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In the long speeches made at the opening ceremony of the CW games, every important individual, department or institution that made a contribution, was acknowledged. Did anyone hear a word about the workers who made these world-class games possible? Maybe it was just a slip or maybe it was not considered necessary. Anyway, the workers were not there for the speeches, having been driven out of the capital just a week before the games began.
For records, 128 construction workers died in accidents at CWG games sites, at projects of Delhi’s new Airport terminal and the Metro. Little is known about the fate of at least 128 workers who were injured in these accidents. Of course the government has consistently refused to divulge details despite several RTI applications filed in recent past. (See links below). The authorities helped by looking the other way when the workers were not provided safe drinking water or toilets. (According to CWG-CWC report enclosed below, at some sites there was one toilet for 450 workers and even that was cleaned once a week or month.)
The above estimates of workers’ deaths are released by a combine of 19 civil society organisations who have been collecting information from a variety of sources. No doubt the actual number would be very high if we were to take into account deaths due to avoidable vector-borne and water-borne diseases like dengue, malaria, cholera and diarrhoea. Most of the victims were migrant workers brought to the sites by labour contractors who are prohibited under law.
The games obviously bring no glory to the national capital’s poor and migrant workers. Those living in slums and shanty towns were simply driven out by a brute police force. (Please see the links and video report below for more details) According to accounts of slum dwellers, their huts were simply razed by bulldozers and belongings of many taken away by the police and petty municipal officials. The workers were told that they had no choice because they didn’t have voter identity cards but those who produced these cards and other id proofs were not spared either.
The workers who toiled day and night had to go to protect the nation’s ‘honour.’ Their basic civil and democratic rights were violated with full impunity even though they worked under most dangerous conditions. Worse still, their deaths or injuries didn’t create any ripples in the political, bureaucratic or mainstream media circles.
Even Delhi High Court’s intervention failed to provide justice. After a public-interest-litigation (PIL) on behalf of People’s Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR), the Delhi High Court set up a four-member committee to probe the charge that the working conditions at construction sites were miserable. In its report submitted to the court, the committee found the charges in the PIL to be "well founded". The committee said that workers were not being paid minimum wages and were being made to work overtime for no extra money.
The committee, comprising Arundhati Ghose, India’s former representative to the UN, LN Mishra of the UNHCR and labour commissioner and labour secretary of Delhi government, also found after spending a month visiting construction sites, that:
• Labourers were being exploited and they were hired by contractors unaware of labour laws.
• Many accidents at these sites were never reported while workers continued to work without safety gear.
• Muster rolls were not verified and abuse of migrant workers was common.
Another report, prepared by a coalition of organizations and individuals - ‘Commonwealth Games –Citizens for Workers, Women & Children (CWG-CWC)’ brought out the flagrant violations of Building and Other Construction Workers Act, 1996. It corroborates the findings of PUDR and the High Court appointed committee on working conditions, safety and social security of the workers.
Titled ‘Safety and Social Security of Construction Workers Engaged in Major Projects in Delhi’ the CWG-CWC report pointed out that a majority of workers engaged in CWG constructions were unskilled, migrant, casual, and male; and they worked for long hours for wages below the legal minimum. Many cases of late or non payment of wages to workers were also recorded during the survey of the sites. More than 90% respondents worked 9 hours or more a day and only 74 respondents said that attendance register was maintained with details of overtime. In a majority of the sites workers were not paid minimum wages: the minimum wage for unskilled workers in Delhi was Rs 151 but rarely an un-skilled worker was paid beyond Rs 110. More than a third of the workers reported that wages not paid on time.
In its 2009 report the PUDR had this to say: “the most disconcerting fact is that the working and living conditions of unorganized construction workers, who are building these stadiums, hotels, residential quarters etc., with their sweat and toil, remain appalling and pathetic. Not paying workers even the minimum wages due to them is a form of begari, a form of feudalism, where the state expropriated labour from the subject population to host spectacles for the pleasure of elites. Sadly, in 21st century India, the state is reproducing the same conditions by letting transnational corporations get their work done at less than minimum wages, unmindful of the safety and welfare of workers. As a result, instead of the state acting as a model employer, it has become complicit in the exploitation of workers by ensuring that workers’ rights do not come in the way of the project which has been termed a symbol of “national prestige”.
CWG-CWC brought out pathetic living conditions of workers. It said. “Across sites, on an average, one toilet is available for 114 workers. At large sites, the airport for instance, the number falls as low as one toilet per 450 workers, made worse by only weekly or monthly cleanings. Only 86% respondents reported availability of drinking water at the site and only 5% availability of water coolers. Provision of canteen facilities – required by law - was reported by only 70 respondents. Crèches were available at 7 of the 15 sites.”
On Safety at worksites, the CWG-CWC report said:
• In most of the sites the workers were provided the requisite safety equipment (e.g., helmets, gloves, boots) but often the quality was poor, it offered little protection from heat, lasts only for a few days, there were delays in issuing replacements and in a few cases the costs were deducted from workers’ wages.
• Even though a large number of safety measures and guidelines are laid down in great detail by the Building and Other Construction Workers Act, 1996 (BOCW Act), most organisations, supervisors, contractors and the workers themselves tend to take these lightly.
• Nearly 70% of the accidents took place due to falling from a height or due to collision with machines, rods or other objects. Compensation as required by law was, reportedly, paid only in a few cases; in most cases the contractors paid the bare minimum medical costs.
• In almost all cases, paid leave was not provided for the days of absence due to injury.
The PUDR’s fact finding at the Commonwealth Games Village sites revealed that “several provisions under the labour laws—the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976, Minimum Wages Act, 1948, Contract Labour (prohibition and Regulation) Act 1970, the Inter-state Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Condition of Services) Act, 1979, and the Equal Remuneration Act, 1946 and The Buildings and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act 1996, among others- were violated by the employers.”
