Parul Mandal has been working as a labourer in Delhi for 24 years, but hasn't heard of the welfare fund
In sweltering heat, 45-year-old Parul Mandal works almost 12 hours every day at a construction site in south Delhi, making Rs 50 daily to support her family of six. She has been working for the past 24 years, but has never heard of a welfare fund for labourers, which would have paid scholarship for her children's education, or given her maternity benefits.
For every building constructed, a cess is collected by the state government to help construction workers - with pension, maternity benefits, education of their children and protection against accidental injuries. But of the Rs 27,000 crores collected across India, only a small portion has been spent, coming in for severe criticism by the Supreme Court. Delhi is no exception - Rs 1700 crores have been collected in the past 10 years, but only Rs 55 crore have been used.
The government says that's because very few workers register, even fewer come forward to claim their benefits. But it's a deeply ironic claim as the Delhi Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board spent almost Rs 3 crores on publicity through pamphlets, broadcasting ad jingles and newspapers ads. This came in for strong criticism by the Supreme Court, which was hearing a PIL on the issue of misuse and underutilisation of the labour welfare fund.
"Thousands of crores are collected but money is spent on advertisement and administration. Money for poor used by some babus. It is ridiculous," the court observed.
Though the Supreme Court has asked them to return this money to the cess fund, Delhi government officials say they were only following the court's orders. Even for the current financial year, they have reserved a budget of over Rs 22 crores for publicity.
Rajinder Dhar, Additional Labour Commissioner of Delhi, says, "Supreme Court in its earlier order in 2010, had categorically stated that all state governments need to incur a lot of expenditure on publicity as these people are illiterate, therefore they need to be reached out to educate them about their entitlements, where to register, how to register etc. So we need to spend on publicity to reach out to them."
The welfare board claims that they distribute pamphlets at all construction sites and labour chowks across Delhi. But so far they have only been able to register close to three lakh labourers out of 10 lakh workers in the capital, raising questions as to whether they have indeed made a genuine effort. Even the labour department officials admit confidentially, that there has been no direct impact on registration even after increased spending on publicity.
Labourers like Parul say, "I stay at the construction site whole day. Have never heard of this. My children have all been educated by now, but I could never avail of any benefit."
The next date for Supreme Court hearing on this matter is September 4, when the Delhi government claims they will defend their stand on the issue.