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Register and avail govt benefits! Mumbai’s appeal to better worker lives

Thu, 16 Dec 2021 12:53:39 +0000

As many as 17 civil society organisations came together on December 16, 2021 to carry out a workers registration awareness campaign across various bastis in Mumbai, Maharashtra.

Inaugurating the programme at the MMTC House office in Bandra, the Kamgar Sanrakshan Sammaan Sangh (KSSS) talked about the dire need for migrant workers to avail government benefits after the Covid-19 crisis.

As per the KSSS pamphlet, there are at least 28 welfare schemes for naka workers regarding education, social security, health and financial aid. Depending on the kind of scheme, workers are entitled to anything between Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 1 lakh.

“However, none of these are currently accessible to many construction [naka] workers because they are not registered with the Maharashtra Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board [MBoCW]. We hope to visit worker bastis in Mumbai over the month to inform them about the registration process,” said KSSS leader Bilal Khan.

He added that the Board can cover more than 20 types of workers engaged in the construction industry like masons, carpenters, electricians, sewer workers, fabricators, glass workers, etc.

[[EMBED KSSS VIDEO]]

Previously an offline exercise, the registration process is now an online procedure wherein naka workers submit a format assuring at least 90 days of work and avail a worker certificate or smart card authenticating their identity as a construction worker in the city.

In other state cities like Amravati registration numbers over one lakh people while in Mumbai, Khan estimates about 10-15 lakh workers need to be registered. Meanwhile, registered workers in the state capital are a few thousand.

Attending the inaugural meet, MBoCW CEO S.C. Shrirangam said that registrations were as low as 12 thousand registrations across Mumbai (urban and suburban) because workers are reluctant to give their documents fearing persecution in case something goes awry.

However, Habitat and Livelihood Welfare Association (HALWA) Shweta Damle argued that contractors in fact refused to help workers with filling the 90-day format. As a testament, workers raised their concerns during the awareness campaign later in the day.

“How do we know for sure that this registration will work? Where can we go to check if we are registered?” asked a Bandra worker living in the basti near Rangsharda hotel. He voiced the doubts of the hundred other people who had gathered for the drive.

In response, Damle told the men, women present to remain on the look out for a registration number via SMS post registration to claim scheme benefits. Workers can use this number until they get the smart card for their identification. Accordingly, it was explained that workers will require an Aadhar card or a similar identification document.

The programme continued to more nakas in Bandra, Khetwadi, Andheri and Versova on Thursday where workers raised more questions about the registration process and documents. Some workers spoke about how they could not obtain the 90-day proof because their contractor refused to help them. Others said that they were refused registration because their Aadhar card showed they came from other states. It may be mentioned that a majority of construction workers in Mumbai are migrant workers from other regions like Bihar, Jharkhand, etc.

In answer to these concerns, Shrirangam asked programme volunteers to approach the ward officer for a ward certificate in such cases. Regarding the alleged xenophobia towards non-state workers, he assured sensitising and instructing the various officials operating the registration process.

With encouragement from other social workers like Ajeevika Bureau’s Amrita Paradkar and Deepak Paradkar, Helping Hands Charitable Trust’s Anil Hebbar some workers agreed to register themselves as early as December 20.

[[EMBED VID 2]]

“The western region awareness drive will end on December 18 in Dahisar. Remaining wards in Eastern, Central and South Mumbai will be covered in this month,” said Khan.

Meanwhile, former Rajya Sabha member and ex-Labour Minister Hussain Dalwai, who started the event by flagging off the campaign vehicle, urged the Board to also consider registering contractors. He observed that most workers still do not wear helmets, gloves and other security gear either because the contractor does not provide the same or because they don’t want to.

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e-SHRAM records over 8 crore registrations, but are all inequalities addressed?

Mon, 22 Nov 2021 18:08:09 +0000

Image Courtesy:businesstoday.in

Centre’s e-SHRAM portal registered over 8.57 crore registrations from people in the unorganised sector on November 21, 2021 since its launch on August 26. On Sunday, the Union Labour and Employment Ministry boasted of the registration of over eight crore unorganised sector workers, most of whom were engaged in agriculture and allied occupations. But the dismal enrollment from workers hailing from Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes paints another picture.

Focusing on week-wise data on the increase in number of registrations on the portal over the previous 12 weeks, it said maximum increase of registrations were recorded between November 2 and November 8 when 1,15,66,985 registrations took place. This was followed by 86,83,881 registrations between October 12 and October 18. The highest number of completed registrations took place on October 28 with 20.12 lakh people applied for the social security and employment-based benefits.

However, another break-up of people on the portal showed that most of these 8,57,32,842 registrations were people from the general and Other Backward Classes (OBC). Informal workers from the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes accounted for 23.82 percent (1,18,27,533 workers) and 8.45 percent (41,98,057 workers) respectively.

Hurdles faced by SC/ST workers

Earlier, publications like Locked Out: Emergency Report on School Education and many others have indicated SC/ST communities’ struggles in accessing virtual forms of registration or access due to unavailability of smartphones or adequate data services.

For this reason, most workers have accessed the portal through the help of Common Service Centres (CSC). As per government data, around 80 percent registrations were done through CSCs followed by self-mode of registrations — 19.59 percent of workers. State Seva Kendras accounted for 90,005 or 0.1 percent of registrations.

Similarly, The Telegraph also reported that Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) workers in Durgapur district of West Bengal helped over 300 workers register on the website on Sunday. The state recorded the highest number of registrations – more than 2.02 crore workers. Other states with high registration are Uttar Pradesh (1.59 crore workers), Odisha (1.18 crore workers), Bihar (over 95 lakh workers) and Jharkhand (42 lakh workers).

Secoral and gender-wise break up

As always, maximum registrations were from the agriculture sector followed by construction, domestic and household workers, apparel and the tobacco industry. Meanwhile gender-wise data showed more female workers – 4.44 crore registrations or 51.82 percent. This busts the myth that earning a living is predominantly a man’s work in India, as clearly women are holding up more than half the sky!

Shockingly, the portal is yet to add data about the transgender community, showcasing how this group of people are rarely given the respect they deserve even in terms of mere recognition of their gender while such important data is being collected nationwide.

Ministry pats itself on the back

“By November 20, out of the total registrations, 48.2 percent (4,06,86,429) were male workers and 51.8 percent (4,37,00,713) female workers. In the first week of registration, of the total workers getting registered, around 5 lakhs were males and about 2.7 lakh were females. This has increased to 3.8 crore registrations for males and 4.05 crore registrations for females in week 12. The registration for the ‘Others’ in terms of gender, at the e-SHRAM portal has been slow, with around 2,095 total registrations completed by November 20,” said the Ministry in a press release.

Lastly, officials also seemed optimistic about the number of unorganised sector workers providing bank account and nominee details. Such information can help people avail benefits from government schemes such as accident covers in case of death or disability or partial disability. By November 21 88.89 percent of registrations had provided nominee details while 87.44 registrations had provided bank details. What they fail to acknowledge is how many of the workers are denied this basic service because they keep moving from one place to another, as migrant workers living in shanty-towns alongside their latest project. Thus, devoid of a proper address, they remain grossly underserved by the banking sector.

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