Labour of pain at the Commonwealth Games sites

“This is a deep dark world, Poor, empty, tiny, caged and cabined, dark cells.”

MEMBERS of the Monitoring Committee, formed after the Delhi High Court directive in February to probe allegations of labour laws violations at Games sites, quoted these lines from Rabindranath Tagore’s poem, Ebar Phirao More (Come back to me now), to convey the conditions of workers engaged at the Commonwealth Games sites.

The committee mentioned the lines after seeing the size of the rooms meant to accommodate workers; the panel members said the rooms have space merely enough to “crawl like animals”.

The committee had visited the 10 Games venues — construction sites and workers’ camps — before it submitted its indicting report in the court on Wednesday.

The 115-page report brought to light the pitiable conditions of the workers and the breach of various labour laws. Newsline lists the facts as adduced by the committee in its report.

Commonwealth Games Village, Akshardham Complex
Date of visit: February 19

Principal employer is Delhi Development Authority, having public-private partnership with EMAAR MGF, which in turn has engaged Ahluwalia Constructions for work at the site.
* As per the Minimum Wages Central Rules, rates of minimum wages are required to be put up at the entrance of the establishment and also at its office. Not a single board displaying such information was, however, available at site
* There was no observance of minimum working hours, no weekly off, no payment for over time
* Women were not getting same rate of wages as men despite doing similar works
* No employment card or ID card for workers
* No mechanism to register grievances
* Several labourers found using chappals instead of gumboots. Non-supply of boots or even ordinary shoes was the main reason. No gloves provided to stonecutters for protection; several others worked without wearing helmets
* Four fatal accidents have been reported so far from the Games Village worksite. The Committee also came to know that a woman died in a fire at the camp last year
* 150 hutments made of asbestos sheet with no ventilation. Four workers shared 7x7-ft room with no bedding. “It is a pity that it is called a bed,” the report states
* 10 mobile toilets for 150 inmates. The toilets are never cleaned or maintained

Other sites
Apart from these venues, the Committee also visited sites and camps at Delhi University, Africa Avenue, Gazipur, International Airport, Tughlaq Road and Shastri Park. Apart from International Airport site being looked after by the Delhi International Airport Limited, the situation looked almost equally gloomy at all other sites, according to the report.

Employment of women
IN its report, the Committee came down heavily on the contractors for showing reluctance to employ women. The members were “shocked” after they were told at the JN Stadium that the women did not have the skills the company needed to carry out certain operations.

“Coming as they do at a time when the Women’s Reservation Bill is on the anvil, such statements smack of a bizarre reflection of a sick mindset, which is clearly anti-gender and deserves to be condemned with all the force at our command,” the report read.

Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium

Date of visit: February 20

Principal employer: Central Public Works Department

Contractors: Shapoorjee Palonjee, Era infrastructure, Nagarjun
* Employer and contractors not aware of the revised rate of wages. Consequently, workers got wages at the old rate
* Large number of workers testified before the Committee that full wages were not being paid to them but amount like Rs 100 per day or Rs 400 per week was being given towards day-to-day expenditure
* Committee dubs adjustments of advances with the notified wages as “arbitrary and unilateral”, noting it was probably being done to ensure the workers did not leave the site before competition of the work. The Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, however, prohibits the same
* No women employed
* Not all workers registered. No evidence of medical examination of workers at regular intervals
* “The camps are totally unacceptable from the point of view of a decent human living. Tiny rooms represent hovels where human beings have literally to crawl like animals, which reminds a visitor what Rabindranath Tagore had written 100 years ago,” noted the Committee
* 10 mobile toilets for 150 inmates; never cleaned or maintained. Many, therefore, prefer to ease themselves in the open
* No arrangement for washing and bathing. No canteen. No elementary supervision by the Labour Welfare Officer


Siri Fort and surroundings
Date of visit: March 12

Principal employer: DDA

Contractor: Billimoria
* The camps for workers looked like a slum, the report stated
* Accommodation meant wooden shacks with little or no ventilation
* Medical facility was unattended
* No canteen, only a tea shop
* Inadequate number of toilets

RK Khanna Tennis Stadium
Date of visit: March 12

Principal Employer: All India Tennis Association
Contractor: Skyline Engineering Contractors Pvt Ltd
* Accommodation “highly unsatisfactory” with small, dark and stuffy rooms each housing at least two workers
* No evidence of medical facilities even as 140 workers found on the site at peak hours
* No canteen
* The workers expressed no grievances regarding wages, “perhaps because the team was accompanied by representatives of the management”