Citizenship and Worker Education: DW and CW Collectives and Migrant Worker Communities
Domestic Workers’ Collectives
Most women from urban poor communities find employment as domestic workers (DWs) in cities and are seen today as a much-required workforce in today’s cities that are expensive, demanding and require both spouses in a home to work to support the family. Most domestic workers are today employed primarily in apartment complexes that have mushroomed up all over urban areas and on the outskirts of cities, as well as in middle- and upper-middle class homes. However, very often, domestic workers work long hours with inadequate pay and poor working conditions with no benefits or additional pay for overtime work. Many are trafficked into domestic work as minors. There are no protective laws, and on the contrary, they are often falsely accused by employers of theft and pilferage, and harassed by the police. While domestic workers can access some welfare and benefits under the Unorganized Workers’ Welfare Board such as scholarship for children, many are not aware of this and lack the resources or skills to access them.
APSA works closely with nearly 3,000 domestic workers in its working areas of Bengaluru and Hyderabad. Forming Collectives of DWs, APSA educates them on their rights and entitlements as workers, how to address issues of workplace harassment and gender-based violence, as well as the power of collective action in accessing social security benefits. APSA conducts training for DWs on child rights, gender rights, managing finances, communication and conflict management, and legal protection mechanisms. Members are linked to DW peoples’ organisations, supported to obtain ‘SMART’ cards, access government scholarships for their children, get identity proof, ration (PDS) cards health insurance cover, and pension schemes for older women.
Construction Workers’ Collectives
The construction industry is the second largest employer in the country after agriculture. Around 40% of the population lives in urban and peri-urban areas, nearly half of which are migrant construction workers (CWs) involved in construction and construction-related work such as sanitation, roads, flyovers, plumbing, etc. These workers live in slums on government, private or railway lands or near construction sites and are affected economically, socially and physically by being migrants. Many do not have access to decent shelter, sanitation, health, protective equipment, fair wages, medical care and education support for their children, despite the provisions of the Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act 1979 and the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act 1996. Construction workers registering under the Construction Workers’ Welfare Board (CWWB) are eligible for various benefits ranging from educational and scholarship benefits for their children, medical assistance and marriage benefit to housing loans, pension, disability and death benefits. However, many CWs do not possess identity cards that make them eligible to receive these, and many others are unaware of these welfare measures that they are entitled to.
Since 2008, APSA has enabled about 5,000 construction workers to come together in Collectives. It has helped no less than 2,500 of them to register with the Construction Worker’s Welfare Board, thus enabling them to access welfare and benefits under hard-won laws and provisions and thereby improve the quality of their lives. The women have joined APSA’s SHGs, enabling them to save part of their incomes and earn interest on their savings, which are used to meet domestic or other expenses. Children of migrant construction workers have been helped to get Aadhaar identity proof, enrol in creche facilities and schools, access scholarships, thus ensuring their access to identity, education, good nutrition and well-being.
Migrant Workers
Karnataka state is one of the biggest employers of migrant labour, who contribute to the development of infrastructure and services in cities like Bengaluru. Migrants move to cities as it offers them a chance out of the caste-based occupations and rigid caste-role relationships that prevail in their home villages through alternate livelihoods. The majority of migrant workers to Bengaluru are from Bihar, Orissa, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh. Intra-state migrants are mostly from the North Karnataka region which is frequently beset with cycles of drought or floods that have eroded traditional agriculture-based livelihoods. According to the Census 2011 data, nearly 42% of Bengaluru city’s population constitute migrant workers, and inter-district and inter-state migrants constitute 30%.
Over 90% of migrant workers are found to be living in peri-urban areas. The men engage in construction work, casual labour, head loading, coolie work at bus stations or railway platforms, building of roads, shopping malls or flyovers. The women are found in domestic work and petty vending of fruits, vegetables or flowers. Migrant workers have no identity – most of them have Aadhar cards or other ID cards, but these are registered back home in the village. Most migrants are also brought in through unlicensed and exploitative middlemen and therefore lack proof of address or bank accounts in the cities where they work, resulting in their inability to access government welfare and social security schemes.
The migrant population living in APSA’s working areas are families that have settled into the urban slums some 25-30 years ago. However, due to expanding city boundaries, urban slums are also increasing and witnessing new settlements of migrant worker families. APSA has been working to support the rights and entitlements of such migrant worker families, many of whom come from Dalit, tribal or ethnic groups. APSA has educated them about their rights, facilitated them to join the organization’s domestic workers or construction workers’ collectives, register under the CWWB to obtain benefits and social security. APSA has further enrolled children from such families in the ECCD creches, got women migrants in particular to attend health camps and encouraged them to become part of APSA’s SHGs in order to save money.
During the Covid-19 pandemic that hit the country in 2020, APSA has also engaged in relief work, delivering cooked food packets, dry ration kits, fruit packages and healthcare products to DW, CW and migrant worker families. The relief work done in Bengaluru and Hyderabad has positively benefited more than 4,000 families and 30,000 individuals, at least 30% of which are migrant workers.