When contractors didn’t meet basic legal requirements of the CWG workers, it was unrealistic to expect that they would provide adequate living facilities to them. These workers lived in cramped, make-shift quarters with inadequate sanitation and water supply. There were no bathing facilities on most of the sites, only taps to take a bath in the open.
The CWG-CWC study also came across a group of migrant workers from Bihar and Jharkhand who lived at a “Tree House” near Centaur hotel at the airport construction site. These unrecognized, ‘invisible’ workers worked directly with truck drivers to unload trucks. Since the police and authorities do not allow them to build any kind of shelter, they lived under a tree, braving heat, rain, insects and the occasional snake from the shrubs, with absolutely no amenities. But these snakes never made news unlike the one that was found at the games village!
The CWG-CWC report noted that despite the above problems, worker were still “satisfied” because, unlike their village, the city offered them work: 5% workers rated their work satisfaction level as ‘very good’, 43% as ‘good’ and another 46% as ‘average’.
It may be noted that the Delhi High Court appointed committee had also come to very similar conclusions and had recommended that the workers be provided clean and hygienic living spaces, their wages be paid through zero balance accounts and they be registered by the welfare board. But these recommendations never saw the light of the day.
Please open the links and PDF files below to get actual reports on the basis of which the Inclusive Media team has prepared the above news alert:
In the Name of National Pride (2009), prepared by the People's Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR),
http://www.pudr.org/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_view&gid=180&Itemid=63
http://www.pudr.org/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_view&gid=201&Itemid=63
http://cwg2010cwc.org/cwGames.php#top
http://cwg2010cwc.org/factSheet.php
http://cwg2010cwc.org/laborActs.php
http://radicalnotes.com/journal/2010/09/23/commonwealth-games-national-pride-and-workers-death/
The Times of India, 18 March, 2010,
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Workers-at-
Commonwealth-Games-sites-an-exploited-lot-Panel/articleshow/5695682.cms
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peFHthxPFz8&feature=player_embedded#!
Labour’s love lost by Harsh Mander, The Hindustan Times, 18 March, 2010, http://www.hindustantimes.com/Labour-s-love-lost/H1-Article1-520267.aspx
Workers at Commonwealth Games sites an exploited lot: Panel by Abhinav Garg, The Times of India, 18 March, 2010, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Workers-at-Commonwealth-Games-sites-an-exploited-lot-Panel/articleshow/5695682.cms
Nothing Common about this Wealth by Dunu Roy, Hard News, March, 2010, http://www.hardnewsmedia.com/2010/02/3466
Panel to probe alleged violation of rights of labourers, The Hindu, 4 February, 2010, http://www.hindu.com/2010/02/04/stories/2010020459910400.htm
NGOs voice concern over workers' deaths at CWG sites, The Indian Express, 26 October, 2009, http://www.indianexpress.com/news/ngos-voice-concern-over-workers-deaths-at-cwg-sites/533456/
HC slams MCD for razing slums in Games run-up by Utkarsh Anand,
The Indian Express, 28 January, 2010, http://www.indianexpress.com/news/hc-slams-mcd-for-razing-slums-in-games-runup/572302/
Labouring for the commonwealth Games by CP Surendran, The Times of India, 18 July, 2010, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Slave-labour-in-svelte-Delhi/articleshow/6182947.cms
Govt to HC: Will hold camps to inform Games site workers about their rights, wages, benefits by Utkarsh Anand, The Indian Express, 29 April, 2010, http://www.indianexpress.com/news/govt-to-hc-will-hold-camps-to-inform-games-site-workers-about-their-rights-wages-benefits/612714/
Street vendors demand a fair deal, The Hindu, 2010, 2 June, 2010, http://www.hindu.com/2010/06/02/stories/2010060256800400.htm
Govt's novel gameplan: Hide beggars in covered parks, The Hindustan Times, 10 September, 2010, http://www.hindustantimes.com/Govt-s-novel-gameplan-Hide-beggars-in-covered-parks-during-CWG/H1-Article1-598320.aspx
Reward of labour: eviction by Imran Ahmed Siddiqui, The Telegraph, 4 October, 2010, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1101004/jsp/nation/story_13015231.jsp
India bribed 72 nations to get Delhi CWG: Report, The Times of India, 24 September, 2010, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/events-tournaments/commonwealth-games/top-stories/India-bribed-72-nations-to-get-Delhi-CWG-Report/articleshow/6616467 .
Govt assures action in CWG 'corruption', The Times of India, 1 August, 2010, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Govt-assures-action-in-CWG-corruption/articleshow/6244463.cms
CWG-related contracts, construction work under CVC scanner, The Economic Times, 27 July, 2010, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/infrastructure/CWG-related-contracts-construction-work-under-CVC-scanner/articleshow/6222222.cms
CWG expenditure would have wiped out Naxal menace, says Aiyer by Renu Mittal, Rediff.com, 20 June, 2010, http://news.rediff.com/report/2010/jun/20/cwg-expenditure-would-have-wiped-out-naxal-menage-mani-shanker-aiyer.htm
India 'diverts funds for poor to pay for Delhi games' by Chris Morris, BBC, 14 May, 2010, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8683412.stm
Wake-up call by Jayati Ghosh, Frontline, Volume 27, Issue 21, 9-22 October, 2010, http://www.frontlineonnet.com/stories/20101022272109000.htm
Punctured hubris by Praful Bidwai, Frontline, Volume 27, Issue 21, 9-22 October, 2010, http://www.frontlineonnet.com/stories/20101022272109300.htm
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