Govt apathy towards construction workers worse than Shakespearean tragedy: SC

The Supreme Court on Monday deplored the denial of social and economic justice to millions of construction workers in the unorganised sector  while nearly Rs 28,000 crore collected for their benefit  was unutilised by the state governments.

"There is a total lack of concern and apathy on the part of the powers that be in doing anything substantial for the benefit of construction workers. This is, indeed, an extremely sorry state of affairs that puts a Shakespearean tragedy to shame," a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta said.

The court said successive governments have failed to make use of the money meant for the ensuring health, safety and service conditions of unnamed and unsung construction workers, who play a great role in nation building.

In its 57-page judgement, the bench noted that a sum of Rs 37,400 crore was collected for the benefit of construction workers over 22 years. Only Rs 9,500 crore was utilised for their benefit.

The funds were collected after Parliament passed the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act and the Building and Other Construction Workers' Welfare Cess Act, both in 1996.  The purpose of the laws was to stop the exploitation of construction labour and ensure that their children  get education, healthcare and live with dignity.

"What is being done with the remaining around Rs 28,000 crore? Why is it that construction workers across the country are denied the benefit of this enormous amount," the bench asked.

The court found it "disturbing" that the directions issued for utilisation of the funds were disregarded by the state governments. It issued a slew of directions, including conducting social audit of the funds in line with the CAG guidelines prepared for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005.

The court noted, out of an estimated 4.5 crore building and construction workers, only 2.8 crore were registered under the 1996 laws.

Women, infants suffer

Even if the government wanted to disburse the funds now, it cannot do so as "some of these construction workers from the 1990s, and even later, may have unfortunately passed away or might be untraceable or old enough to deserve a pension", it said.

"What makes the situation even worse is that many of the construction workers are believed to be women and at least some of them have small children to look after," the court said.