Most labourers unaware of welfare board

  Lakshmi, a construction worker from Andhra Pradesh, has been staying in Bangalore for the past nine months. But she is unaware of any law that protects her rights and the facilities she ought to get.

She was attending a workshop on “Building and other Construction Workers (regulation of employment and conditions of service) Act, 1996,” here on Sunday.

 At the workshop, Lakshmi was completely clueless on what was going on. Neither was she aware of the fact that the workshop dealt with the interests of the labourers nor did she realise the purpose of her presence there. Lakshmi said: “All of them were speaking in Kannada. I do not know the language, but I manage to speak in Hindi. I have no idea why my contractor brought me here.”  At the workshop, Labour Minister B N Bachegowda addressed the gathering in Kannada, unaware of the fact that most of the labourers were migrants from other states. He was present at the workshop which saw the inauguration of the mobile registration van, launched by the Karnataka State Legal Services Authority, which enables building and other construction workers to register their names to avail the benefits of the Workers’ Welfare Board.

However, the irony was most of the labourers were unaware of the purpose of the event. Many labourers did not even know that there was a Welfare Board which helped them during their hardships. Supreme Court Judge and Executive Chairperson of the National Legal Services Authority Justice Altamas Kabir officially launched the mobile van. The registration of building and construction workers is being undertaken to address the safety concerns of labourers. Speaking on the occasion, Justice Kabir said the Labour Act, which catered to the interests of the second largest employment sector in the country, had not been implemented in toto in the country.  “Since a large number of labourers belong to the unorganised sector, there is absolutely no identity for them even today. It is the duty of the government as well as the Labour department, in particular, to ensure that labourers are registered and they availed the benefits under the Act,” Justice Kabir added. Speaking on the occasion, Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar said that there was large scale exploitation of labourers belonging to the unorganised sector since they did not have any identity. “We need to create awareness and educate the labour class about the provisions of the Act and advise them to register their names. The mobile van will enable the registration procedure in the City,” he added. According to the Labour Welfare Board records, despite collecting labour safety cess of nearly Rs 1,300 crore, only Rs 6,10,92,225 had been distributed as benefits to 10,350 labourers in the State. Of the 10 lakh labourers working in different parts of the State, so far only two lakh have been registered with the Board.  The mobile van will be travelling to different construction sites in the City to help the labourers register their names in the next three months.