Exploitation of Indian Construction Workers
- Arun Kumar Murthy
- Oct 15, 2019
- 10 min read
India is a developing nation and has a rapidly growing economy. The growth in economy has significant implications in the Indian construction and infrastructure industry. The annual rate of growth is 15% with annual investments of $70 billion pumped into the sector by both public and private clients.
Being a developing nation, there are a lot of problems that arises when the economy grows. The inequality i.e. the GDP per capita takes a hit as 71% of the population are in rural population and earn $1970 annually. But India being a vast and diverse country, the gap between the rich and the poor is huge. An average construction worker earns 23,000 rupees i.e. $331 per month. “The exploitation of construction labour is too much” quotes the press trust of India. The LE’s earn a huge figure of $3 million on average.
The demographics of India is very similar to that of the developing countries and the government concedes that the humongous population is a major obstacle to the growth of Indian economy.
The primary problems of Indian construction sector is listed below
Low quality end products for government projects for beneficial reasons
Very bad state of health and safety measures for the labours
Exploitation of migrant rural workers
25% projects are delayed and goes over scheduled budget
Low control for the construction managers
Corruption
Unskilled labours
Contractors with no license.
But factually, the construction industry is planned badly and poorly funded by the clients (especially government projects). Many researchers claim it is due to the fact that the construction sites are messy and fast changing that uncertainty can never be avoided. Project economics are affected by this due to several accidents due to poor in-site conditions and poor safety measures taken by the clients and contractors. An accident in the site means the victim needs to be paid off which will affect the budget directly or indirectly. The legal side, too, cause delays in the project.
Baxendale (2000) in his article identifies that the firms and its management are responsible for the poor treatment of the labours. Construction workers are in danger of fatalities and injuries than any other sector.
1. Health and Safety
1.1. Labour Safety
The safety measures must be taken in the initial project designing phase, where designers must consider the scope of workers and the amount of skill that is required for the project. These must be sorted out in the pre-planning stage which erase the majority of construction worker uncertainty (Hare, 2006).
The entire blame can not be put on the management, construction workers’ behaviour and attitude on the project are principal contributors for accidents.
Factors such as
Work-load and increase in production pressure.
Crew competition and asymmetrical information.
Unclear debris and dangerous site conditions.
Isolated behaviour.
Poor project planning.
contribute to fatalities and major accidents in the site.
1.2. Working condition
Site condition are important influencers for majority of the construction projects. Improper coordination between the management and site supervisors result in wastage of resource and labour. Low and medium enterprises do not pay for the labour if the work is stopped even if it contractual. Contractors mistreat the labour by bribing the middle man. The middle man, who is the head of the labour force is unquestioned due to poor employment in the sector. The unskilled labourers are brought in for cheaper prices and put into complex working conditions for economic reasons, this results in accidents. Unrealistic time schedules can affect the labour’s welfare by mounting the work pressure and creating a low quality product which increases the uncertainty of accidents.
1.3. Another major area where the industry lacks in providing safety is the site management and lack of clarity in coordination of supervisors. Asymmetrical information is a strong player in this factor, management due to economic reasons, do not spill all the beans to the lower hierarchy.
1.4. Language
Since India is a diverse country and there are about 1700 languages being spoken in the country, not everyone understands all the languages. When put into a single site, this causes huge problems in the project, as the working force is unskilled and any miscommunication can lead to huge errors and accidents. Every construction site has cross-cultural differences, not every word means the same in all languages. Majority of the construction labourers are from Eastern part of India with everyone usually speaking Hindi (unofficial national language), it becomes a problem when they work in South India where people do not usually speak Hindi.
2. Irregular pays and exploitation of the economically weaker section.
2.1. Economic liberalisation.
The industry is growing in double digits and is funded primarily through public-private partnership and government firms, they are dependent on the mobile construction labourers. One of the biggest obstacle faced by foreign firms working in India is the policies regarding economic liberalisation. In fact, the government is convinced that economic liberation is a must, the government is in no place to implement this, as the majority of the parliament ( More than 56% of Member of parliaments are directly and indirectly related to the construction industry) would decline such measures.
