Labour's growing pains

It's been a week since Firoz Khan, a construction worker, was killed in the Kalbadevi building collapse. Khan's family, which is yet to recover from the loss, has not heard about the compensation. Among the three siblings, Khan took financial responsibility and care of his mother who lives in a village in Uttar Pradesh. "She used to live with Khan before he moved to Mumbai nearly eight years ago. When he started working here, Khan regularly sent money even though he could hardly save any money from his meagre wages. But, he visited her whenever possible," says Asraf Ali, a family friend of Khan.

"His mother will now probably move in with one of his brothers, who already have to take care of their own families, or some relatives," says Ali who also hails from Siddhartha Nagar in Uttar Pradesh.

Khan is just one of the many faces of Mumbai's faceless informal/unorganised sector. For a city that runs on the steam of unrelenting labour force, Mumbai barely has anything financially viable to give back to the thousands of workers. Statistics show that about 90 per cent of the city's labour force is in the unorganised/informal sector. And yet, it does not have well-defined minimum wages, or welfare policies to protect them from exploitation.

Khan's story is echoed by those died in the recent Saki Naka fire tragedy. Nearly two days after the accident, Arjun Gupta completed the last rites of his brother, Ram Naresh, who died in the fire, and the family lost an earning member who could contribute to pay off his father's loan. "We would save around Rs 4,000 to Rs 5,000 and send it to our village. Now, my brother is no more," said Gupta. The family is not sure if any compensation will come its way.

Fatalities, injuries, lack of medical attention, job security, delayed payments add to the woes of those working in these sectors.

Some good, some bad

Besides the mind-numbing hazardous work conditions, labourers not only risk their lives in every day but they also don't have any job security, fixed work hours, regulated wages — which are often delayed if they get paid.

"What can we possibly do if they do not pay us on time. Some people are like that, they don't pay us. When we muster up the courage to ask, we are kicked and slapped 'for complaining too much'. We work whenever and wherever there is a job for us. While some employers are good, some are really bad,' says Ali.

Khan was originally working with another contractor. Since that contractor didn't have work for him, he went to work with another one," says Ali, adding that the contractor at least paid for Khan's body to be flown to his native village, with some co-workers.

According to activists and researchers who work closely with labourers, both local and migrant, such gestures are rare to come by.

As per a UNESCO study, Mumbai's heterogenous migrant population was 40 per cent in 2001. Researchers says that most migrants come from Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. Of these, a good number of them settle down in areas like Kurla, Saki Naka, Dharavi, and Kalbadevi.

Fears and insecurities

But the common problems of — identity proof, documentation of their work, fear of dismissal, poor work conditions, housing and occupational safety, and no legal support — link workers across the unorganised sector.
In most cases, the workers don't even get their due. "Even those working in civic utilities don't get their dues. The civic body is supposed to give insurance cover to their workers, pension to widows of workers who die at work.

However, the BMC flouts these norms. Just the other day, over 100 widows took out a morcha to draw the authorities' attention to their plight. Forget insurance cover, they are not even giving pension to the families of those who die while on duty. And when they give pension, they cut certain tax as per law," alleges Milind Ranade, general secretary of Kachra Vahatuk Shramik Sangh.

The government, according to activists, has only added to the safety woes. "Their new rules discourage factory inspectors from visiting the site because there were allegations of corruption when they visit. It was done with a view to improve ease of doing business and GDP figures. However, what it is leading to is that conditions are not good and there is no proof that it has curbed corruption. Earlier at least an inspector would point out some anomalies which would create these problems. So if a boiler plant was not as per the norms, the inspector would point it out," said Ranade.

Amrita Sharma, director, Centre for Migration and Labour Solutions, Aajeevika Bureau, an NGO which has been working with migrant labourers, in the city, for the past two years seconds Ranade's view. "The recent amendment that unless the number of employees does not cross a figure of 10, certain licenses are not needed gives a free hand to those who run small shops to do things they want to without any safety precautions. For example, in future, a farsan shop can claim that it has only five employees while it actually has nearly 20 to skip license provisions, but in turn risk the lives of their employees in crammed working conditions," adds Sharma.

"There is a lot of cost cutting that happens in such workshops. It enables the employer to extract more work from the people. There are few safety considerations. Like in one case, a man's hand was crushed in a plastic moulding place and there was little help," says Sharma whose organisation offers legal support, documentation and at times even first-aid boxes to labourers.

Most labourers arrive in the city through word of mouth after they receive assurance on accomodation, but are willing to take up whatever wages and living space is given by the employers. In a ciyt like Mumbai, it helps them stay for free and they can send their saving from the meagre earnings back home. "We come here only after making a lot of checks," said Netaji Maurya, a labourer who works at a vada pav shop at Saki Naka.

Workers suffer from insecurity not just from exploitative employers but also due to failed business models. "I come and sit here for days moving from one place to another because sometimes the job does not give enough to sustain or there is no work here all the time," said Naushad Ahmed, who hails from Azamgarh in UP, who works as a painter. "For the past few days there has not been enough work for me to even get my slippers mended," said Ahmed, a painter, who walks barefoot without any safety gears.

Facing health risk at job, say experts is the biggest risk as it threatens life and at times there is little help that comes forward. "Only this year there was a case where a construction worker hurt himself and they would not help him. We helped the person in that case," said Sharma.

Labour trail

Most labourers come from 
Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal and Orissa

Mumbai being 
heterogeneous also sees labourers from Konkan and other parts of the state

Areas in metropolitan regions with migrant labourers
Dharavi
Saki Naki-Asalpha
Kurla
Bhiwandi
Kalbadevi-Bhendi Bazaar 

Migrant-labour intensive sectors
Leather industries - mainly Dalits and Muslims from Tamil Nadu
Construction sector - Orissa, Jharkhand, West Bengal
Textile - people from UP and Bihar - mainly Muslims 
Security - UP, Haryana
Waste segregation - local community, mostly Dalits 
Services - Konkan belt

Demands for labourers in informal / unorganised sector
Minimum wages for skilled and unskilled labourers
Minimum wages of Rs 50 per hour for unskilled labourers or Rs 10,000
Minimum wages of Rs 25,000 pm for skilled labourers in informal sector
Social security for women and other vulnerable workers
Maternity leaves and related benefits