Labour force that constructs India

Rights of the people remain in paper and are absent in reality. Construction workers from different remote parts of India migrate to the cities where they work very hard to make a living. The city with biggest migrant population is New Delhi;here construction activity goes on all year round. Those who have lost their livelihoods, those who are most impoverished migrate to Delhi to get a job as a construction worker. They suffer the most, they earn meagre sums--even minimum wages are not given to them as prescribed. They live at the construction site itself; they sleep along with the tools, sand and bricks all around them. They have bad health as the work they do is very hard, and they do not get the required rest or good food. The work is dangerous;their work is in an accident prone environment; and when injured,they do not get any medical attention. They are just pushed aside and another continues to work in their place.Death while at work is very common....Unless they are registered and their registration book is updated, they do not get any compensations.
Workers can get registered in the Board of construction workers to get some benefits. Many do not know this. Those who try to get registration, have to go through a long process which takes at least six months. And at most times, contractors do no hire those who are registered.Many many unregistered people are available, flow of migrants from rural areas is immense. Many times children (in teens) come to work, and they cannot be registered. Women come with their husbands and their wages are clubbed with their husband's wages. Women do the hardest work and they are paid the least. They carry bricks to top floors by steps on their heads; they mix cement, they carry cement, they break stones, they bring sand and so on. Men do the more mechanized work like working the vehicles in the construction site like operating the cement mixer and so on. Younger children are cared by older children, whole family is at the workplace. They had left their village with their family to make a living in the big glittering city, but they lead a gilt less life. Their life is so cheap that they are expendable. Many develop breathing related health problems, and many die due to prolonged illnesses associated with gruelling work. Many die in accidents in the construction site.
Labour force makes industrialisation of India possible.Pillars for the flyovers, roads, high rise apartments, hotels, offices are all built by the construction workers. Their role is most important in urban India, but their rights are the most neglected.Building Construction Worker Related laws Bill of 2012 was amended by the Cabinet. So was amended Building Construction Workers Act of 1996; this too got the Cabinet nod. Ten years ago Labour Department had made it mandatory for all construction workers to be registered in construction labours welfare Board and 14 different rights were given to them. Only 2007, five years later it started functioning.This plan or yojana remains in paper. The Board has 900 crores as its fund, only 35 crores were used for education of the labourer's children. Even Delhi Nirman Mahila Board was established to look after their needs. But the women are not given benefits of maternity leave, although by rule, they should get.No mobile dispensaries were available as prescribed. Union of the workers is not strong, so this affects its functioning.If workers are registered in the Board, they will get 5000 Rupees at marriage(women get 10,000 Rupees) In case of accident, the victim will get one lakh Rupees, and at death 50,000 Rupees. They can get a loan of 10000 Rupees for buying tools. For home building also they can have an interest free loan of one lakh. For people who just want to survive one more day, work a little long to earn one more day for their families, we must provide more than this.These modern high rise buildings, flyovers,and  metro pillars are living monuments to the work of these hardworking people...these are not just concrete and cement infrastructures, they are built with the blood and sweat of the hard working construction workers...we must honour them....and take efforts to make their life better; we may provide them with  mobile sheds to live in....we live in homes they had constructed, so we must think about them.