Construction Workers’ Regn Progresses At Slow Pace, Only 14l Sign Up In State, ET RealEstate
PUNE: Barely 14 lakh of the total of 70 lakh workers employed at various construction sites in the state are registered with the Maharashtra Labour Welfare Board. Officials attributed the poor enrolment to lack of required documents, making unregistered workers and their family members ineligible for various welfare schemes.
A senior official from the labour department said camps were held in districts for workers’ registration in the last four months.
“The workers, however, did not have the mandatory documents, including the 90-day work certificate signed by site supervisors or gram sevaks. The non-registered workers are ineligible for benefits like health and accident insurance, besides education for their children,” a labour department official said.
Department data showed that victims of most accidents at construction sites in the state have been unregistered workers. “Around 50 workers have died in about 24 accidents at construction sites this year so far. In 2021, as many as 19 such deaths were recorded in 14 accidents as compared to 39 casualties in 37 accidents in 2022. The current year’s data includes the death of 17 people after a crane collapsed at a viaduct site on the Samruddhi Mahamarg in Thane district,” another official from the labour department said, citing the department data.
The official said they had registered 40 lakh workers at one time, but the numbers dwindled to 11-14 lakh due to non-renewal of registration.
Activists said several loopholes in the registration process were the reason behind the poor show. Activist Shailaja Aralkar said a worker received no intimation from the department after registration. “After he passed away, the family was told that his application was pending for clearance. Such loopholes deprive workers of registration and resultant benefits,” she said.
To address the issue, a senior official said the department had restricted the required documents to just three – 90-day work certificate, Aadhaar card and photograph of the worker. “To avail of the benefits, workers can submit the ration card and the bank account details later,” he said.
Former officials associated with the workers’ welfare board said the registration process had been simplified and the fee was only Re 1. “But the 90-day work certificate was a problem for the workers. Many of them were not getting the certificate in spite of working for over three months,” said the official.
Another retired member of the board said the developers should submit the workers’ data at the time of seeking permission from the local authority.
