94% of India’s working women work in the informal sector, in low paid, difficult or dangerous jobs such as construction, street vending, brick making, agriculture or rag picking. Decent working conditions are essential to alleviate poverty but as in many other parts of the world, the labour laws that do exist are not applied or are easily evaded. Despite India’s formal commitment to national and international legislation to protect women’s rights, workers are increasingly vulnerable, exploited and oppressed
As Delhi prepares for the Commonwealth Games in 2010, thousands of women like Prem and Girija come to find work as labourers. They stand at the cross roads each morning waiting to be selected by construction companies. The work is incredibly demanding – tiring, hot and unsafe. It is especially hard for women who are pregnant or have young children.
The Construction Workers Welfare Board was established to provide benefits to workers. However to register you must prove that you have worked as a labourer for three months. This is virtually impossible as workers are only contracted for a few days at a time, companies keep no record of who is working for them and they are often unwilling to verify workers.
But One World Action’s partner the Self Employed Women’s Association of India (SEWA) is working to change this and helping to ensure the needs and concerns of these workers are made visible.
SEWA have negotiated with the Municipal Corporation of Delhi to allow them to verify workers. SEWA hold one day registration camps for construction workers throughout Delhi so they can register with the Welfare Board. This ensures workers access benefits such as pensions, to which they are entitled. SEWA are also lobbying to streamline and simplify the process. In the meantime, SEWA staff have had to wait hours and sometimes days at a time for government bureaucrats to meet with them. But it’s well worth the wait as they successfully hold the state to account for the provisions it has made for vulnerable groups.
We went as SEWA members to the Construction Workers Welfare Board to demand our benefits and pensions. With growing confidence we can now put our demands before government because we know our legal rights. Geeta, SEWA Union Leader, Delhi
What you can do to help –
By making a regular gift to One World Action you can help to ensure our support for partner organisations like SEWA is sustainable. Just £5 a month can help us to achieve real and lasting change for women like Prem and Girija.
To set up a regular gift online, please click here