2.2. Payment delays.
Indian construction projects are fragile. The judicial system is unstable and takes decades to put a judgement on table. This makes the poor unable to challenge these large enterprises who skip payments. If the labour is hired for the day and there’s issues with the projects and demands the site to be closed for the day (Usually site accidents and conflicts between clients and contractors), the workers do not get paid. These are repetitive and this exploitation of labour has been recorded by many researchers in the past.
2.3. Middle man - “Maisitri”
The middle men ( Maistri’s as they are called in south India ) are important figures in the construction sector (Bust, Gibbs and Pink, 2008). They are between the contractors and the labourers. They present the requirements of the contractors to the labour and act as the head of labourers to the contractors. They ,however, take 10% commission from every worker’s daily wages. Incase of project failure, the contractors bribe the middle man, the middle man in turn pays very low wages to the labour.
2.4. Gender Gap/ Discrimination
Women are paid 25% less than an average man working in the construction industry. The construction industry in India is heavily depended on the women participation as they are more likely to accept lower wages which reduces the budget of construction.
In the case of debt bonded labourers, they are paid 33% of what an average man is paid. The industry has a lot of irregularities which makes the industry unsafe and less dependable. There were laws that were brought into place to remove these discriminations must the contractors and middle men have the final say.
3. Strategies to overcome these factors.
3.1. Safety Incentives
Safety incentives are rewards that encourage safe behaviour of the workers and this gradually increases the safety culture of the working environment. These incentive measures have produced results in a lot of developed countries especially in the US.
There are two types of safety incentive programs,
3.1.1. Injury and Illness based incentive programs.
This system rewards workers and the crew based on number of accidents and injuries in the site. This also involves the facilities and equipment safety. These incentives will cost the contractor, but is considered a safer way and will also reduce the cost of pay when there is a fatal accident (Kraus, 1996).
3.1.2. Behaviour based incentive programs.
This system awards workers on the basis of their behaviour on site, these include participation in safety meetings and making effort to create a difference in the unsafe work environment. The number of incidents reported (Which people might not report in Injury and illness based due to personal gain) will be high due to the behavioural factor.
Safety incentive system’ relevance to Indian construction sector solely remains with the construction clients. Construction clients needs to see the positive side of it and be strong on the safety of their construction workers.
But workers feel that they’re at disadvantage because majority of the accidents that occur aren’t worker’s fault but results of factors beyond their limit of control.
3.2. Education
3.2.1. In-site awareness
Clients and contractors should make sure that workers (migrants) get to know the project completely and know what they are working on. Majority of the site accidents are due to hiring unskilled labour. Unskilled labour are brought in because they agree for lower pay. There can be on-site training every day or every week based on the workload, these trainings should educate workers on equipment and working procedures.
Unless the workers are long term contracted, every site has different workers for a single project. Clients must make sure of long-term contracting labourers because they can add the safety incentive culture (which would not be feasible if there is going to different workers) and can increase productivity more due to the fact that the workers do not have to be educated day in and day out.
And instead of communicating through languages, visually communicating photos and videos at the place of work can prove beneficial and reduce accidents.
3.2.2. Training Schools
There has been a lot of initiatives taken by the Indian government regarding this. The standout example is the Karmika School for construction workers, Ahmedabad. This school concentrates on improving the quality of construction workers, especially women. They are taught all on competency and productivity efficiency levels, so that they can be proper construction workers meaning site safety is prioritised and these schools provide better employment opportunities for the poor migrant population (MHT, 2006).
The Karmika school in Ahmedabad trains the workers on conflict resolution and negotiations with contractors/clients. This can enhance the life of the working population.
The government can introduce these schools in every district, this can be costly but will reduce the number of accidents in the sector and will increase productivity and escalate the number of skilled workers in the state.
