Building workers: 20 of 877 Gujarat deaths compensated since 2008; Rs 150 crore of Rs 1,900 crore spent on welfare

By A Representative
Even as Gujarat government has begun paying, following a Supreme Court order, Rs 10 lakh compensation each for the death of 170 workers because of suffocation in manholes, thanks to a long-drawn-out battle by people's organizations, facts have come to light suggesting that it is showing high degree of indifference in this regard for the accidental death of 877 construction workers.
A Bandkam Majur Sangh (BMS)-sponsored seminar, in which construction workers' representatives, government officials, and executives from top building construction companies, such as L&T and IL&FS, has been told that for just 20 out of 877 deaths since 2008 compensation has been paid.
Quoting from a Right to Information (RTI) reply, BMS' Vipul Pandya told the seminar, "According to the rule, the state government should pay Rs 3 lakh as compensation to those who are are registered as workers with the State Construction Workers' Welfare Board."
The workers were not being paid compensation, it was revealed, despite the fact that the welfare board has a huge Rs 1,900 crore at its disposal, collected at the rate of Rs 30 per square metre from the construction sector for the welfare of workers. Collected since 2006, so far the state government, ironically, has so far spent a paltry Rs 150 crore for the workers' welfare.
If health facilities are claimed to have been offered to construction workers for free, some of the 27 schemes at the disposal of the welfare board have simply not taken off. For instance, Some one of the schemes is Rs 1,000 pension to workers after 60 years of age, for which they must be found to have registered continuously for the last three years. A senior official at the seminar admitted, "Not one application has come..."

Total number of deaths of construction workers
since 2008: 877

"As for those who are are not registered, they should be paid Rs 1.5 lakh", Pandya said. Pointing out that only 30% of the construction workers out of 12 lakh are registered, Pandya said, "None of the those who died and aren't registered have been paid any compensation." According to the rule, each worker must renew registration every year, otherwise her or his registration would lapse."
Identifying "major problems" while registering construction workers, majority of whom are tribal migrants from Gujarat as well as places as far away as Bihar and West Bengal, senior board official IG Soni triggered hornet's nest, saying that "fake registration" has been taking place to take advantage of its 27 welfare schemes, one reason why one has to be "extra-careful."
Giving the example of registration of migrants who work in Surat's diamond industry, Soni said, "We were in the process of registering about 1,500 of them. And suddenly we found that there were 150 Rohingiyas among them, hence stopped registration." Asked how did he come to know that they were Rohingiyas, Soni said, "They didn't know either Gujarati or Hindi. They did not have any aadhaar card either."
Asked whether he thought that some of those present in the seminar but did not have aadhaar could be called Rohingiyas, a worked up Soni said, "Did I say that? I am not accusing anyone here." Amidst uproar, a migrant workers' representative called Soni's statement "highly objectionable and directed against a particular community." In Gujarat -- unlike other states -- aadhaar is a must for registration with the board.

Govt official Soni

According to a Government of India estimate, there are around 40,000 Rohingiyas in India. Victims of ethnic violence in Burma, Rohingiyas are mostly Muslims. Majority of them, living in sub-human conditions, have crossed over from Burma and reached Bangladesh by boat. Some of them reached India. Victims of humanitarian crisis, the Government of India wants them to be deported to Bangladesh.
Giving more details, Pandya said, last year 80 persons died while working on construction sites. Majority of them, 28, were from Ahmedabad. "These construction workers are underpaid. Even those working in Ahmedabad metro work for 12 to 15 hours to earn full day's wage, which is a safety issue. Most of them die because of falling from a height."
Pointing out that these migrants have "no space to live, no toilets, no water, no creche where women workers can put their children while going on work", Pandya said, "About 40% of those who die are tribal migrants." A top consultant for the metro, FM Dahodwala, responsible for safety issues, admitted, the government's special purpose vehicle set up for constructing metro in Ahmedabad, MEGA, has, in all, 1,500 workers, but of these "only 10% are registered with the welfare board."

