Jayakrishnan Vu
Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, August 28: They stand in quiet queues by the side of a road in front of the Lingaraj railway station, offering themselves virtually for sale for a few hours. These men and women of different ages, most of them illiterate and poor, feel lucky if they are picked for eight-hour shifts of physical labour. They are the daily-wage labourers who form the bulk of the vast unorganised labour market in the Orissa capital popularly known as the “labour haat”.
Like the one in front of the Lingaraj railway station, there are nearly 32 labour haats in Bhubaneswar where daily-wage labourers offer themselves like ordinary goods. The ongoing construction boom in the city often manages to find work for most of them who come to these haats from towns and villages around Bhubaneswar by trains and buses.
There are about 3.5 lakh daily-wage labourers in the unorganized sector in Bhubaneswar and its vicinity, nearly all without labour cards and benefits such as Provident Fund and ESI, say labour unions active in the city.
“We are the human machines that build this fast-growing city, its roads and buildings. We exert our muscles in the wide range of labour-intensive work daily in Bhubaneswar. But we are among the most neglected group in the city,” said Prashant, a mason who came from Ganjam district looking for work.
The labour haats, all of them unofficial sites for finding daily-wage labourers, have no roof to protect these men and women from rain or scorching summer heat, let alone electricity, water and toilet facilities. Even the most crowded labour haats such as Nayapally, Kalpana Square, Baramunda and Chandrasekharpur have no basic amenities for them.
While a male worker generally earns `350 for eight hours, a female earns `300 for her work in this period. “The workers are more worried about the health hazards they routinely face,” said Trade Union Coordination Centre (TUCC) general secretary Jyotiranjan Mohapatra.
“No security is guaranteed for them, which puts the lives of women labourers, mostly housewives hailing from slums, under great risk. Despite our requests from various labour unions for construction of permanent sheds for these vulnerable sections, BMC authorities have remained apathetic so far,” he added.
The Nayapally labour haat, the busiest one, has seen its conditions worsening since the 1980’s. “We demand immediate intervention by the state government to improve conditions at the labour haats” said CITU state vice-president Nabakishore Mohanty.
Nalin, a worker from Balugaon, said he gets work of only about 15 work days at these haats. “My day, like that of tens of my friends, starts at 6 am at the labour stand near Kalpana Sqare. Constant exposure to extreme weather conditions in the open space affects our health,” he said. Nalin wonders why BMC has not taken ameliorating steps like free food distribution for these poor daily-wagers.
When contacted, joint labour commissioner Bhaskar Panda said, “Maintenance of the haats comes under the responsibility of BMC. The commission lacks data on the numbers of labourers in the city as no proper survey has been conducted so far.”