The clients and contractors should also make sure that they employ workers from these schools and not sought to choose cheap unskilled labour. But an important problem in this is, the migrant unemployed section wouldn’t prefer educating themselves when they are in desperate need of money. So, the government can accommodate them and provide free food (like how they get poor children to study in rural India using ex. Midday meals scheme).
3.2.3. Legal systems
3.2.3.1. No governing body
The fact that there is no governing body running the construction industry is making the contractors and clients fix rates/commissions to gain benefits in the fluctuating Indian economy. There is an association which governs the architects, (Council Of Architecture (COA)) but they have limited control on what the percentage is for the architects. Architects therefore are involved in interiors and construction to make a living. Project management is done by architects as well.
Having a governing body which will set policies and rules for workers is in demand. The department of infrastructure is related to this but do not indulge in policy making.
3.2.3.2 Policies
Policies that will protect workers from being exploited must be amended.
An equal pay scale across the country (urban and rural differences excluded) and clear equal gender pay.
Licensing all the contractors.
Unlicensed contractors are a major threat to health and safety.
Corruption and bribing laws must be put in place.
Safety should not be considered an advantage or luxury but as a necessity.
Firms should be forced to have a safety culture whilst poorly functioning firms on the grounds of health and wellness of the workers should be severely penalised.
3.2.4. Working system.
The industry is outdated and majority of the mega projects still follow traditional method of construction. Traditional method is completing the design completely and commencing the construction. There’s design-build method and management method. Management method is the more prescribed method as it gives scope to change designs at any stage of the project. According to DECA, management method financially stabilises the project and can work better with more uncertainties in designing.
During project hold-ups or locked in situations, management system gives in a lot of options and can save in money because works are done in packages and is contractual.
3.2.5. Contractor
It is the contractor’s responsibility to work out the safety culture and implement them in the site. Strict penalties must be brought in by the clients if the contractors fails to be responsible. Both the contractor and the client should have controlling power on safety culture. Sub-contracting must be done with utmost responsibility and sufficient research on the sub-contractor’s health and safety records must be done. Safety equipment money is usually looted by the contractors from the client. The client must make sure, there’s sufficient site safety inspections which will prevent site accidents.
Every site needs a housekeeping contractors. Clearing debris and maintaining the site properly can eliminate a lot of unwanted risks.
Conclusion
The article illustrates how unsafe the construction environment is in India. The industry, though producing huge amount of money and influencing the economy in great deal, is always overlooked upon. The health and safety of the workers should always be a primary concern for any client. Everything related to a construction project is geographically bound. Construction industry which demands a lot from the people involved, should consider the safety of the workers but there is no body governing the policies or regulating the laws. In fact, there are economical justifications that improving safety culture will benefit the budget and the project.
Also, the client should make measures to frame a strict penalty scheme to the contractors in case of accidents, the exact opposite of a safety incentive.
India being a third world developing country with a fluctuating market, the demand and supply pattern is ever changing. The employment rates oscillate and the whole construction industry is at stake if the economy is in a slump.
More than 30% of the people are below the poverty line or just above it, the only motive for them is to earn money and survive. Education post-teenage is almost inconceivable for the poor, as they can not afford it. The construction sector which demands high workforce is a oligopolistic market, where few large enterprises command the market, but throughout the country there are millions, working for very small enterprises who are not even registered. The only motive for these VSEs (Very small enterprises) is to land in minimal profit. They can not afford to implement safety incentive programmes or volunteer their staffs to get educated in construction labour schools.
The problem is not only in the construction sector, it is interlinked with a number of other key ministries in the society. But the above strategies will be very useful towards a safe and exploitation-free working environment. The construction and infrastructure yieldings 1/4th of the country’s economy and employs around 30% of the population needs to be governed and tailored properly to function efficiently and responsibly.
With the Indian economy predicted to grow exponentially due of the Indian construction industry, there’s plethora of business opportunities for every contractor to implement these safety measures and start the domino.
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