Comments

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Was Netaji forced to alter face, die in obscurity in USSR in 1975? Was he so meek?

By Rajiv Shah This should sound almost hilarious. Not only did Subhas Chandra Bose not die in a plane crash in Taipei, nor was he the mysterious Gumnami Baba who reportedly passed away on 16 September 1985 in Ayodhya, but we are now told that he actually died in 1975—date unknown—“in oblivion” somewhere in the former Soviet Union. Which city? Moscow? No one seems to know.

Love letters in a lifelong war: Babusha Kohli’s resistance in verse

By Ravi Ranjan* “War does not determine who is right—only who is left.” Bertrand Russell’s words echo hauntingly in our times, and few contemporary Hindi poets embody this truth as profoundly as Babusha Kohli. Emerging from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, Kohli has carved a unique space in literature by weaving together tenderness, protest, and philosophy across poetry, prose, and cinema. Her work is not merely artistic expression—it is resistance, refuge, and a call for peace.

Authoritarian destruction of the public sphere in Ecuador: Trumpism in action?

By Pilar Troya Fernández The situation in Ecuador under Daniel Noboa's government is one of authoritarianism advancing on several fronts simultaneously to consolidate neoliberalism and total submission to the US international agenda. These are not isolated measures, but rather a coordinated strategy that combines job insecurity, the dismantling of the welfare state, unrestricted access to mining, the continuation of oil exploitation without environmental considerations, the centralization of power through the financial suffocation of local governments, and the systematic criminalization of all forms of opposition and popular organization.

The golden crop: How turmeric is transforming women's lives in tribal India

By Vikas Meshram* When the lush green fields of turmeric sway in the tribal belt of southern Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat, it is not merely a spice crop — it is the golden glow of self-reliance. In villages where even basic spices once had to be bought from the market, the very soil today is yielding a prosperity that has transformed the lives of thousands of families. At the heart of this transformation is the initiative of Vaagdhara, which has linked turmeric with livelihoods, nutrition, and village self-governance — gram swaraj.

Echoes of Vietnam and Chile: The devastating cost of the I-A Axis in Iran

By Ram Puniyani The recent joint military actions by Israel and the United States against Iran have been devastating. Like all wars, this conflict is brutal to its core, leaving a trail of human suffering in its wake. The stated pretext for this aggression—the brutality of the Ayatollah Khamenei regime and its nuclear ambitions—clashes sharply with the reality of the diplomatic landscape. Iran had expressed a willingness to remain at the negotiating table, signaling a readiness to concede points emerging from dialogue.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Rajiv Shah Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

The price of silence: Why Modi won’t follow Shastri, appeal for sacrifice

By Arundhati Dhuru, Sandeep Pandey* In 1965, as India grappled with war and a crippling food crisis, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri faced a United States that used wheat shipments under the PL-480 agreement as a lever to dictate Indian foreign policy. Shastri’s response remains legendary: he appealed to the nation to skip one meal a day. Millions of middle-class households complied, choosing temporary hunger over the sacrifice of national dignity. Today, India faces a modern equivalent in the energy sector, yet the leadership’s response stands in stark contrast to that era of self-reliance.

False claim? What Venezuela is witnessing is not surrender but a tactical retreat

By Manolo De Los Santos The early morning hours of January 3, 2026, marked an inflection point in Venezuela and Latin America’s centuries-long struggle for self-determination and independence. Operation Absolute Resolve, ordered by the Trump administration, constituted the most brutal and direct military assault on a sovereign state in the region in recent memory. In a shocking operation that left hundreds dead, President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores were illegally kidnapped from Venezuelan soil and transported to the United States, where they now face fabricated charges in a New York federal detention facility. In the two months since this act of war, a torrent of speculation has emerged from so-called experts and pundits across the political spectrum. This has followed three main lines: One . The operation’s success indicated treason at the highest levels of the Bolivarian Revolution. Two . Acting President Delcy Rodríguez and the remaining leadership have abandone...

Search This Blog