Data on migrant workers collected during the pandemic has been poorly utilised to extend welfare benefits to construction workers in India’s most industrial state - Tamil Nadu
Himanshu Upadhyaya
Pic used for representational purpose only
A report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) states that not a single inter-state migrant worker has been registered by the Tamil Nadu Construction Workers’ Welfare Board (TNCWWB).
This is in a state which has at least 10 lakh migrant workers, as per researcher estimates.
The TNCWWB is the state-run body responsible for providing social security to those working informally as masons, carpenters, electricians, mechanics among over 50 worker categories.
The welfare body’s data does not reflect the state’s own records on migrant workers.
During the pandemic lockdowns, more than 2.5 lakh migrant workers had formally registered with Tamil Nadu state for assistance to travel back to their native states. Furthermore, the CAG audit report reveals that “during the COVID-19 pandemic (March 2020) 1.45 lakh inter-state migrant construction workers were distributed dry ration kits” in the state.
The report also highlights that as per Management Information System of the Commissionerate of Labour (November 2022), 1.30 lakh inter-state migrant workers were registered through the web portal, which include 7.319 construction workers belonging to 29 states/UTs.
This is critical data in a country where states have failed to keep track of inter-state migrants, leave alone count them, which had reflected in the crisis that unfolded during the pandemic as tens of thousands of migrants walked home, with their home and destination states grappling in the dark about the numbers of people they were dealing with.
And yet, CAG auditors observed that the workers' welfare board did not maintain or use any of this pandemic data.
Ideally, this pandemic data should have paved the way for bringing inter-state migrant construction workers under the safety net by registering them as members under TNCWWB.
The CAG audit report tabled in the Tamil Nadu Assembly in June 2024 stated that not a single inter-state migrant construction worker had been registered as on March 31, 2022. The report, which was for the period 2017-2022, stated that the TNCWWB “did not initiate effective action to bring inter-state migrant construction workers under its fold.”
The report also raises questions on the lack of inter-agency coordination. Auditors note that “details of inter-state migrant workers and their employers are also collected by district collectors, the Director of Industrial Safety and Health (DISH), and Labour Welfare and Skill Development Department through the online portal - efforts in isolation with no coordination between the departments capturing these numbers.
This is not the first time that the welfare board has come under fire from the national auditor. The CAG carried out a similar performance audit for 2008-2013. Then too, a major criticism was that “the Board had no mechanism to estimate or assess the number of construction workers engaged in construction work.”
In January 2013, the government stated that the “registration of migrant workers could not be done as they did not possess documentary evidence to prove their identity and residence which are essential for registration”.
The CAG had then pointed out the board’s failure to conduct a survey to identify the total number of construction workers and migrant construction workers in the state.
The CAG wasn’t convinced and drew attention to a board decision taken in 2008, and reiterated in 2010, underlining the responsibility of the labour commissioner to instruct labour inspectors to carry out frequent inspections of construction sites where inter-state migrant workers were employed and register them.
It was only in January 2014 that the board claimed that a proposal for registration of inter-state migrant workers was “under active consideration of the Government and it required amendment to the Tamil Nadu Manual Workers (Construction Workers) Welfare Scheme, 1994.
Comparisons with the most recent audit clearly show that the observations in the previous audit report of 2008-2013 have still not been acted on.
The CAG audit team carried out a physical verification, involving TNCWWB officers and others from Directorate of Industrial Safety and Health (DISH) as well as Commissionerate of Labour. Under this auditing methodology, these joint teams visited 21 construction sites and found only 11 sites were registered with the Directorate of Industrial Safety and Health (DISH).
“This shows that efforts to bring unregistered construction workers under protective cover were abysmally poor. Proper coordination between agencies, focused surveys and appropriate follow up actions, unregistered construction workers can be brought under the ambit of TNCWWB to avail the welfare schemes,” the report noted.
The verification exercise revealed that of 546 construction workers, only 45 workers were from the organised sector and covered under the Employees’ Provident Fund scheme. The remaining 501 construction workers consisted of 103 native workers (belonging to Tamil Nadu state, with only half of them registered) and 398 inter-state migrant workers.
Even a random audit of construction sites during joint site inspections showed that for every five workers, four workers were migrants.
DISH and the offices of labour commissioners must do better to ensure that migrant workers are extended social security benefits under the welfare board.
At least one reason why construction workers remain outside the safety net of welfare benefits is the lack of coordination between various agencies such as DISH which is responsible for registration of establishments and district level assistant labour commissioners for social security schemes who are responsible for the registration of construction workers and implementation of welfare schemes including the payment of construction workers’ welfare cess.
Construction companies consider their responsibility limited to registering an establishment with DISH and paying 1 per cent of the construction value as welfare cess.
This mindset must change. Construction companies should rope in the assistance of labour inspectors to register workers with the welfare board, when starting a construction project. DISH should ensure that no construction work begins without ensuring that all workers are registered with the welfare board.
The construction establishment should ideally send a monthly compliance report to Commissionerate of Labour as well as TNCWWB a list of construction workers at the site. The assistant labour commissioner must verify whether all the workers are registered members of TNCWWB.
After Daily Thanthi reported on the CAG audit, TNCWWB chairman Pon Kumar apportioned blame to the migrant workers.
“Migrant workers were not showing interest in registering with the welfare board as they were uncertain of continuing their work in one site for more than five to six months. Since they keep changing the workplace, the board has also found it difficult to enrol them during onsite registration exercise,” he told the newspaper.
According to Kumar, 6000 migrant workers were registered through an offsite and online registration process.
A series of steps need to be taken for the improved welfare of workers. One way forward is for the civil society to follow up with social audits that covers more sites and workers. Bringing more construction sites under joint site verification would show in much granular detail the non-compliance of the Welfare Act in Tamil Nadu.
And this exercise of documenting migrants in Tamil Nadu should not be limited to the construction industry alone.
Tamil Nadu’s garment and industrial sector, has long been a draw for migrants from across the country including Bihar, West Bengal, Assam and Uttar Pradesh.
The best way for this industrial, migrant magnet state to ensure its migrant workforce - the state’s backbone for all construction, infrastructure and auto industries - is taken care of is by first counting them. That would be the first step in protecting them, their rights.
Himanshu Upadhyaya is faculty at Azim Premji University. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or the positions of the organisation they represent.
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