Amid pollution curbs, workers gather at Labour chowk, only to return empty-handed

“If we get work, we will eat at the site; if not, we will go back home. The situation is very bad,” he said.

Dilip has heard about Delhi Labour Minister Kapil Mishra on Wednesday announcing Rs 10,000 in compensation for construction workers rendered unemployed due to the pollution-battling Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) 3 and 4 measures. The only problem: The money would directly be paid to the bank accounts of workers registered with the government.

“I only have Aadhaar and PAN cards. I do not know where to get registered with the government and get a labour card made,” said Dilip, who earns around Rs 500 daily, and has been working as a beldaar (manual labourer) for the last five years. While he stays with his brother in a room paying a rent of Rs 3,500, his family stays in Lucknow.

Dilip is not alone.

Rahul (28) has recently started working as a plumber. “Half of the people don’t know what a labour card is. They don’t even know that something like this exists… The middlemen extort money to make and renew a card,” he said while waiting at Labour Chowk. Only around 30 people have been picked up for work since morning, he added,

Maintaining that it is difficult for migrant workers to survive in Delhi, he added, “My youngest child is two months old, how will I look after my child?… 90% of workers like us are not getting any work, the rest are getting work that is illegal.”

“At night, I feel breathless when I return home from work. At first, I thought it was the cold, but when my eyes started burning, I realised that it was because of pollution,” he said.

For people like Rahul, visiting a doctor in a government hospital means losing on a day of income. “We buy jaggery and eat it the whole year,” he said.

A few meters from the Labour Chowk is a cluster where such labourers live.

Neighbours Sundari Devi (50) Vimla (35) sit on a cot made of jute after returning from Labour Chowk with no work.

“One day we eat rotis, the next day we eat just chutney. Vegetables are too expensive these days,” said Sundari, who works as a mason. She has a labour card, but it needs to be renewed.

Vimla, who has no idea what a labour card is, said that at times, they have been picked up by police for working illegally when curbs under GRAP are in place.

“We know this happens every year because of pollution, but how do we find alternative work? We cough when we mix concrete, but what option do we have? We can only pray that next year is less polluted, and we can work,” she added.

There are 2.57 lakh workers registered with the Delhi Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board (DBOCWWB). However, as per activists, the actual number is at least three to four times more.

Activist and Executive Director of Centre for Holistic Development, Sunil Kumar Aledia, said, “There is lack of awareness among workers and the portal to register also does not work most of the times.” He maintained that the renewal rate is also poor because the government officials ask for “minor details and multiple documents”. “The pendency is very high. All workers do not have smartphones to apply for the card on their own,” he added.

Jaiprakash, general secretary of Delhi State Construction and Building Workers’ Union – affiliated to International Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU) – said until 2018, the government used to hold registration camps for construction workers. “It is difficult for workers to register themselves as they are not aware of the process,” he added.