanization leads to acute need of housing and growth of industry which require massive infrastructure including roads, bridges building of factories, railways etc. due to these requirements, the construction industry stands out as one of the major activities. Construction activity is also consistently providing a substantial contribution to the national income. A large part of the unorganized and unskilled labour force in the country, both male and female, is employed in various forms of building and construction activity. Being labour intensive, it employs the second largest work-force in the unorganized sector after agricultural labour.

They are mostly rural migrants either landless or share-croppers and marginal/small landowners who come to cities in search of work, being drawn from the same pool as the unorganized agricultural labour in rural areas. This labour is extremely mobile due to the conditions and problems of employment in the construction industry which is characterized by high turnover, use of contract labour, irregular employment, bad working conditions, seasonal variability and dependence on supplies of raw materials. This labour is mostly drawn from villages and is by and large illiterate, untrained, and divided along caste, linguistic and other affinities.

Some of the characteristics of construction labour are:

  • High economic vulnerability due to the double combination of irregular and unstable employment and consequent high mobility on the one hand, and their utilization only in the lowest grade of job on the other
  • High proportion of child and female labour and frequent employment of whole family or couples
  • Ignorance, poverty, illiteracy, poor health
  • Lack of unionization due to mobility
  • Lack of opportunity for training, skills upgrading and literacy for employed people, and of basic education for the children.

A fact finding mission was organized which visited three construction sites on the IT park road. The objectives of the fact finding mission were:

1. To assess the perception of exploitation of construction workers physically and economically.

2. To assess the status of access to education among children of construction workers.

3. To assess the overall health status of construction workers’ community.

4. To assess the security and safety measures available for them.

5. To analyse the real human rights violating situations and to propound recommendations for the same.

6. To bring out the truth to light and address the ground realities to governments of local,state and centre.

7. To follow up the implementation of necessary actions after proposing the recommendations.

Members of fact finding mission:

  1. Mr. Arul Doss, Tamil Nadu Youth Coordinator, NAPM
  2. Mr. Solomon, TN Forces
  3. Mrs. Kalaivani,
  4. Mr. N.V. Sasi Kumar, Student volunteer
  5. Ms. J. Lohitha, Researcher, Stella Maris College
  6. Ms.Stella, Teacher, RDT school
  7. Ms.Sangeetha, Teacher, RDT school

Construction sites visited

1. XS real constructions site – padoor village, kelambakkam.

2. UDR constructions site - kelambakkam

3. Sri Satya Sai constructions site – Amapettai village,tiruporur.

Structure of the fact finding report

The report is presented in two sections. The first section of the report states the observational findings and human rights violations with case studies. The second section recommends the strategies that could be adopted to highlight issues and solutions before the central and state government.

FINDINGS OF FACT FINDING MISSION

In generalization to 3 construction sites, 85% of construction workers are migrant labourers from West Bengal,Jharkhand, Bihar and Orissa and 15% are migrant labourers from Andhra Pradesh and Tamilnadu.

LABOUR ISSUES

With regard to job status, it was found that young workers, men and women constitute a large proportion of the unskilled workers. Typically, unskilled workers are found to be illiterate, unlike skilled workers. The former comprise predominantly scheduled tribes from Orissa, Bihar, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh.

Their mobility is confined to building construction activity and they are not allowed to move outside the site as and when they wish. Typical bonded labour was witnessed. They work under a system of contract and subcontract. The average no. of working hours was found to be 17 hrs per day. They do not work on Sundays and certain public holidays. But it must be noted that these are not paid holidays. There are no stipulated leave to which they are entitled. Hence, even if they are ill, or injured due to injuries suffered during work, they are not given any leave. Women don’t enjoy any maternity leave and they are supposed to work till the date of delivery. Even after which there is no paid holiday stipulated. There are no compulsive holidays and no aspect of paid holidays.

Wages are paid on weekly basis and per day wage is Rs 300 for men and Rs 250 for women where clear discrimination on the basis of gender is found. The wage paid doesn’t match the minimum wages as in the minimum wages act and they work for long hours at a stretch with a very short lunch and dinner break. This proves high exploitation of human labour and this leads to short life span in future and deteriorated lifestyle with various health issues.

