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Mohan Baruah (name changed for confidentiality) is a house painter, but his own life is losing sheen. The 39-year old construction worker was diagnosed with cancer five months ago. He earns around Rs. 3000 in a month and has so far spent more than Rs. 1 lakh for his treatment.
Being the only working member in the family, Baruah must support his wife and two daughters. But due to his illness, he has been unable to work for past few months. The family has been depending on money borrowed from friends and relatives to manage their expenses, his wife informs. Later Baruah got to know about the registration provision under Assam Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board under which he can receive financial assistance for cancer treatment.
Like Baruah numerous other construction workers were benefitted by the BOCW Act (1996), that helped them in achieving upwards economic mobility. However, crores of construction workers like Mohan Barua in Assam and other states in India are going to be deprived from such benefits with the government proposing to repeal the Building and Other Construction Workers (BOCW) Act of 1996 under the Social Security Bill.
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Currently there are an estimated 10 lakh Building and Other Construction (BOC) workers in Assam and as of January 2019, altogether 1,73,957 workers (17.3%). are registered in the state.
The repealing of the Building and Other Construction Workers (BOCW) Act of 1996 will lead to the closure of all the 36 state BOCW Boards, cancellation of about four crore registrations of construction workers as beneficiaries in India.
In India, The Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) [BOCW (RE & CS)] Act was passed in 1996 along with The Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Cess Act (1996) as measures to ensure due treatment and fair conditions to the millions of building and other construction workers. For decades these two legal provisions helped to maintain basic human rights for millions of Construction workers.
The United Nations definition of human rights include the right to life and liberty, the right to work and education, and many more. Everyone is entitled to these rights, without discrimination. Article 23 (1) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) states that “Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.”. Article 3 of the UDHR states that: “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.”
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The Article 21 of our Constitution addresses the Right to Life and Personal Liberty. In Bandhua Mukti Morcha v. Union of India [1984 AIR 802, 1984 SCR (2) 67], the Supreme Court gave this Article an expanded observation saying that “...Article 21 derives its life breath from the Directive Principles of State Policy and...Articles 41 and 42...it must include protection of the health and strength of workers...opportunities for children to develop in a healthy manner...educational facilities, just and humane conditions of work and maternity relief.”
A micro-study conducted by the authors in Guwahati revealed that a significant number of the sample group were engaged in construction work for less than six months last year due to unavailability of work. The study also shows that workers are living on monthly average income of 10,000 and subject to frequent occupational hazards.
Almost all workers are intra state migrants living in rented shanties with rent ranging from Rs 500 to Rs 2000. A building and other construction worker must be registered under the respective state’s BOCW Welfare Board in order to be eligible to receive the benefits specified in the BOCW (RE & CS) Act (1996). In 2015, there were 47,589 (6%) registered construction workers in Assam out of an estimated 8 lakhs total workers in the state. The number of registered workers increased to 84,031 (10.5%) in 2016.
There has been an increase of roughly 7% in the past three years but there is still a significant number of workers still not receiving their due benefits. The registered workers get various social security measures through the Welfare Board.
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In the matter of medical assistance, there were 102 beneficiaries as of 2015, with every worker receiving an average of Rs. 629. In 2016, there were 278 beneficiaries of medical assistance, with each worker receiving an average of Rs. 4526. For educational assistance, in 2015, there were 2141 beneficiaries, at an average of Rs. 8302 per beneficiary. This increased to 17351 beneficiaries in 2016, at an average receipt of Rs. 6339.
As for maternity relief, there were 2 applicants in 2015 who received an average of Rs. 1000. This increased to 7 applicants in 2016 at an average of receipt of Rs. 1000. Regarding disability benefits, there were 2 recipients in 2016, at an average of Rs. 8300. The benefits listed above have only reached workers who belong to the 10.5% total registered workers. Whether the received benefits are enough is a matter to be explored later but the more pressing issue is that till 2016, 89.5% workers were not even eligible to receive any such benefits, since they are not registered even.
Bhola Sarma, General Secretary, C.I.T.U. (Centre for Indian Trade Unions) for Kamrup (Metropolitan) district in Assam says it is common for workers to be refused payment on false grounds such as allegations that they made some mistakes in their work. When it comes to favourable conditions of work, most of the time, female workers have no access to separate sanitation facilities, says Sarma. Sarma said that an estimated 10% of construction workers are female, and these women are paid less for equal work. Though under BOCW (RE & CS) Act (1996) there are provisions that for female workers there must be separate sanitation facility in construction site and maternity benefits etc.
In order to increase the registration of workers, there is an urgent need for increased manpower in the Labour Department – which was cited as a major issue by an Official employed there - since there are no exclusive officials solely for BOCW registrations. Other reasons were said to be an inadequate working budget and manual registration.
In 2018, the Board began to conduct awareness and registration camps in various parts of Assam to improve registration figures. In the following districts, such camps have been held in all blocks: Nagaon, Golaghat, Tinsukia, Sivsagar, Biswanath). While a lot of work remains to be done, these are encouraging steps.
In a state like Assam, which hardly has seen any new industrial growth rather has seen immense agrarian crisis pushing a whole generation to move outside state in search of livelihood such a provision of some bit of safety of life and livelihood is a solace though not adequate.
Under the proposed code, registration will be done by the district administration and not by the welfare board or labour department. There is thus ambiguity about staff availability and the logistical requirements for the implementation of the same. The social security code also encourages privatisation. It is written that the implementation may be done by various ‘agencies’ – which may lead to total privatisation of benefits delivery.
Under the present process any new construction must pay 1% cess to State Construction Worker Welfare Board. Out of that pool of money the welfare Board disburse benefits to Workers on different schemes. For example, in Assam state total 51885 workers got health benefit under janasreee bima Yojana the premium of which is paid by the Board from the pool of money got from the cess. Such a provision ensured a regular flow of fund for the benefit of the workers. But under the new code all the cesses collected under different Acts are proposed to be discontinued. All these raise question over future of basic right of life, health and liberty, enshrined in UDHR and Directive Principle of India, for the large pool of construction workers.
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