INITIATIVES

Meeting of Building Contractors

Understanding the construction labour situation during the lockdown

In August 2020, amid the ongoing crisis faced by migrant workers, INHAF hosted a meeting with around 20 stakeholders comprising mostly of labour contractors and a few developers to assess if construction labour had returned to work sites and understand their current situation. The meeting covered the conditions of working, availability of labour, financial situation and mobility of construction workers – both skilled and unskilled – across different cities (Ahmedabad, Pune, Aurangabad, Kolhapur, Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad).

 

The meeting highlighted that only a small number of construction workers had returned to work (about 50 percent) in the cities; the abrupt decision to impose the  lockdown has had adverse impacts on the workers and the employers both; workers wanting to return faced many obstacles, in the villages and the cities and as a result work uptake in the construction sector was  slow. Labour contractors were bearing higher expenses and more labour management compared to earlier. As workers were coming back to the sites, contractors have had to ensure safe and  improved working conditions on the sites.