Irrespective of harsh weather conditions of Delhi, these workers with their undaunted will to work, have renovated old stadiums in the Capital and built some new ones too; they have built multi-storey flats in the Yamuna catchment area, for sportsmen to live and prepare themselves to compete in the coming games. If there is any controversy over the misuse of the Yamuna River's catchment area, answerable are not the workers but the Central and Delhi State Governments, Sports Ministries and the Planners of the Commonwealth Games.

As scheduled by the Planners, the workers have built over-bridges, widened roads, apparently to ensure smooth traffic in Delhi which has come to be notorious for traffic congestions. They have renovated old roads and rebuilt approach roads to stadia as well as to the players' residential flats. There are other crucial jobs too, like ensuring uninterrupted electric and water supply as also to keep stadia, players' residential flats clean, spic and span.

Surprisingly, though, nobody seems to bother about the living and working conditions of these thousands of headloaders, carpenters, masons, machinemen - builders all. Focus of the electronic media has been on who and how provides funds for this massive show or on whether the responsible Governments will be able to complete preparations in time for the Commonwealth Games. Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has been at the centre of controversy in media; she takes pride for having been able to manage a few billion rupees with a limited support from the Central Government, for making all preparations for the Games; she was quick to reject all doubts about the preparations. There were venerable exceptions in the print media, like The Hindu and The Indian Express who sometimes did report about the plight of the “builders”.

There is another important link in the chain, that of the corporate contractors who are supposed to provide the necessary human and other material resources for development and construction work of the Commonwealth Games. They control all the money supply from the political bosses but choose to remain completely obscure in the public and political arena. They have a range of subcontractors to arrange for labour and other materials. Their paid supervisors oversee construction work. The fate of the thousands of “basic builder-workmen is in the “contractors” hands. Most of these basic builder-workmen are migrants, recruited by the sub-contractors from the unorganized sector, many from poverty-stricken areas of, say. Orissa, Bihar, eastern UP, Rajasthan, etc.

The political bosses, the paymasters, have visibly shown no concern for the plight of these basic builder-workers, or whether they are paid or not proper wages in time which is a serious matter. Equally serious matter is whether these migrant workmen have any arrangement for food, lodging and other necessary facilities so that they, after day's hard work in harsh climates, can eat, drink and get proper sleep at night and be ready for the hard work day after day to ensure that all preparations for the Commonwealth Games are completed in time.

The Central and Delhi State Labour Ministries of the Governments, committed to liberalization, privatization and globalization (LPG) policies, seem to have become completely insensitive to the lawful rights of workmen-builders of the Games complexes. This is nothing short of there being “darkest spot” in broad day-light” preparations for the Commonwealth Games. The only gainers are the corporate contractors who are not supposed to be questioned by either Labour Ministries or political bosses of Manmohan Singh's LPG-Government.

The Central and State Government need to remember that there is an Inter-State Migrant Workmen Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979 which has enjoined upon them “to safeguard the economic and other interests of migrant labourers.” They are required, as principal employers in the case of ongoing work at the Commonwealth Games' sites, that these workmen are paid minimum wages fixed under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, and that they are paid equal wages for “performing similar nature of work along with the local labourers”. The law also says that migrant workmen are to be provided with “suitable residential accommodation” that they have to be provided “medical facilities free of charge”. Under this law, principal employer, in the present case of Commonwealth Games, the Delhi Government, should “nominate a representative to be present at the time of disbursement of wages”.

All this was stated by the Union Labour Ministry in a Note on “Migrant Labour (Domestic and Abroad) - Problems and Remedies”, submitted at the 42nd Session of the Standing Labour Committee (SLC) as part of the SLC Agenda for finalization of the Agenda of the 42nd Session of the Indian Labour Conference (ILC). The Note also said that “Central Government has been advising the State Governments from time to time to enforce the Act in both letter and spirit in their jurisdiction.” Both the Central and State Government of Delhi, under whose very nose the workmen have been building the Commonwealth Games complexes, have virtually made a fun of this law as far its implementation is concerned. This kept happening till the Delhi High Court pulled up the State Government on this issue.

The central trade union organizations (CTUOs), having their central offices in Delhi, was another force that could have effectively intervened. They are already campaigning for implementation of labour laws, for curbing ever-rising prices of essential commodities including foodgrains and other issues affecting organized and unorganized labour. It is another matter that if the CTUOs had directly intervened the entire corporate media would have cried hoarse that CTUOs were trying to disrupt Commonwealth Games and bring disrepute to the nation. During an informal talk with CTUO leaders, this writer gathered that they were happy the PUCL (People's Union for Civil Liberties) was doing a good job by raising the issues concerning the unorganized labour employed at the Commonwealth Games sites in the Court of Law.

The PUCL counsel Collin Gonsalves and the Government's standing counsel Najmi Waziri are facing each in the Delhi High Court on the issue of working condition of workers at the Commonwealth Games sites. The work at these sites has been going on for more than a couple of years and the Government counsel's report to the High Court on April 28, 2010 admitted that 43 deaths had taken place at various Games construction sites till March this year.

The Indian Express (April 29, 2010) has reported that a Court-appointed Committee had indicted all Government authorities involved in Games projects for appalling work conditions at these construction sites. The Delhi High Court was keeping an eye on violation of labour laws at the Commonwealth Games construction sites.

As a result, in reply to the Court-appointed monitoring committee's report indicting Government authorities, the Government's counsel Najmi Waziri submitted a status report before a Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice Mukta Gupta. According to the status report, the Delhi Government had served notices to all agencies involved in hiring workers for Games projects; they were required to furnish all information along with a list of workers engaged at various construction sites. After receiving the information, the Construction Board would register the labourers and issue each of them a passbook.

The status report however revealed that 26,340 workers had been registered till date, with 658 registered in past ten days. It also informed the Bench that a six-member committee was formed on April 13 to delegate financial and administrative powers to district Deputy Labour Commission. This had been done to simplify the process of distributing various benefits to workers. The report also said that the Labour Department had issued inspection notices to 48 establishments involved in construction. In these notices, employers or contractors were directed to furnish wage records, facilities and safety provisions available to workers at construction sites.

Interestingly, on the one hand, the report said that action would be taken against contractors who failed to file a compliance report, the Government counsel, on the other, submitted that only the CPWD and the Delhi Government had given a “partial report”; no other Government agency - MCD, NDMC, DDA, Delhi Jal Board, Delhi International Airport Ltd., Delhi Metro Rail Corporation and Sports Authority of India - had responded to the notices. The Court was told on April 28 that the workers would be told about their rights relating to wages, safety measures and other beneficial schemes at these camps.

All this is easier said than done for a Government and its Labour and other Departments who had been criminally sleeping over implementation of these laws all these years. And thanks and cheers for the PUCL for bringing to light miserable plight of thousands of unorganized workers employed at the Commonwealth Games various sites. It has also brought into focus the criminal approach of the Central and State Governments towards the basic building workers at the Games sites. (IPA Service)