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What sowed in 2015, the fruit has finally been reaped.
In her introductory speech on July 5 2019, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman endorsed an almost four year old Central Government’s decision of streamlining 44 labour laws into four consolidated labour codes relating to wages, industrial relations, social security and welfare and occupational safety, health and working conditions.
The Right to Education Act 2009, a fundamental right instilled upon every Indian citizen by the Constitution of India in the age group of 6-14 years helps to shape a person’s life by nurturing his/her scientific mind in the fragile stage of life.
Opting out from his studies in class VIII, Md. Alam, a 20 year old boy left school at a nascent stage of life. Supporting his two younger siblings who are still in school, he has tried to shell out every possible help from his side to make their lives hamper-free. Working as a painter for a mere Rs 600 for a day’s labour since he was 16 years old Alam has just enough savings to support his immediate family of five. He earned Rs. 10,000 during the month of May which enabled him to cover his regular monthly expenses.
Having a similar story, Javed Ali, an 18 year old boy gave up schooling after passing his Class VI examinations. A painter by profession with one brother who has also studied till Class VII has been trying to manage his monthly expenses by working since the last two years for an amount of 600 rupees per day. Residing in Assam’s capital city Guwahati in a rented house for a rent of 2000 rupees, Javed feels satisfied with his regular wage earnings as he remains employed for most part of the year.
A micro-level study carried out among 30 construction workers in Guwahati showed that 19 workers (63%) were in the age group of 13-20 when they began selling their labour power. Initially, menial jobs like apprenticeship to masonry were the source of bread and butter for them as they had no prior experience in building things. From an early age, this group of people worked long hours with just enough compensation for a day’s meal leaving far behind their right to elementary education.
Building and Other Construction Workers (BOCW) (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) (RE & CS) Act as well as Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Cess (BOCWWC) Act came into existence in the year 1996 which entitles the workers of certain benefits including fixing of normal working hours where workers are only required to work a definite number of hours in 6 days of a week with one day reserved for rest, wages for overtime work which grants them double amount of normal wages for any overtime work they have to do, easy accessibility to drinking water at the sites of construction. The aforementioned benefits and many more are provided to them through the cess collected by the Welfare Board according to the Cess Act of 1996.
In Assam, however, the BOCW Act as well as the BOCWWC Act were implemented in 2007 which grants the construction workers’ families compensation at the time of death, medical assistance up to the extent of Rs. 20,000, educational assistance in the form of monetary help to their children beginning from the Class I to post graduation, different types of pension after completing 60 years of age, marriage assistance up to Rs. 25,000 and many more.
Nonetheless, these myriad of benefits cannot be availed by the children who work as construction workers to earn their livelihood as one has to in the age group of 18-55 years to become eligible. “Approx. 2.5 lakh workers have been registered till date under the act out of an estimated total of 10 lakh construction workers which is a huge number when compared to the number of successfully registered and among the unregistered a huge chunk falls under the children category” says Deputy Labour Commissioner Anusuya Dutta Baruah.
“For informing the people who are completely oblivious about the specific act, registration camps have been organized across five districts-- Nagaon, Golaghat, Tinsukia, Sivasagar and Biswanath where a huge number of registrations have occurred” she added when asked to comment on the reason behind the small number of registrations and the initiatives taken to curb the problem.
According to Census 2011 conducted by Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India (ORGI), 3.9% of the total child population of 259.6 million in India in the age group of 5-14 work either as main workers, i.e. who works more than six months a year or as marginal workers, i.e. who works less than six months a year. Among the 3.9% or 10.1 million, 3.62 million slog in the “other workers sector” which also includes among many others the construction workers and 3.33 million toil in the agricultural sector. Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act 1986, amended in 2016 prohibits employment of children below the age of 15 years as it directly contradicts the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act or the Right to Education Act 2009. A study conducted by the International Labour Organization reveals that the principal reason of children getting into unorganised work is due to the rising inequality amongst people which drives them to search for self-sustenance measures and ergo, take up blue-collar work.
Now, currently under the new labour codes initiated by the Central Government, the BOCW Act will be overridden by the Social Security Bill which will terminate the registrations of four crore workers due to the ultimate closure of all 36 State Welfare boards of India. Benefits received by the registered workers for managing their family’s monthly expenses will be nullified which will drag the lower income group into a state of destitution.
“The closure of BOCW boards will lead to cancellation of lakhs of pensions which are being paid to older workers and disabled workers in different states and cancellation of millions of freeships being paid as education assistance to the children of construction workers besides cancellation of several other benefits including maternity benefits” said Subhash Bhatnagar, coordinator of the National Campaign Committee for Construction Workers while opposing the move of the Central Government, according to a news published in The Economic Times in its July 7, 2019 edition under the heading ‘Committee for Construction Workers opposes govt move to subsume labour laws into 4 codes’.
Cess collected under the BOCWWC Act is also propounded to be annulled. For reaping the benefits of the newly constructed labour welfare system, the construction workers will also have to contribute a hefty amount of 12.5% from the received minimal wages to the respective State Social Security Fund along with a contribution from the employer that is bound to create a hindrance in the process of economic stability.
Article 39 of the Directive Principles of State Policy which expounds on the states’ direction towards reducing the abuse of children’s tender age and the economic conditions of people to not be a factor of untimely ingress to hazardous vocational activities as well as the states’ directive to provide free and compulsory education to children below 14 years of age will just become glorified words in a book.
Due to scrapping of financial support by the government in the intellect development age of life, more children will eventually move into the clutter of unorganized workers in order to survive in the age of booming market prices of goods and commodities where they are incessantly exploited by the employers while not shelling out the minimum wages which are however guaranteed by the Minimum Wages Act 1948.
Therefore, a vicious cycle will unfold where destitution will give way for the increase in child labour, an issue which India so longs to rectify. In Assam, the number of children among unregistered workers is poised to go up.
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