Absence of ESI & PF

The promulgation of employees state insurance act,1948 envisaged an integrated need based social insurance scheme that would protect the interest of workers in contingenciesSuch as sickness, maternity, temporary or permanent disablement, death due to employment injury resulting in loss of wages or earning capacity. The act also guarantees reasonably good medical care to workers and their immediate dependants.

There is no ESI & PF available for these construction workers, Employees are completely ignorant about this ESI act and therefore exploited severely by various means.

There is no safety measures abided as well in the construction site.It was noticed that construction workers work at great heights without proper safety gadgets; machinery used at the construction site are not guarded, elevated shafts are left unfenced. At times materials fall from heights, where the work goes on.

It was also reported that due to exhaustive working hours, workers are subjected to injuries and death when working in a state of sleepiness during midnights.

Child labour, even though banned by law, is a reality in construction sites. During our visit it was witnessed small children of age 6-13 found accompanying their mother during work and children of age 15-18 are already construction workers on site.

ABSENCE OF COMPENSATION FOR INJURED EMPLOYEE’S

According to the workmen compensation act, Section 3, if personal injury is caused to a workman by an accident arising out of and in the course of his employment , his employer shall be liable to pay compensation to the injured workman.

There are many accidents which takes place in these construction sites but no victim has been paid with compensation. This shows the clear picture of employers’ concern over employees and their knowledge of governments acts. The injured person’s family faces hardship for even buying provisions for their daily meal.

Proper medical assistance is not provided to the injured, this leads to most dilapidated condition to the injured family welfare. Deaths have also taken place during the working hours and these cases have not been officially registered in police station.

INTERSTATE MIGRANT LABOUR ACT

The act regulates the employment of inter-state migrant workers and to their conditions of service and other matter connected therewith.

The act applies to an establishment or contractor in which 5 or more interstate migrant workers are employed. A migrant worker means any person who is recruited by or through a contractor in one state under an agreement or otherwise for employment in establishment in another state.

Every principal employer shall make an application in duplicate in form -1 to the concerned ALC for registration by paying the prescribed fee to obtain the registration certificate is compulsory.

In reality, the above said norms are not being followed by any employer. This shows the exploitative attitude of an employer towards the construction workers. Employees are also not aware of registration and the act’s provisions. Workers are also not guided by the contractor who is bringing them for work a different state. This is the purposeful behaviour of the employer and contractor for their own benefits.

CASE STUDY

Arjun, a migrant labourer from Orissa working in XS real constructions, substantiated the issues of labour. He had been working since a year. He said that a sum of Rs 300 is taken by his Maistry, (sub contractor) Krishna at the end of every week for giving rice for cooking. He is aware that he is being exploited by his maistry but he is not in a position to retaliate because of his economic vulnerability and fear of losing this job. He also added that all of them work from 9am to 2am. They have a break from 1-2pm and again from 10-11pm. He expressed that the working hours are really long and he feels exhaustive at the end of the day. Nearly 30 people are injured everyday in his construction site due to worksite accidents and no compensation is given for it. He also said deaths also occur occasionally but they are not registered in any police station.

CHILDREN’S ISSUES

In UDR construction site alone there are nearly 100 children who are not given access to education and were found playing in very inhuman and filthy environment which was a disheartening situation. No child goes to school in any of the construction sites and the construction companies also are totally ignorant and negligent to take any steps to give education to the children.

These children before migrating to this place, where studying in their native place and as there is no residential school facility available over there, parents take their children along with them wherever they migrate for work.

Another major drawback is that government schools in nearby place around the construction site educate in Tamil and whereas the migrated children can’t pursue their education in an unknown language as they come from northern parts of our country.

Even though we are in a time phase believing child labour is abolished and Right to Education Act is implemented. The serious and ground reality is entirely different. This is a strict human right violation of a child’s right to education according to Article 21A of the Indian constitution.

Children are also at high risk of being victims of child sexual abuse in such an environment. Malnutrition is clearly distinguished on just looking at a construction worker’s child and a normal child. Infants are even more vulnerable in a construction environment as there is no safe environment and the pollution levels are really very high. It was also reported that there is no vaccination given to any child regularly or even once.The construction companies seem to be taking no moral responsibility to arrange a medical camp for the same.

