Thousands of Construction Workers Protest in Jind, Haryana

On June 18, thousands of construction workers from Jind district of Haryana protested against the state Labour Welfare Board. The workers gathered in front of the Mini Secretariat under the banner of Bhawan Nirman Kamgar Union (BNKU), affiliated to Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) despite heavy rain to make their demands heard against making the process of accessing the benefits given to the construction workers online.

In the month of December, 2018, Haryana government announced that the construction workers in the state have to register online to access the benefits given by the Building and other Construction Workers’ Board (BOCWW) that they are entitled to. The construction workers also sent their charter of demands to the deputy commissioner, and the chief minister of the state.

The charter lists several issues raised by BNKU. Their first demand is that the BOCWW board should ensure that the workers could also complete the process offline, as the department has not updated the previous records of the workers, and the information is not available online. As a result of this, the records of the workers available online is incomplete, and even after visiting various offices, they cannot receive the benefits they are entitled to.

Also Read: More Than Half of Construction Workers in Surat Are Homeless

Talking to NewsClick, Kapur Singh, district secretary of BNKU Haryana, said, “The workers came to the protest despite heavy rain because they have been deprived of their rights for so long. The workers who had applied for their benefits more than two years ago still have not received them. Some had applied for scholarships for their children, others had applied for receiving monetary help for their children’s weddings, but none of those requests have been approved yet because of the faults in the system. Thousands of workers are not even receiving their rations.”

He added, “The workers have been repeatedly sending letters to government officials urging that their requests be forwarded to higher authorities, but to no avail. The workers have to constantly visit different offices to make appeals, and they have to skip work to do this, which means they don’t receive their daily wages.”

In a memorandum submitted to the deputy commissioner, the union demanded that a permanent registration officer be recruited to look into the issues of the workers. They said that the workers have to go to Hisar every time their applications are denied by the local officers on the basis of small errors. They said in the memorandum that almost 60,000 construction workers are registered with BOCWW board in Jind. However, when the majority of these workers try to apply for benefits or renew their registrations online, their records are not found. BNKU has demanded that the records of all workers be updated and made available online.

They also said that several workers had registered with BOCWW board online in the years 2017 and 2019. However, their registrations have been cancelled by the board on the basis of vague, unclear reasons. The unions have also demanded that the board should ensure that the registration of these workers is completed.

Also Read: Living on the Edge: Over 150 Construction Workers Died in 2018

Singh told NewsClick that Tehsildar came to meet the protesting workers and told them that their issues will be looked into. The deputy commissioner also met the workers on the morning of June 19 where they told him their demands, but he offered no solution. Singh said, “If our demands are not met within 15 days, we will resume our movement again, and this time, on a much larger scale.”