Despite the persistence of many-sided injustices and problems in unequal societies, democracy opens up several windows of opportunities which can be used by committed social activists, working with the help of respected mentors, to achieve significant rights for workers. This brings new hope to workers and the possibilities of replicating such efforts lead to more initiatives and greater hope. This in turn strengthens democracy and the various provisions of social justice in India’s constitution, making these more meaningful for workers and strengthening constitutional values at the grassroots.

In India several such efforts to help workers (including porters, dock and port workers, coal and iron ore miners as well as other sections of workers) can be identified which are a source of hope and inspiration even though the success of such efforts can never be complete and some problems continue to persist while new ones also rise. One such effort which has the potential of benefiting very large numbers of workers is an effort to bring justice to construction workers which numerically constitute perhaps the second largest segment of workers after the farming and -related activities sector.

These efforts started with the initiatives taken to set up an organization for taking forward the rights of construction workers in Delhi as well as at the national level around the year 1986. These efforts culminated in the setting up of a national organization called Nirmana (translated as Construction). One of the most important objectives of this organization was to make continuing efforts for justice based legislation for construction workers at the national level. As this was a far-reaching objective which could benefit millions of workers, it was important to involve several senior persons and unions in this campaign and this led to the creation of the National Campaign Committee for Construction Labor (NCC-CL). A trade union of construction workers Nirmana Mazdoor Panchayat Sangam (NMPS) was also formed. Some of the key activists involved with this effort subsequently also took up issues relating to other sections of unorganized sector workers including domestic workers. Efforts for justice-based comprehensive legislation for all unorganized sector workers as well as for domestic workers were also made. With the coming of the new Labour Codes it is a period of transition and these groups are carefully assessing and understanding the new situation and its implications. This is a good time to assess their struggles and achievements so far.

In India construction industry is the second largest economic activity, next to agriculture. An estimated 14.6 million persons were directly employed in construction work in 1995-96. Today nearly 56.5 million workers are registered with various Building and Other Construction Worker Boards (BOCW boards). Estimates of number of construction workers range from 50 million to 70 million. There are projections of high increase in the years to come. According to the National Labour Commission Report (2002), around 16% of the nation’s working population depends on the construction industry for their livelihood.

Before the creation of NCC-CL some localised efforts to assert construction workers’ rights had achieved reasonable success in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. In Tamil Nadu these efforts were led by the Tamil Manila Kattida Thozhilalar Sangam (TMKTS – The Tamil Nadu State Construction Workers’ Union). This was an independent trade union not affiliated to any political party or national trade union. It consisted of local, district and state-level units with elected representatives at each level. Its efforts played a notable role in the passing of the Tamil Nadu Manual Workers Act in 1982. In 1983 the Tamil Nadu government sought to introduce new legislation for construction workers which fell much below the expectation of the TMKTS and had some undesirable features as well. The TMKTS launched a state-wide campaign against this legislation.

The experiences gained at the state level encouraged the TMKTS leadership to make wider efforts at the national level for legislation which is suitable and adequate to meet the needs of construction workers. Earlier the First National Commission of Labour as well as the Labour Ministry’s Industrial Committee on Building and Construction Industry had emphasised the need for comprehensive legislation. In1981 M. Kalyansundaram and George Fernandes, two members of Parliament, introduced private member bills in the Parliament relating to welfare of construction workers. The former bill was withdrawn on an assurance by the government that it was contemplating a comprehensive legislation on this subject. In February 1985 the Labour Ministry constituted a Tripartite Working Group (TWG) for the Building and Construction Industry, consisting of representatives of the Government, builders’ associations and trade unions.

In November 1985, thanks toinitiative taken by the TMKTS (particularly its leading activist R. Geetha) and some other labour and legal activists – a national seminar on construction labour (with special emphasis on legal protection) was organised at Delhi. Some organisations which helped this effort included PRIA, CILAS and Legal Aid and Advice Centre. This seminar brought together about 250 construction workers, trade union activists, lawyers and jurists, voluntary organisations and government officials to consider various aspects of protective legislation for construction labour in detail for three days.

This seminar concluded that the existing legislations were both inappropriate and inadequate to meet the real needs of construction workers. The seminar therefore recommended that comprehensive draft legislation should be prepared keeping in view the real situation of the industry and the real needs of the workers. It was also agreed that a nationwide campaign should be launched to make this comprehensivelegislation a reality and to mobilise construction workers on this issue. The realisation of the need for such a campaign led to the immediate formation of the National Campaign Committee for Central Legislation on Construction Labour (NCC-CL).

This committee was fortunate to have from the outset as its chairperson an outstanding public figureassociated with many reforms and campaign – Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer, a retired Supreme Court judge. Its convener, a public-spirited lawyer named R. Venkatramani and co-ordinator, Subhash Bhatnagar, a leading trade unionist and social activist, were equally well chosen for theirimportant roles in this campaign. Others in the core group who played an important role for several years included Justice P.S. Potti former Chief Justice of Gujarat High Court, T.S. Sankaran, former Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Labour, and well-known trade union activists like D. Thankappan, N.P. Swamy and R. Geetha. In the next few years an increasingly important co-ordinating role was played by Nirmala Sundaram, who left a deep and lasting impression on the entire movement within a short period till her extremely tragic and sudden death (in 1996) at the young age of 40 years. In the legal struggles for justice eminent lawyers like R. Venkatramani and Colin Gonsalves made very important contributions.

In the mid-80s Subhash Bhatnagar had started shifting from his IIM union activities in Bangalore to take up wider responsibilities relating to construction workers in Delhi. This being the capital city of India was considered a very important center for coordinating activities relating to the campaign for justice-based legislation for construction workers. Similarly Nirmala Sundaram shifted from South Rajasthan, where she was working for various weaker sections with Prayas voluntary organization, to Delhi to take up wider challenges relating to construction workers. Around this time Subhash and Nirmala were married and became the center of a very dedicated team that emerged to take forward the cause of construction workers. As Subhash recalls, several friends from his student days came forward to help in important ways. Sujata Madhok in particular was very consistent in her support over several decades. Other friends who were very helpful included a former corporation member Mehar Chand Yadav.

Source: Global Research