When asked children, they have an urge and interest to study and go to school but the economic and social vulnerability of the construction workers make them get exploited in all means and education becomes a luxurious aspect to be offered for the parents to their children.

India has agreed to undertake the obligations of the UN convention on rights of child (UNCRC) committing itself to protect and ensure children's rights and have agreed to hold itself accountable for this commitment before the international community. But the ground reality is highly in contrast to the convention signed by the nation. Serious implementation of the convention is a must.

Moreover, the State Govt had finalised a Migrant Child Labour Policy after undertaking a Study on Migrant Children, along with UNICEF but unfortunately, the Policy has not been implemented at all.

CASE STUDY

Vennila, 9year old girl child from UDR construction site takes care of her siblings after her parents are away at work. The child was in class II when she was in Andhra pradesh. After her family moved to this place her education was discontinued. She expressed her desire to study further and also said that she doesn’t like to stay here as it is very dirty and polluted. Furthermore, Meenakumari and Dhanalakshmi of age 9 and 10 years respectively joined the discussion and expressed the same. They told they are happy when they play with each other but otherwise they face lot of problems. When asked if there was a school in the site itself, will they wish to go and they immediately said a strong yes with a very positive response.

HEALTH ISSUES

It was learnt from interacting with the construction workers that health hazards include Asthma, Tuberculosis and frequent respiratory difficulties due to inhalation of cement and sand dust, cancer due to paints as well as exhaustion and severe physical pain and also heat, radiation, noise, dust, shocks, toxic chemicals causing serious health problems. Further, the raw materials that the construction workers deal with, like sand and asbestos give rise to silicosis and asbestosis; work at heights give rise to blood pressure problems as well. Long and continuous exposure to heat result in problems like sun burns, cramps, sun strokes etc.

Also it was not uncommon to see pregnant women working hard till the delivery, babies in cloth curdles, and toddlers playing in sand and cement dust exposed to hazards of worksite. Accidents are an everyday affair and deaths are not disclosed as they are not even registered in the police station. The dead corpse is buried in the construction site itself. In UDR construction site it was reported that nearly 30 accidents take place every day. There is no compensation for accident or death given.

Maternity health is totally ignored and women don’t have any liability to access to medical checkups and there are no grounds for prenatal care or antenatal care.

Alcohol/ drug addiction is predominantly found in all construction sites visited and major health and social issues are prevalent because of the same. Whereas, Article 47 of India Constitution states the responsibility of the state to secure the improvement of public health and the prohibition of intoxicating drinks and drugs.

Lifestyle of construction workers is dehumanized because of their vulnerability.Mental, physical stress is very high among them due to various dynamics of exploitation. They live like bonded labourers in construction sites. There is absolute compromise in compensation for accident or death for the victim and the family. Access to health care is denied absolutely which is a serious human right violation.

SOCIAL ISSUES

Housing

Each family is provided with a temporary tent made of asbestos, and all families reside in the labour camp, very close by to the construction taking place. The tents don’t have doors for safety and the living area within the house is very small giving no room for privacy at all. All houses are located very close by and there are no numbers allocated for their tents. No proper sanitation facilities are available and toilets are in extreme poor conditions totally ineligible for use. Women find it very difficult for sanitary purposes and this claims a much dehumanised living, a violation of human right to freedom of residence and settlement according to Article 19 of Indian constitution. UN declaration says 350 sq feet should be allocated for each housing. But in real scenario , They have been allocated less then 300 sq feet.

Safety of women and children

The tents allocated for the families are very similar, and there is absence of door number which creates room for promiscuous behavior during odd times of the day. It was also found that women are involved in sex work. But again it is to be noted that it can also be forced exploitation. Such an environment also paves way for child sexual abuse

Case Study
It is sad to be noticed that one girl child of age 5 had died in Sri Satya Sai construction site which was not registered in police station at first place and the dead body was not allowed for post-mortem as well. It is still not known how the child has died with clear facts. Such is the plight of compromise in safety and security for girl children in these sites of construction. When asked the other workers in the site, they are also not ready to reveal the actual facts of the death. Finally the dead body of the child has been buried in the construction site itself in a hush-hush manner.